Featured Artist: Special Venture

CD Title: Twice

Year: 2007

Record Label: Gateway Music

Style: Fusion

Review:

Several tracks on this exceptional outing were recorded for Danish Radio (1999) in front of the group’s friends and acquaintances, while others were recorded a year later at a studio.  Per the liner notes, this CD was delayed due to personnel changes and, to some extent, the actual dissolution of the band itself.  Thankfully the release of this CD finally saw the light of day in 2007 and is an effort that should warm the hearts of many jazz-fusion and progressive-rock aficionados. 

With subtle nods to legendary Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal, largely due to guitarist John Sund’s stinging and airy single note phrasings, the band does offer a divergent group-based sound that offers a spark of singularity.  Partly due to vibist/keyboardist/percussionist Jon Meinild’s colorific textures and sleek soloing maneuvers amid other factors, the music, while forceful in scope, is somewhat kaleidoscopic as well.  Enamored by bustling rhythms and haunting melody lines, the soloists are afforded ample amounts of breathing room.  Sund’s often scathing yet poignant phrasings might signal in guitar-hero status.  And in spots, he uses volume control techniques for the textural element.

On “Africando,” the ensemble injects a Latin flavor via Ayi Solomon’s pumping percussion metrics, while the band’s multihued methodology takes a few twists and turns on works that boast rolling ostinato passages.  However, the musicians’ synergistic interplay cannot be undermined.  They engage in complex time signatures while softening matters with ethereal backwashes and jazzy movements. 

Hopefully, this unit will move forward and enjoy a fruitful existence that should provide a shot of newly formulated adrenaline for this sometimes staid genre.  In addition, this CD sounds amazingly fresh given the lapse between initial recording and release.  (Zealously recommended…)

Record Label Website: http://www.johnsund.dk

Artist's Website: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=172690766

Reviewed by: Glenn Astarita

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