REBIRTH

Alberto is back with his second solo album. He is already a member of Twinspirits.

Solo albums by instrumentalists can be a crossbreed between fish and birds. In this case, it is. This album can be sharply divided into two parts. One part where Alberto Rigoni proves he can play his bass in a quirky solo jazz like piece and one part where he joins in as a part of a band. Alberto Rigoni is helped out on this album by a star studded team too. Gavin Harrison and Michael Manring is the most knowns here of the stars. The musicianship is great on the jazzy parts here and the music is good too.

For some reasons, there are also some prog metal songs here at the end of the album with a full band too. That as a big, massive contrast to the first part of the album. The quality drops on these prog metal bits. I thought Alberto had got his fill of progressive metal in Twinspirits, but I have been proven wrong.

Hence, this album is a bit schizo in it's form. This type of crossover will not impress either the jazz or the prog metal fraternity. I doubt many want to eat a fish which is covered in feathers.

Hence, the music is a strong two stars and the musicianship is a strong three stars. I end up on three stars.

3 stars

A bass player can tell you a lot of things!

Italian musician Alberto Rigoni has returned with his second solo album, released this 2011 whose additional ingredients is the participation of well-known drummer Gavin Harrison. Rigoni has actually recruited several good musicians for this album, so talking about quality, before even listening to it, we know it would be a guarantee. Now, after listening to it, I can tell this is a very good record.

After having worked with progressive metal acts such as Ascra or Twinspirits, Rigoni will delight us here with a more atmospheric sound, with a mixture of jazz and some heavier hints. "Rebirth" consists on nine compositions that make a total time of 42 minutes approx. It kicks off with "Free", one out of three songs that reaches the six minutes length. The first notes are obviously bass notes, and then little by little the other instruments are joining the sound, cool percussions, keyboards and guitars work perfectly together with Rigoni's great bass sound. This is a wonderful opener track, after this, you will feel attracted and will want more.

"Rebirth" is a wonderful and charming track. The bass sound is clean and will give you the sensation of tranquility and peace, it is accompanied by a repetitive guitar and later by accurate keyboard noises as background. Here you can calm down, close your eyes and let the music do the rest.

"Story of a Man" is the first song featuring the also well known Michael Manring on bass, so here we will listen to a couple of bass players talking and complementing each other. The mood is also relaxing, but a bit more ambitious than the previous track. "The Net" is a two- minute track, the shortest of them all. It is only a slice of talent and repetition of notes, creating a good atmosphere.

Now, when we thought it would be a completely instrumental album, it surprises us with "Emptiness", where Jonas Erixon lends his voice and produces a heavier and rockier sound. This song has good keyboard solos and a pretty decent guitar work, here, actually the bass is what less cares.

Well, let's go back to the "reality" with "A New Soul". What I meant with reality is that here we will listen again to that softness and tranquility emanated by Rigoni's delicate bass sound, and his instrumental band. Here you'll have a four minutes of that gentle sound, but put your seatbelts on, because this will only lead you to the second and last non-instrumental song.

Yes it is. "With all my Forces" features Erixon's voice once again, and with him, the music becomes heavier and rockier, just as in his first appearance. This decision of putting on purpose two non-instrumental tracks is a bit wicked but at the same time ambitious, a two- nail weapon, because some may like that, but I personally would have preferred an album with the same line, despite I like these two songs, I feel they have no place here.

"Ontogeny" does not have that charming sound, it has in fact a more elaborated and true progressive rock sound. Here the participation of keyboards and drums is primordial; they help a lot the bass sound and all together create a strong, symphonic and dreamy composition. This is also the longest track on the album, and without a doubt, one of its highlights.

It finishes with "White Shine" that has a dreamy sound since the first piano notes, here I can imagine the music working for the final part of a film, with a happy ending, of course. Later it has a melancholy feeling, but all the music is created to give you a satisfaction, you will fell pleased.

Well, this is a very good album with its highs and lows. Rigoni is a talented musician, there's no doubt about it, and his work together with the guest musicians created a strong album that may please progressive rock and jazz fans mainly. What I did not like, was the inclusion of those two rockier tracks (which as I mentioned earlier, I like, I just don't feel they fit in here). My final rating will be four stars.

Enjoy it!

Alberto Rigoni offers a mix of fusion and heavy rock sounds on this album which is quite hard to digest. 'Rebirth' is a solo effort basically which includes several guest musicians. The bass work is very dominant here of course, but interestingly enough not only reduced on Rigoni himself. And so this production features a solo but also two bass duets, one with Yves Carbonne, the other shows Michael Manring collaborating. The album opens with Free and Tommy Ermolli nicely varies with hard rock and fusion styled multiple guitars - Gavin Harrison's drum playing attracts attention too.

With Emptiness the project stylistically leaves the selected path, they switch to a straightforward rocking attitude in the vein of Magnum or Evergrey. With All My Forces follows as a prog metal outfit where Ontogeny then returns back to a fusion style. 'Rebirth' is definitely unique as such, and technically flawless without a doubt. However, I took my time, but missing any conceptional clue this still sounds unusual to me - speaking of the compositional aspect rather immature as a matter of fact. Few songs are a pleasant listen, most are plain though and can't thrill me really - 2.5 stars

Alberto Rigoni for those who never heared of him , is the bass player of prog metal band Twinspirits. He release two solo albums under his name, one of them is Rebirth, the second offer. I don't know his first one so I can't make the comparation with. Released in 20011, Rebirth offers a wide palette of sounds, from jazz fusion , prog metal to hard rock. All album is instrumental minus 2 pieces where Jonas Erixon shows his talent on voice. The instrumental passages are ok, the most intrsting are the jazz fusion ones, where his bass lines are realy great, and aswell the keybords added. Also he has a lots of guests here, his mate from Twinspirits - Tommy Ermolli on 2 pieces on guitar, Michael Manring, Gavin Harrison and John Macaluso among others. The pieces are well played, the prog jazzier parts are the best, the more rockier ones, like those with voice are not so excellent but not realy bad, just average prog hard pieces. Anyway he can play a realy nice varations on bass, he has a far more opened spave then on Twinspirits, and the result is a pretty good one , but not fantstic, the mellow parts are little boring for me. No a piece is in front, all are almost at same level. 3 stars for Rebirth, good but nothing realy groundbreaking.