Multiplicity – entering a better light (Album Review)

The dreamy new album from Multiplicity, the musical project of jazz-trained Berkeley artist Dr Neil Sachs, appears at first to be an album of simplicity but later proves to be deeply rooted in the complexities of sound and its ability to provoke emotion and nostalgia in the listener.

Comprised of 12 tracks that span a multitude of genres, the offerings on ‘entering a better light’ intriguingly straddle the realms between instrumental and vocal music, while contributing to a futuristic yet liltingly wistful ambiance that leaves the listener hypnotised and pleasingly absorbed in faraway fantasies.

We begin this sensory journey into our imaginations through the opening track ‘Born Anew’, where the listener is swaddled by a sedately slow tempo and soft vocal harmonies. The faintly sung lyrics tell a tale of rebirth by being “liberated in mind” and encouraged to “step out of our senses”; a feat that one can accomplish by fully indulging themselves in this track and its delicate lullaby-like melody.

The inclusion of saxophone in the latter half of this track further emphasises the lazy and nostalgic late-night vibes of ‘Born Anew’ and serves as a tentatively soothing introduction to ‘entering a better light’ and the tenderly emotional moments it captures within sound while expressing impartiality to the limits of a specific musical genre.

The playful timbre of 2nd track ‘Teacher’ is perhaps unexpected after the cozy simplicity of ‘Born Anew’, however, the beginning synth melody paired with a syncopated, but stripped-back rhythm tells us that we are in for a very different audio experience.

Featuring lines such as “say it from afar, distant star”, the song clearly projects otherworldly and surreal imagery onto the listener, who is immediately arrested by its minimalist, unorthodox style. The song’s aural palette conceived here consists of a myriad of colours that mesh well with the hazy and understated musical style embraced within ‘Teacher’, and help us to enter a headspace where we can best interact with these somnolent sensory images.

Track 4, ‘A Deeper Variation’, begins with a haunting lone choral arrangement that echoes over the top of an eerily empty instrumental accompaniment. Throughout the song, which lasts almost 6 minutes, Dr Sachs’ muted falsetto adds another level of captivation against the hollowness of the distant drum beats and overall thin texture of the song.

The lyrics express a desire to “find ourselves then fall away”, alluding to inner turmoil, the finding and loss of identity, and as the track unfolds, the lyrics appear to question the very meaning of existence and reality as a whole.

‘Ever_thing’, the album’s 7th track, is tied together by a fragile string melody that swells and wanes in the background of the song like a sonic representation of the sorrow that permeates this track. With the lyrics referring to bouts of loneliness, suffering, and an unhealthy devotion to another, the tension barely withheld in the lyrics translates remarkably well to the deeply atmospheric soundscape that is created within ‘Ever_thing’.

Hearing this, the listener will either be torn between the song’s melancholy melody, entranced by the instrumental’s pop-infused ambiance, or caught between the subtle throes of tension in the song’s lyrics, or perhaps a mixture of all three.

As one of the most notably unusual features of ‘entering a better light’ lies within its resistance against assigning itself a specific genre, the 8th track, ‘Before Time’, must be discussed as an example of this, with its initially warped vocal and instrumental samples shifting into an electric guitar-lead pop song featuring numerous rock-inspired guitar solos.

All is not as it seems though, as even when Dr Sachs and guest vocalist Julianna Birnbaum sing of love and hope, the persistence of guitar and airy strings suggest something more complex than a generic pop ballad.

There are equal elements of pop, rock, acoustic, jazz, and even classical genres showcased within the duration of this experimental track, with the return of the leisurely saxophone lulling the listener back into a state of tranquility and appropriately wrapping the album up with a dreamlike sense of calm. It is truly a song that accurately displays the talent of Dr Sachs and the potential he can show under the project of Multiplicity.

Score/Excellent: There are many who would find such an experimental album challenging to listen to, but I am certain this would not be the case with ‘entering a better light’. With complex song structures translating into surprisingly accessible musical experiences as well as the intersection of multiple music genres, this is an album that delves deep into the essence of mortality and human emotion and is sure to serve as pleasing listening material for many in the future.

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[We rank albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]