Specimen 13, Echosystem

Oh, yes, when something is good, you can know it the moment you hear it, sometimes.

Then the affirmation deepens the more you listen.

The prog-outness of project-band Specimen 13 and their album Echosystem (Unsung Productions) is that. Denis Rodier is drumming, giving us some vocalizing and Martin Vaniar is on guitars (and some bass and soundscaping). That's the core. Then Adrian Benavides and Markus Reuter had a hand in arranging, mixing it down. And Markus produced the recording. He plays some of his patented touch guitar too and had a hand in the sound design, which is perhaps a fancy way of saying he helped shaped the final ambiance you hear, which is rather wonderful. Adrian plays some guitar and etc., too. Then there is a cast of other musical helpmates including Trey Gunn, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, and some vocalists, and some other-others, other folks. All-in-all a hot combination!

Well now if that sounds promising, believe me it is as good as you can imagine it. It's 30-something minutes of highly evolved out prog-rock, post-Crimsonian heaviness atmos-edge. It's dem fine. You can shell down a few peanuts and get it at http://specimen13.bandcamp.com/ You should.

Trey Gunn Retrospective: I'll Tell What I Saw

Trey Gunn, integral later King Crimson member, touch guitarist and musical composer-conceptualist has created some important music in the last two decades. He has made eight solo albums (1993-2010) and collaborated with many artists. Some of the fruits of those efforts can be heard in his new 2-CD retrospective I'll Tell What I Saw (7dMedia 1012).

The cumulative effect of repeated listens to the more than two hours of music on this set is impressive. There are world-music-meets-Gunn-progressive-music excursions with musicians and singers from Mexico, Italy, Russia and elsewhere. There's the progressive rock-funk that relates to and extends what he was doing in his King Crimson days. There are soundscapes of a deep sort. And much more besides.

What strikes me listening to the back-to-back highlights of his solo career is the sheer musicality and sonic originality of it all. It's a style that needs your attention because the soundstage is commonly packed with musical colors and events. The time spent is rewarded with much to savor and linger over. There is wonderful guitar and bass work, there's the orchestral conception and the layering, there is compositional brilliance.

Trey Gunn may well be rock's premier sound-artist of the past 20 years. Certainly he is one of the very select few at the very top of the game.

Revel in this one. Highly recommended.

Trey Gunn's "Modulator" Breaks Ground in Advanced Electric Music

As was discussed in our interview with Trey Gunn several days ago (see below), Modulator (7d Media 1011) was created in novel circumstances. Marco Minnemann recorded a 50-minute drum solo with his own rhythmic muse guiding him. It's free ranging and very exciting drumming. He challenged multi-instrumentalist, touch guitarist and musical composer-conceptualist Trey Gunn to create a musical work based on the solo, using only Gunn's quite fertile imagination and the flow of drumming from the original track.

Trey responded with some of the most ambitious, interesting and satisfying music I've ever heard in the post-prog mode. Using guitars, touch guitars, bass guitars, keys and samples, he painstakingly built up a piece of orchestral dimensions. The stream of consciousness aspect of the drumming helped lead to a work that traverses an enormous amount of territory: rocking passages, incredibly complex rhythmic-melodic segments of rare beauty and interludes of reflective charm. It's not easily described because it has so much going on musically.

This is the kind of complex yet directly accessible music you could listen to for years and still get more out of each time. Every listen for me hits my ears in a different way than before; I hear more connections and underlying pattern and so enjoy an ever more rewarding listening experience. I would have to say that this one is a masterpiece of sonic sprawl. And there is some incredible guitar work, too. It's just fabulous!