JORIS VANVINCKENROYE - BASTA

The brain of Aranis is contrabassist Joris Vanvinckenroye (and on then you've got the five girls and her-anus ;o)p))) and outside his writing the huge majority of Aranis material, he also finds time to have his solo project. And when I mean solo project, Basta! I really mean solo: Joris stands alone on that album, alone with his contrabass and nothing else.

Hey!!!! Come back!!! Don't run away! It's not boring at all?.

As a matter of fact, it's quite fascinating, really. You never thought contrabass could be this fun, really. Well maybe not as fun as Aranis' first two albums, but still quite entertaining, coz it shows how you can exploit the instrument in a dozen of way. Of course there is double tracking and there are overdubs and?. Sometimes you can hear Joàris playing five things on that stand-up bass and it simply is never boring as he goes from almost medieval (with Sonan and the two dronal Folky Tunes) to almost free-jazz (with Delayed) and all the way to the grandiose SRP and Sleeping Dogs tracks and the Flamenco-flavoured Cycles. And the final eponymous Basta tune is probably the album's peak.

Well, Joris' album is surprising, not conceited (unlike Jaco) and borderline fascinating and personally I prefer this to a former god of the electric bass. While not essential, this is still much worth the detour.