KENSO III

This 1985 release, follow up to the magnificient Kenso II is the most fusion-based album Kenso ever recorded. Still I wouldn't call this a pure fusion outcome, prog is very much in there, so is japanese music (traditional folk and popular music). No 1-3 star tracks, only 4-5 star tracks, a standard Kenso began in Kenso II and which lasted until Yume No Oka. The first part of the two-part piece Sacred Dream starts the album with great promise. The follower Power of the Glory is a powerful fusion-package containing great keyboard and guitar interplay. The Liberty Of Spirit is another great piece, so is Patter Of The Groovy. Turn To Solution is a composition of the bass player Matsumoto, and a truly great one, proving that Shimizu wasn't the only one capable of writing good tracks. The short Nostalghia features vocals or better said voices by Janna Kaku. Sacred Dream II is possibly one of the best tracks, Kenso ever produced, but the album does not end there. No, the album ends with Beginnings, an evolving piece that even has a little finale-like build up in the end.

This album featured keyboard playing not only by Oguchi, Sahashi but also by two guest musicians, the other being Hiroyuki Namba who played on the first album. Shimizu also provided mellotron and autoharp aside his guitar and koto playing. The almost orchestral layers in Turn To Solution and Beginnings were played with the power of 4 keyboard players! Two vocalists were also featured. For example the vocal passage on Far East Celebration was created with Tsunekatsu Takagi singing all the parts and overdubbing them. The drummer Haruhiko Yamamoto played also alto sax on a couple of tracks and also piano which makes him the sixth person who provided keyboards for this album. What a multi-instrumentalist! A former member of Kenso, flautist Shiro Yajima played on seven tracks on this album. But why was he a guest- musician? Altho this was his last album with Kenso, there was no reason to drop his credits to the guest-list... It's a shame no-one knows about Kenso, because it belongs to best bands of the eighties and nineties.

Anyway this album deserves only 5 stars *****.