TRAVELLING

I've had my share of listening to eclectic and varied sounding albums. This offering from Jean-Jacques Toussaint qualifies as one of them and also amongst those albums of this nature I like a lot.

Jean Jacques Toussaint is the keyboards and bass player for Tiemko, a French instrumental prog-rock group. This helps explain part of the name of this album. At first I though the second part, Travelling, referred to a second French prog-rock group called Travelling (playing in the Canterbury style), however it appears not to be the case. There is a note in the booklet saying in French: "Travelling: a path that leads nowhere, since nowhere is still the most mysterious place there is". In this album Jean-Jacques plays the keyboards, guitar, contrabass and does programming. He has a wide array of musicians playing along with him in the different pieces on instruments like guitar, saxophone, trumpet, accordion, trombone, violin, drums and tablas. The album was released through the French prog-rock label, Musea in 2009.

This is an instrumental album and the variety here is in the particular style of each track; from pensive, meditative moments (Ballade Sur Un Nuage) to jazzy and avant-rock tunes (Malthus, which seems to draw inspiration from Miriodor-like bands and style), to dark and sinister movements (Passage, with a powerful and driving bass line ? apparenty played by keys; this track sounds at times Univers Zero-inspired), chamber music (Petite Symphonie Mecanique; again reminding me a bit of Univers Zero, Present and their ilk). The album seems almost like a compilation of sorts, as if offering us the best tracks of a long musical journey of a musician. There is more, of course, throughout the course of this 13 track long album, much to enjoy and concentrate on as themusic unravels. One track that stand out in particular for me is American Gang which sounds like an amalgam of jazz, rock and ambient and is actually too short and could have benefited from an extension in which more exploration could have been done. Another interesting track is the electronics-infused Cartoune which sounds like a frenzied adventure inside the electric circuits of an old desktop computer. It is nicely balanced between the keyboards effects and the electric guitar work that act together to achieve an odd sounding piece (I mean that in a good way). Orient is a more delicate piece, with a prominent bass and pleasant supporting keyboards; this sounds like a more "typical" prog-rock piece, with a jazzy flavour. The use of tablas adds a special aroma to the overall sound here, a nice touch that spices up the atmosphere.

If you're into an eclectic instrumental adventure and you like the wide array of styles/bands mentioned above, I recommend giving this a listen. With a running time of 63 minutes, you should find several of these tunes to your liking.

Born in 1956, bassist/keyboardist Jean-Jacques Toussaint starts his journey in the music field in 1975, composing and playing music for theater, before joining his first band Phoenix in 1977 and building a strong relationship with drummer Eric Delaunay.Upon meeting with guitarist Remy Chauvidan in mid-80's, they formed Tiemko, releasing four albums until 1996, when the band dissolved after the sudden death of Delaunay.Toussaint reappeared in discography about a decade later, in 2009, with the album ''From Tiemko to travelling'' on Musea Records, where he teams up again with ex-bandmate Remy Chauvidan and ex-Abus dangereux drummer Francois Verly.The line-up though is pretty extended with 9 more guests, mostly with a Jazz background, helping during the sessions.

This is a nice sum of Toussaint's career as a composer and his deep interest in Classical, Jazz and Rock Music, containing hints from his career with TIEMKO, but mostly remindind me of JEAN-PIERRE ALARCEN's early stuff, exploring the grounds of Jazz Fusion and Classical Music in the same album.Different tracks have different protagonists in this album, there are the standard TIEMKO-spiced pieces with the intense Fusion acrobatics, the display of atmospheric keys and the slight references to the complexity of KING CRIMSON'S music, then the whole thing goes to the opposite direction, proposing arrangements with chamber instrumentation and even some MIRIODOR-like intricate R.I.O.-flavored instrumentals.The music is often quirky and the one and only questionable element, appearing also in the TIEMKO releases, is the use of virtual keyboard programming, that makes the sound a bit inhuman and sterile.Composingwise though there is a lot to like in here.From the bombastic bass/drums/keyboard sections with the powerful Fusion background to the cinematic textures, even if held down by the programmed orchestrations, and from the laid-back Classical arrangements to the exhibition of Avant-Garde/Electronic Music with the use of effects and keyboards.So, stylistically this works is all over the place, sometimes with success, others with a decent result, which definitely neded some improvement.

The return of the living history of TIEMKO in a similar style and featuring some expanded deliveries in the field of R.I.O. and Classical/Chamber Music.Good and warmly recommended stuff.