PATRICK RONDAT – Escape From Shadows (2025) *HQ*
After a 21-year solo absence, superb guitarist PATRICK RONDAT returns with “Escape From Shadows”, an album that combines virtuosity and emotion to affirm his unique place in the world of electric guitar.
If there’s the right word to define “Escape From Shadows” is emotion. This emotion in the playing runs through the whole album, with each track reminding us just how much we’ve missed Patrick Rondat as a solo artist over the years, despite his frequent collaborations with other artists.
His phrasing, his tone, his sense of melody, his ability to compose music that is complex in structure and limpid in execution… nothing has really changed, and yet everything seems new, as if “Escape From Shadows” were the album we’ve been waiting for without really realizing it.
Rondat’s style hasn’t aged a day, and with maturity, it’s improved to focus on the essentials: impressive melodies serving a music that has never been so influenced by progressive rock (‘Invisible Wars’) and progressive metal (‘Fear And Guilt’, ‘Escape From Shadows’, ‘From Nowhere’).
In full possession of his powers, the guitarist transports us from the very first notes of the symphonic ‘Overture’, never to let go. He takes us on a musical journey in his own image: warm, humble, sometimes teasing (the winks to Satriani on the excellent ‘Whispery Hopes’), and sometimes genuinely surprising, as on the album’s only vocal track, ‘Now We’re Home’, which is again pierced by the emotion of Gaëlle Buswel’s blues-rock voice.
And even though “Escape From Shadows” is less technical than his previous solo LP’s and more focused on easy listening, Patrick Rondat closes the album with a real guitar prowess, with his own interpretation of the classic piece “Kreisler – Prelude And Allegro”, on which he shines with his expressiveness and virtuosity.
“Escape From Shadows” is a remarkable album in every way, in its conception, its assertive progressive edge, its cinematic ambiance and its legitimate obsession with putting technique at the service of music.
At a time when social networks are invaded by apprentice shredders who too often confuse speed with taste, Patrick Rondat shows that a guitarist must above all be a musician, and that this is the only condition for lasting success.
No one knows whether this album will mark the end of a career, or even the end of an era, but in any case, it’s one to keep preciously in your record library, as it is a poignant tribute by a great artist to the electric rock guitar.
Highly Recommended
01 – Overture
02 – Fear and guilt
03 – Invisible wars
04 – Whispery hopes
05 – Back on track
06 – Escape from shadows
07 – Now we’re home (feat. Gaëlle Buswel)
08 – Hold on to your dreams
09 – From nowhere
10 – Prelude and allegro (In the Style of Pugnani)
Patrick Rondat: Guitars
Dirk Bruinenberg: Drums
Manu Martin: Keyboards
Patrice Guers: Bass
Gaëlle Buswel: Vocals
Pre order:
www.rondat.com/
