AN ORDINARY NIGHT IN MY ORDINARY LIFE

When I purchased this CD altogether with early albums of The Flower Kings, I thought that this solo album of TFK's keyboardist would be of similar with the music of TFK. I was wrong, as I would say that 70% are different than TFK. And, this album is completely instrumental, backed by TFK musicians. My chief reason buying the CD was because of TFK name. But later, I like the album title: An Ordinary Night in My Ordinary Life. Great title, isn't it? Everything is ordinary but it produces excellent music!

The Music

The album starts with an ambient sounscape with a touch of spacey style even though not that intense under "Entering The Spacebike".

It continues with the second track "Into The Dreamscape" where the intro verse has a bit of The Flower Kings music in relatively slow tempo. When the guitar solo enters (augmented with soft keyboard at background with spacey style) it reminds me to Jan Akkerman worn in Focus. Before it enters quieter passage exploring acoustic guitar, Hammond C3 sound appears softly. At the end of quiet passage [4:32] the organ sound returns in a louder volume with a church organ style augmented with acoustic guitar, distanced bell sound and acoustic guitar. The music turns into a very uplifting mode when [5:24] punchy keyboard enters the music and followed with a stunning solo in a faster tempo with heavy influence of jazz beat. I think this is the pinnacle of musical ecstasy offered by this track. The bass guitar is played dynamically, the drumming is powerful with some solo during transition piece. The music then returns to its original rhythm section in a slower tempo. This is an excellent composition!

"The Ballerina From Far Beyond" explores an orchestration outfit in classical music style. What interesting is the combination of styles between classical and space music indicated by the keyboard solo. At [1:54] Salazar's drum beats enter wonderfully, enriching the texture of the music. Bass guitar is played excellently. It flows then with a guitar solo and keyboad solo with drums and bass guitar play important roles as rhythm shaper. Guitar solo is given a large proportion in this track; played stunningly by Stolt. It's a very enjoyable track. At the final verse the music brings back with an orchestration style at the opening but with different augmentation of sound effects that projects different nuance.

"Daddy In The Clouds" is an exploration of solo organ at its best. There is no other instrument used. It's an organ solo track, basically. It continuous seamlessly into the next track "Speed Wizard" opened with an ambient music exploring keyboard. The music enters dynamically [0:49] with a dazzling rhythm shaped by bass guitar, drums and keyboard flows smoothly to accompany keyboard solo in relatively fast tempo. I enjoy the bass line throughout this track. The music is reminiscent of The Flower Kings at first but when it flows into the rest of the track, it sounds like another fusion music different with the one of TFK. At [3:24] the music turns into quiter passage with keyboard effects and powerful drum solo. Suddenly a sampling rhythm enters the music in a crescendo that brings the music to another spectrum; jazz music with keyboard and bass guitar works.It then fades out.

"An Ordinary Nightmare In Poor Mr. Hope's Ordinary Life" begins with a human narration and atmospheric music with a background of human conversation - it's like in the spacey movie. At [1:49] a bass guitar sound in Tony Levin's style of later King Crimson albums appears shortly. At the middle of the track a drum sampling enters the music in a bit of disco music.This track is very exploratory / experimental in nature.

"In The Land Of The Pumpkins" starts with an ambient soundscape and the music starts to roll at [1:51] with an upbeat tempo style exploring electronic piano with some non- lyrical male voice line. The music flows smoothly until [4:09] when it turns into a more complex composition in a faster tempo with an improvised keyboard sound mixed thinly so that it does not appear obviously as keyboard solo. A stunning organ solo follows right after the keyboard. The music suddenly turns into a quieter passage with simple (but nice) piano touch in a classical music style. The track ends up by bringing back all intruments to the music in a faster tempo. Excellent composition!

"The Magic Rollercoaster" kicks off with a simple drum solo augmented with keyboard / electric piano work in jazz style. The bass guitar follows in repetitive chords.It's an experimental track using drum, programming and bass as main rhythm. The structure is very simple and straightforward.

"The Gathering" is a mellow and spacey track that serves as transition to the last epic. The interesting part is the combination of space with calssical orchestration at the background of the music.

The concluding track is an epic "Three Stories" that comprises - obviously! - three parts: "...Samuel The Knight / ...Adam - The Prophet / ...Miranda - The Queen". It begins the epic with a flute-like sound and some soft clavinet sound. At [1:50] the drum beats start to roll and bring the music in its full stream that features the keyboard solo work. At[2:39] guitar enters the music and gives a stunning guitar solo performed softly, accompanied with drums and bass guitar as main rhythm section. The bass guitar and drums are played wonderfully. The organ solo continues the guitar solo. All are performed in relatively fast tempo. It's very uplifting!

Production

This album is produced by Don and Gepetto Azzaro, familiar names in TFK albums. Recorded between April - October 1996. The sonic quality of this CD is awesome. I usually play it in high volume to get maximum sound quality. I find that any release of TFK has a brilliant sound quality as well. That has made a significant contribution to satisfy my listening expectations. This album would be mostly effective if we listen to it during night time; especially when everybody's asleep - while sipping a cup of capuccino. Ughh . what a life, my friend! What a life!

Recommendation

Recommended! You will find this record is satisfying. Say, if you do not enjoy the music (which I believe you won't) you still can enjoy the hi-fi quality of this CD. SACD or DVD audio is not required for this album as this is already excellent. The music is diverse but it's very enjoyable. It might be a sort of music suitable for contemplation. Probably. - Keep on progging!

Yours progressively,

GW - Indonesia

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