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Putting your creative process into words is difficult, especially if you’re as forward-thinking as CYNIC. But after 30+ years, weathering hurricanes, teenage angst, homophobia and the tragic loss of their legendary rhythm section has given Paul Masvidal sage-like insight into the band’s celestial voyage.

Paul recently touched down at Audiotree Studios to talk about his journey. He and his interstellar bandmates also performed songs from Cynic’s groundbreaking discography, including “Adam’s Murmur” off the newly re-issued Traced in Air.

Audiotree is a Chicago-based music discovery platform producing high quality studio sessions and live performance recordings from artists all around the world. Discover your next favorite band at audiotree.tv.

Download and Stream: https://lnk.to/ATFN-Cynic

Order Traced in Airon black and colored vinyl: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/CynicShop

Traced in Air changed the game for Cynic, much like their landmark album Focus did years before. The band’s precedent-setting fusion of progressive music and mind-bending spiritual lyrics took the listener on an entirely new journey, solidifying their place as boundary-pushing pioneers.

Traced in Air is now being reissued on vinyl by Season of Mist.

Praise for Traced in Air

“On the basis of Traced in Air, more so than its 1993 predecessor Focus, Cynic should be understood not so much alongside any metal bands but along with the radical harmonic progressives in the last 45 years of pop and jazz: composers like Milton Nascimento, the Beach Boys or Pat Metheny.” – The New York Times

“Where would we be without Cynic? Where would Cynic be without Traced In Air? I don’t want to imagine that world. 2008’s LP by the crown princes of progressive metal set the high watermark for progressive metal in the new millennium, one that has arguably still not been surpassed.” – Everything is Noise

“The album is sonicaly heavier than Focus, but no less overt in its prominent jazz influence, with tracks like “Evolutionary Sleeper” showing they could defy time and be the band from the past and a band from the future at the same time.” – Treble Zine, who listed Traced in Air among the 10 Essential Sci-Fi Metal Albums.

“As liberally and recklessly as the term “progressive” is regularly applied to any sort of rock music that breaks with conventional genre templates, there are certain bands and albums for which it still feels not only necessary, for lack of better definitions, but actually appropriate. Cynic and their 1993 watershed, Focus, are a perfect case in point. … In short, those expecting a mere sequel to Focus will be mildly disappointed (but should have known better), and those worried about Traced in Air’s altogether brief, 35-minute length should rest assured that it is easily offset by the sheer density of strange and beautiful musical nuances layered within, and the time required to absorb them all. And ultimately, the album does Cynic’s legacy justice precisely because it challenges the listener to comprehend, by opening more doors than it closes and posing more questions than obvious answers — and what could be more “progressive” than that?” – All Music

Get excited for Traced in Air all over again with this teaser video that the band filmed back in 2008, plus a live video from the 2010 Traced in Air tour. 

Cynic’s continual state of development has met its share of challenges over the years, hurdles that threatened to dismantle the entity’s forward surge. Yet through hurricanes, breakups, and assorted acrimony both personal and existential, it remains inspired to create.

Their name is synonymous with what it means to be truly progressive in music. Cynic’s top-tier performance acumen and cerebral/spiritual/yogic themes finds them inhabiting a corner of the musical spectrum all their own. Their Venn diagram shows intersections with death metal, prog rock, thrash metal, experimental, new age, jazz fusion, and a myriad of other sonic expressions.

Debut album, Focus (1993), is a certified classic. Although that era ended with transformation into the short-lived Portal, and then a further splinter toward Aeon Spoke, Cynic’s reunion-era has found them embraced in a way that proves how ahead of the times they were in the ‘90s. Through monuments such as the Traced in Air (2008) and Kindly Bent to Free Us (2014) albums, the Carbon-Based Anatomy and Re-Traced EPs, and a surprising rebirth with the “Humanoid” single of 2018, the Cynic legacy remains untarnished. Yet early in the creation cycle for their fourth full-length album, they experienced horrible events that tested the entity’s resolve.

The year 2020 will go down in history as a tremendously difficult time for the global human population. For the Cynic family, the struggle was not restricted to a pandemic. It was two utterly senseless losses that threw the band’s immediate concerns into the background: the premature deaths of drummer Sean Reinert in January, at age 48, and bassist Sean Malone in December, at age 50, were shocking and unthinkable.

Reinert and Malone heard elements of what ended up on Cynic’s fourth and latest album. Slowly, methodically, and with much careful deliberation, Masvidal completed an album titled Ascension Codes, to honor the memory of his fallen band mates. And while the album honors the lives and contributions of Reinert and Malone, it also pushes Cynic forward for its own sake and through its own will to live. The album, paradoxically, acts as both swan song and rebirth. It is, throughout its 49 minutes, a vivid and highly cosmic journey into the very core of every impulse this band has ever explored.

Audiotree Lineup:
Paul Masvidal – Vocals and Guitars
Max Phelps (Exist, Death to All) – Guitars and Vocals
Brandon Giffin (The Faceless, The Zenith Passage) – Bass
Matt Lynch (Nova Collective, Intronaut) – Drums & Percussion

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