Richard Pinhas and Barry Cleveland featuring Michael Manring and Celso Alberti Mu Review by Gary Hill
This new CD is all instrumental. It has a lot of space rock in the mix. Like all space rock, it evolves very slowly. There is a healthy dosage of fusion here, too. You might find hints of world music and classical music here. They are there to find. This is quite an intriguing album, overall, really.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2017 Volume 2 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Forgotten Man
Rather spacey electronics open this. As other instruments join it becomes extremely dramatic and mysterious. It's very much a space music kind of thing. This moves through a number of shifts and changes. LIke all space music, though, none of the changes are dramatic or quick. Everything is gradual. There are parts of this that are more rock oriented, while others lean more toward the mellower end of the spectrum. There is world music built into this along with classical and more.
I Wish I Could Talk In Technicolor This comes in more jazzy with the bass really creating some cool lines of sound. In fact, I am enthralled with some of the bass work on this thing There are space elements still dancing around on the thing, too. Again, nothing changes quickly, but there is a lot of change here. This is an epic piece, weighing in at over twenty five and a half minutes. It's very much space music in so many ways. There is a lot more fusion in this number, though. The contrast between louder and softer passages is pretty stark. This is quite a ride, really.. It gets into some pretty odd territory at times. Still, it all works well. That said, there are some more freeform sparse segments later in the number that lose me for just a while. Still, they recover well, and there are plenty of people who really love that kind of thing.
Zen/Unzen This is very much a fusion based piece. Again the bass really shines, but everything gels so well together. This is less space oriented than some of the rest and more pure fusion. Still, the shifts and changes are gradual, and there is space laced over the top of all of this.
Parting Waves At just over four minutes in length, this is less than half the length of any of the rest of the cuts. It's a more mainstream fusion turned space piece. It works great to end things in style.
