In his new album as Impresario, appropriately titled All of Us, Valerian Ruminski reaches out to the masses via every inch of sonic space he can occupy through our stereo speakers this fall and portrays a brooding story told through both original and cover material, and from where I sit, it’s a masterful sequel to Songs from Inside by every measure. Where Songs from Inside had a certain insularity that started to feel unnecessarily biting by the time we reached the climax of the tracklist, this is an album that consistently pushes Ruminski outside of his comfort zone and into embracive poetic territory (“I Don’t Know Where I’m Goin’ to,” “Monkeys on a Rock”) and self-aware performances (“Vegaquarian,” “Cat’s in the Cradle,” “Close Encounter”) that I don’t believe he could have mustered prior to this juncture of his career.
MOR EON IMPRESARIO: https://www.valerianruminskibass.com/
The first thing that really captured my attention in All of Us with the fascinating flow its material enjoys; “Love is Not a Time Machine” doesn’t feel wedged between “You Got Me” and “Vegaquarian” so much as it seems to be the rightful segue between the two chapters – and potentially the only means of uniting their conflictive song structures in perfect harmony. This is a lot more progressive a recording for Impresario than I was initially expecting I would find, but to be fair, there was nothing to suggest this wouldn’t be the kind of LP we’d get as a successor to the stacked Songs from Inside, which itself hinted at conceptualism; it just didn’t go this far.
As powerful as the voice Ruminski offers us in all of these songs is, the poetry he conveys to us with his pipes is perhaps the richest point of interest you’re going to discover when listening to “Give Life a Chance,” “Smile,” “Be a Man” and “Cat’s in the Cradle.” Even in the songs he didn’t compose himself, he’s affording the narrative so much of his own soulfulness that it’s easy to get the details of origin lost in translation as our star’s emotionality takes center stage. It takes a very powerful performer to be able to do that with any composition, let alone something as unforgettable as “Smile,” and it’s becoming a signature feature in what sets this artist’s sound so far apart from the competition.
A wonderful addition to his overall discography as Impresario and an interesting look on a deeper level of artistry we simply weren’t allowed access to in the past, Valerian Ruminski’s incomparable performance in All of Us can safely be ranked among the fresher you’re going to hear all autumn long. From a critical standpoint, songs like “1865,” “You Got Me,” the title cut and “Midnight Mode” are as strange a brew you could ever find on the same album without it being an honest-to-God mixtape, but when they’re bundled with even zanier displays of musical muscle such as the tear-jerking “Se Vuol Ballare” and multidimensional “I Don’t Know Where I’m Goin’ to,” they feel like the makings of a very iconic persona within the contemporary American underground.
Troy Johnston