TROIKA

I've heard just three OREGON albums with a hopeful wish of liking them more - maybe I haven't started with the best possible choices. This one is probably just another OREGON album that fails to bring anything new to their sound and which could be best described as dead boring.

The acoustic guitar of Ralph Towner, the oboe of Paul McCandless and the bass of Glen Moore. Together they COULD make very beautiful, calm chamber jazz - and occasionally it IS beautiful, on this album too - but I can't help the impression of the lack of true inspiration. Apart from a couple of aimlessly wandering improvisation-like pieces ('Prelude' and 'Arctic Turn') the music is actually fairly listenable and harmonious all the way, but that's just about it. 78 minutes of it gets very boring; only three tracks entered to my cassette as some sort of highlights, but none of them either is a great delight. I hope I'm right if I guess Troika to be one of OREGON's least interesting albums.