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Reviews

Patrick Broguière — Destinations
(Bandcamp Gimmick Productions GP705, 2024, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-07-27

Destinations Cover art

After reconnecting and catching up on the career of Patrick Broguière a couple of years ago, we’ve now got Destinations, which sees the composer in one-man-band mode, this time with a host of guest vocalists to bring his music to life. Lara Ausensi, Neda Homayoon, Conny Kollet, Öykü Sensöz, Celica Soldream, and Victor Sordo all contribute to the album, which consists of seven tracks plus two radio edits excepted from the longer originals. “The Land of Elves” opens in a stately manner with lush keyboard sounds, electronic percussion, a touch of guitar, and a lovely female voice providing the main melody. There are also some violin and cello parts, which are artificial but well done. I’m not sure what language the singing uses (could be Elvish, I suppose), but the melody has a sweeping folksy lilt to it. The middle part of this ten-minute track drops into an 80s-inflected sound reminiscent of Glenn Frey or Bruce Hornsby. It’s a nice track, perhaps a little over-long. “Rockland” lives up to its name by bringing in a chugging electric guitar behind the washes of keyboard pads. The female lead vocal on this one has a more ethereal quality, and there’s also a male voice singing what sounds like a Gregorian chant. In one of the instrumental sections, Broguière uses what sounds like a portative organ, though again, it’s probably simulated. He applies many of the same arrangement techniques on this track as on “The Land of Elves,” taking the vocal melodies and backing them with different combinations of instruments. “Hyperion” is another lengthy track, approaching 13 minutes, and it starts with a bouncy section having the character of a Medieval dance, then adding in simulated orchestral parts for strings and brass. After a while, synthesizers make an appearance, with atmospheric echoes and bird-like noises, and pipe organ sounds come to the fore, along with female vocals, and still later, there’s a strumming acoustic guitar with vocoder vocals. All of this makes for a very interesting combination of ancient and modern sounds, almost as if a visitor from outer space showed up in 16th Century Europe and attended a community fair. For those unfamiliar with Broguière’s work, Mike Oldfield is probably the closest comparison (though with stronger influences from Medieval and Baroque music), and Destinations is a good place to start investigating his music.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Patrick Broguière

More info
http://broguiere.bandcamp.com/album/destinations

 

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