Although described as a side project for
Freezepop's Kasson Crooker (aka the Duke of Pannekoeken),
the Symbion Project in fact existed before
Freezepop. While the Boston-based
Freezepop were formed in 1999, producer, composer, arranger, and programmer Crooker started
Symbion in the early '90s and produced
Symbion's first full-length album,
Red, in 1997. But thanks to
Splashdown (the group that Crooker was in from 1996-2001) and
Freezepop,
Symbion has -- as Crooker put it -- "long simmered in the background." Those who associate Crooker with
Freezepop might be surprised to hear that
Symbion doesn't sound anything like
Freezepop; both favor an electronic, synthesizer-driven approach, but that's where the similarity ends. While
Freezepop's albums have been largely defined by Liz Enthusiasm's lead vocals,
Wound Up by God or the Devil is strictly instrumental -- and while
Freezepop's humorous, very ironic output recalls '80s new wave and synth pop acts like
Berlin,
Thomas Dolby,
Duran Duran,
Soft Cell, and
the Human League, this 2007 release offers hard to categorize electronica that draws on a variety of influences, among them ambient music,
Vangelis,
Brian Eno,
Tangerine Dream, European classical music (one of the tracks was inspired by the work of Johann Sebastian Bach), and European film music.
Symbion, unlike
Freezepop, doesn't favor a traditional verse/chorus/verse/chorus format -- and the quirky, artsy material on this 64-minute CD has all kinds of interesting twists and turns. As a result,
Wound Up by God or the Devil doesn't have the immediacy of a
Freezepop release -- which is to be expected because
Symbion is a totally different animal. This is the type of disc that reveals more and more of its charms with each listen, and it is an intriguing, well-constructed example of what Crooker has to offer outside of
Freezepop. ~ Alex Henderson