CONDOR

I'm going to start this review off with a warning for you. If you don't like saxophone, or (very) long albums, I advise you to stay far away from this one. If neither of these elements bother you, then you'll most likely enjoy Yochk'o Seffer's newest album. In no way would I consider this Zeuhl - on the contrary, all of the tracks present (except on the third disc, which I'll get to in a bit) are jazzy duets for saxophone and piano, saxophone and bass, or saxophone and drums. As I said earlier - a LOT of saxophone. The quality of the performances of the all three discs of material here is great. All of the musicians who play on this one seem to be top-notch, though I haven't heard anything else by anyone except Seffer himself. As can be expected with an album of this length, though, the tracks start to sound similar over the course of things.

The third disc is a different story, though. The first track on it is a free jazzy, kind of classical influenced symphony - for fifteen saxophones! Definitely an interesting listen, and an enjoyable one for me. The second track here is a video performance of Ima. The music is great on this one too. I've listened to the original several times, and this is a good rendition of it.

This album is good, though it is definitely a challenging chunk of listening for most - most certainly, it's not a good starting point for Seffer's music, but it is a good one to pick up if you like the jazzier side of his material. Three stars seems fitting, as the first two discs do seem to drag a bit as they go on.

Hungarian born composer, musician, sculptor and avant-garde artist Yochko SEFFER has a long and distinguished career in which he's been active in musical projects one way or the other for most of his life, and where his tenures in the bands Magma and Zao arguably can be said to be ones which have drawn the most attention. In 1976 Seffer initiated a solo career, with just over a dozen original productions issued in his name since then. Condor" is the most recent of these, and this massive 3-CD production was released by Musea Records on their Musea Parallele imprint in the fall of 2010.

"Condor" is a highly ambitious production, showcasing many different aspects of Yochko Seffer as an artist, composer and musician, including depictions of his own artwork in the booklet. With flawless performance and impeccable production, this is a high quality production, of the kind where your own musical taste will be the sole deciding factor for whether or not you'll enjoy it. And while the stylistic expressions covered explore territories ranging from classical to avant-garde jazz, I'd think that the primary audience for this release, other than existing fans of the artist, will be a jazz-oriented crowd, in particular those who have a deep and true affection for the saxophone.