Morgan Visconti is a multi-faceted artist full of raw creative energy. Through his latest solo album, Twilight City, he has created a veritable long-form ambient-electro symphony… A space where meditative moments dissolve into pulses of electricity and stirring rhythm. If Bluetech, Eurythmics, Vangelis, Prince, and Satie all collided into a neon-drenched daydream, this album might be the result.
Twilight City is a time capsule of riveting loops and melodic sequences. Morgan Visconti’s latest release was actually composed in 1991 and rediscovered some decades later.
As the opening track unfolds, it becomes apparent that the album was ahead of its time. Despite it being recorded on a modest four-track cassette and borrowed a year, Twilight City causes the following words to arise: Ethereal, new-age, ambient, fresh. Contemplative tape-loops, fiery solos, and theatrical drums culminate into what is best called: An Odyssey.
A Track-by-Track Journey Through ‘Twilight City’
- ‘Scarred Land’ – A slow-burning pulse, deep basslines, and strings that hover like a spectral presence.
- ‘Don’t Look Back Al’ – Funk-infused with a Boom-Chick 80s vibe, sharp horn hits, and alluring wa-pedal-esque synths.
- ‘Mysteria’ – Upright-bass-type synth textures, and an orchestral stack of electronic layers.
- ‘River Walk’ – Chimey, video-game-like, with swirling melodic motion like snow flurries…
- ‘Log Drum’ – Percussive and syncopated, ritualistic.
- ‘Techno Ballad’ – Overture-like, harpsichord-ish bright synths, and a sense of ascent. An oom-pah rhythm meets oboe-like synths, carrying a lyrical quality.
- ‘Gymnopédie’ – A reimagining of Satie’s piano piece, led by its haunting bassline.
- ‘Magnetism’ – Running eighth notes, a chorus of synths, a piano-like melody dissolving into echoes.
- ‘Blue Skies’ – Epic yet melancholy, spacious
- ‘Twilight City’ – Thumping bass, cascading piano echoes, and a hypnotic melody rising from the mist.
- ‘The Altar’ – Swells of ominous synth, descending into darker territory…
- ‘Grace’ – A breathy, spacious interlude continuing The Altar’s haunting aura.
- ‘Red Light’s – Funk-infused, step-like, embodying the feeling of tension/waiting.
- ‘Floydism’ – A plaintive guitar, orchestral strings, and an ethereal warmth.
- ‘Highway’ – A return to deep beats and an EDM pulse.
- ‘Grace Two’ – Cinematic, nostalgic, and harmonically rich.
- ‘Discovery’ – A luminous rise of layered synth waves, accented offbeats.
- ‘The Decision’ – A blend of sparkling chimes, racing 16th notes, and 80s bass.
- ‘Towers of Glass’ – A crystalline synth leads to a climactic resolution.
Q&A
In Twilight City there are pensive moments followed by amped-up waves of exuberance.
Throughout this winding 19-track album, we step into a nostalgic soundscape…one with a breath of newness and complexity. This electric-lit neon landscape captures a plethora of moments of existence, from the melancholic to the ethereal.
“This was composed on an Akai drum machine that I’d borrowed from work – I was skint at the time and didn’t really own any of my own gear for another year or so. I had loaded it up with some industrial-type drums that I’d made by banging on bits of metal and I tried to emulate the big kick drum I heard on Prince’s records. It ended up becoming weirdly dub + trance with the overdubs played live on my Juno 106 and delay pedal and I think I was channeling early Eurythmics somehow through a Tangerine Dream filter. It’s the most technologically advanced track on the album and it captures for me the excitement of finding myself independent and a little apprehensive in New York City at age 19.”
Morgan Visconti
Is this a concept album, or do the varying themes naturally connect?
It’s really an anthology of recordings made around 1991-1992 with very minimal equipment. I had a day job at a recording studio where I eventually mixed these tracks. Still, they were written and recorded on a 4 track cassette, a sequencer and a Juno 106 on evenings and weekends in my little apartment. The concept came just last year when I realized they all had this shimmering, low-fi nostalgia and it took me back to that developmental time in my life, gazing out of my window onto a bustling 3rd avenue in NYC.
I noticed track 6 is a direct homage to Satie: How does this piano piece inspire you?
I’ve loved Satie and Debussy my whole life. Their composition styles align with a lot of the more electronic music: emotional, atmospheric, bold and simple gestures. Gymnopédie No. 3 struck me as a less obvious choice than the easy breezy No 1. I love the tension and dance between the chords and melody and the repetitive rhythm of it lent itself to the bare electronic stuff that I was writing at the time.
What did your process for reinventing “Gynnopedie” look like?
I spend some time programming the chords from the sheet music on a Roland MC500 midi sequencer – a leftover from my Dad’s studio. I wanted them to be precise and I’m not that great at classical piano playing. The sounds were all made on my Juno 106. For the ‘oboe’ and ‘flute’ I got into tweaking the filter and noise as close as I could and played them live so they had a little more expression. Lastly I overdubbed a drone bass and strings. It really came alive when I was able to book a day at the studio and mix through a nice console with Lexicon reverbs and delays. I loved the limitation of recording 4 track cassette but then being able to let it breathe through some nice circuitry.
As I was listening to the timbre of the instruments you chose, I could almost hear a multitude of orchestral timbres: Was this intentional?
Yes it was, to the extent that I could squeeze orchestral sounds out of a Juno! I always loved how two of my favorite composers Wendy Carlos and Vangelis are able to go beyond simply recreating orchestral sounds by going directly to the ‘feeling’ that those instruments evoke, for example: the choirs and woodwinds on A Clockwork Orange and the french horns in the Bladerunner soundtrack. Those types of sounds can often live in an uncanny valley and sound awkward and cheap but instead they sound alien and give me goosebumps.
By the time we get to track #19, it feels like we have reached a conclusion. Does Twilight City tell a complete story?
Like a lot of music I write, the sounds and melodies come first and I let the story emerge, often leading to lyrics. When I sequence an album I definitely think of it like a book or a film with an arc. In this case the story starts with Scarred Land full of tension and impending doom, perhaps how I felt during the week I moved to NYC! The last track Glass Towers feels spiritual and romantic and in a way it’s like finally embracing the city and feeling centered in it.
How do you think the backdrop of NYC, and your youth flavored this album? If Twilight City was a place or color, what would it look like?
As imposing as NYC was to me at first, if you look up and gaze at the lights it takes you outside of yourself. I was very homesick at the time but had just gotten my first serious job. NYC was nauseatingly loud but equally fun. I suppose Twilight City can be a magenta hued skyline of glass and metal as the sun goes down. You don’t see the dirt, only the reflection of the sky and it can feel futuristic in a utopian (but sometimes dystopian) fashion.
Finally, how did you come to embrace so many different genres?
Between having musical parents and two legendary music teachers in school I was exposed to a lot growing up. I appreciated classical and prog rock as much as electronic and mainstream pop. I’ve never had much of an artist manifesto and I tend to sort of try anything and see if it works, or rather if I can make it fit within what I’m doing.
LINKS:
https://www.instagram.com/morgan.visconti/
https://bsky.app/profile/morganvisconti.bsky.social