Let me tell you the story: Shane Lankford, the vocalist of American group About A Day, together with his friend of Mars Hill, John Wenger, started the project which had been maturing in his head for a couple of years. A project about the physical and psychological facets of adoption. Being an adopted child himself, Shane had had this idea for some time and, as it is usually with artistic souls, as soon as the right moment came, he began working on this ambitious project with true passion.
Shane wrote the libretto, John composed the music and the result was a very compact, exactly one hour long album by Orphan Project. You have to hand it to them that they managed to depict the manifold aspects, dilemmas and emotions connected with both disappointments and hopes of an adopted child with pinpoint accuracy. What’s more, they did with no unnecessary moralising or exaggerated simplicity.
The story is told in 12 musical themes. You may hear the fascinations with Kansas (marvellous violin sections), U2, Yes, Big Country and even Peter Gabriel’s music. It is a very coherent album, each composition pushing the story forward fades into another very deftly and delicately. On this album something new happens almost incessantly, you get the impression that the listener doesn’t have a moment’s breathing space, which is very well, because from the very beginning to the very end, you listen to this album with bated breath. The climax of this very good musical whole is in the finale, which consists of two combined tracks: “Coming Into View III” and “Wonderous Love”. The is a real feast for ears of the sensitive listeners who long for the pompous art rock moods. Anyway, other fragment doesn’t leave any doubts that the album Orphan Found can move and delight… This studio project has recently transformed into a regular band. Under the name of Orphan Project, Shane Lankford and John Wenger, with Tony Corelli (k), Scott Spirey (g), Colin McGough (bg) and Tim Kehring (dr) set off for the tour. Let’s hope that it would be equally successful as their great album.
Translated by Katarzyna Chachlowska
