Taking inspiration from the Marc Chagall painting of the same name, composer, guitarist, keyboard player Vincent Dufresne (ex-Sioban) created The Green Violinist to explore a fresh musical direction. His explorations can be found in the debut release More Thrill & Never Ending Blessing.
Green Violinist: founder, Vincent Dufresne
With one pass through the album, two impressions come to mind. First, as a vocalist, Dufresne sounds like a young Greg Lake. Second, the atmosphere of many of the songs, maybe across the entire recording, reminds of The Moody Blues. Much of this comes from the ethereal, airy, feel created by the combination of piano, synths and acoustic guitar. It also has the additional effect of making the album feel moody (no pun intended), melancholic, and sad.
Some of this emotion comes from the themes explored. Dufresne explains: "to give the right to speak to those who are never allowed to get a word in edgewise (sic) … the weak ones, the scapegoats, the shy people, the gentle ones, the mourning people, the maladjusted ones, the society's rejects, the desperate lovers… every song is an hymn to those pariahs and are dedicated to us all (an interesting reference to himself)." If you follow that then you will get the songs, or at least the titles, like Shy People and Any Words You Say Won't Be Enough.
Then there's Do Worry Be Sad, which is The Green Violinist's most intricate and expressive song and perhaps the most depressing, emotionally. Don't play this for Bobby McFerrin. Also, there's the curious The Great Scapegoat Seeking which is lyrically obtuse and nonsensical (who are the worldf**ckers, anyway?), but musically, one of best arrangements of delight melodic rock on the album. The female background vocals from Emilie Laclais reminds of Stevie Nicks.
The Green Violinist's More Thrill & Never Ending Blessing is a curious, but entertaining, album of melodic progressive rock, where the music trumps the mildly depressing lyrical themes.
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