JAZ

— First review of this album —

I don't know if putting Zelensky's voice on the track may cause copyright issues. Zelensky was an artist, too. Anyway, this 20 minutes track is good. It has a bit of late Floyd influence but mainly a post-rock vibe which has made me think to bands like PERHAPS. I started digging Corvisier's music from the first releases, and when I dig an artist I'm not used to "jump" to the last release in this way, but seeing it on thePA home page has triggered my curiosity. In addition, it's a Bandcamp free download, so all you have to spend is just a few of your time.

It starts with birds and acoustic guitar, like the artist wants to underline the quiet before the storm. Children's laughters and mute vocals remind also to the last works of the greek genius VANGELIS. Laughters again on a single note. This is when the link with Pink Floyd appears. The very bass frequence behind the clean guitar sounds like the intro of Obscured by Clouds, even if for just few seconds. It's not the same saound, it sets a similar mood.

The nice clean electric guitar, instead, doesn't sound very Floydian. We are now at half the track. After a keyboard intro, children now cry over bass, drone drums and guitar. When the voices stop, it's like the instruments are accompanying the refugees.

Then it comes Zelezny, the sirens, the war sounds. Obsessive drums and keyboards lead to a rockier part which is perfect to support the war sounds. It's a 3 chords progression which goes on for a while.

4 minutes to go. Everything seems to stop. Thunders and bombs continue and a new 2 chords theme starts, but this time is "disturbed" by an untuned keyboard sound. Then the guitar strings start bending. Good bass work in foreground. Stereo effects. a couple of guitars playing different but similar riffs.

40 seconds more. Just keyboard, a child sings, and finally Zelensky says "Slava Ukraina". That's all.

Well, I like it. Compared to the first works of Corvisier, this is way more consistent and succeeds in transmitting the sensations that he wants to transmit to the listener.

Message received, and 4 stars.

TEMPUS FUGIT is an album created by the musician Jean Marc Corvisier, under the moniker JAZ. It's available for free in his official bandcamp page.

The first track, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, it's interesting but has some kind of annoying voiceover. Not a very good impression for an album opener. Fortunately, by the second track onwards the album get more interesting and pleasant. Oncle Jean is psychedelic, Haute Tension (Mohammed Ali) has some guitars and is more akin to rock music. I can point out some kraut and psychedelic influences scattered in most of the tracks too. It's an instrumental release, mostly atmospheric but varied enough to not bore the listener. The songs are short too ? if you are searching for prog epics this is not the place. Anyways, JAZ is a skilled musician and clearly knows what he's doing. It's a pity I can't give more half star, but nevertheless I recommend this album.

— First review of this album —

11 years after the debut, this is the 6th album of the French multi-instrumentist Jean Marc Corvisier, aka Jaz. On this album his sound seems to try taking a direction. There's less guitar and more electronics. The sounds are spacey but the melodies are sometimes too simple. I think there's a clear influence of Peter Bardens and Alan Parsons. There are ups and downs even in the same track: as example, Decadence is made of fur different sections, the second and the fourth sound trivial to me, the second is quite childish, but the third is very good.

How can I decide whether I like it or not, globally? I think it depends on the amount of good and trivial parts. Cyber Opus is quite good but not exciting. Good as comment of a documentary, I'd say...but it's just the first part. It suddenly changes into something dark. The melody is similar to the previous part, but it's dissonant. Then it flows into another section partially melodic which ends into a relaxing nice keyboard layer.

The title track reminds closely the style of Peter Bardens, especially in the sounds. A good one. Then come the 11 minutes of "Welcome to Voyager". It's very spacey so I suppose the Voyager of the title is that Voyager which has recently left the Solar System. Less major chords make it sound closer to my personal tastes.

"Lost Contact", the final track, is another quite good instrumemtal reminding of Tangerine Dream, mainly because of the non-invasive guitar a la Edgar Froese.

So, it's not an exciting album but is neither bad, and all the Jaz production is available on Bandcamp as "Name your price". Give it an ear.

— First review of this album —

On this album Jean Marc Corvisier aka Jaz continues on the line of the previous releases. This one conteins short tracks with the longest scoring about 5 minutes. The influences are again quite evident: CAMEL and despite being mainly a guitarist, Peter BARDENS in particular, then TANGERINE DREAM of the Virgin period and VANGELIS. The first track sounds like the instrumental stuff that Bardens released at the end of the 90s: easy, not pretentious and good as comment for images. It's "Phy" that surprised me more as it seem to explore the soundscapes familiar to the greek keyboardist. The start is promising, then it comes a track on which I want to spend some words: years ago I've playes an adventure game with my daughter, and "Lifeline" sounds very similar to the soundtrack of that game. It has given me that kind of sensations, so it may not be a masterpiece, but it has hit some particular chord in my mind.

Unfortunately the following two tracks are not that good. "Jet" is made of groups of three chords not very harmonic and goes nowhere, the same for the next "Fazz". It may be me, but I don't like them. They are the album's lowlight, in my opinion.

"Schock" returns on the Bardens steps. It's a nice track, nothing special but nice and most of all, introduces what sounds more rock in the whole album. "The Masked Guitarist" is the longest track and sounds more interesting than the others. It's well developed and seems to take a direction different than the rest of the album.

"Gymnophony" is somewhere between Tangerine Dream and Vangelis. another enjoyable track which is followed by "Puzzle" which in some parts sounds like the CAMEL of the Nude period.

At this point the album is done. The last 2 minutes track is no more than a joke, it's a sort of grotesque waltz, I think it's just a filler.

So this album is not bad but apart of some highlights it's far from being the best Jaz release, and despite the title, the presence of guitar is not as relevant as one could expect.

Rounded up to three stars, but he can do better

— First review of this album —

In the fourth album, Jean Marc Corvisier aka Jaz starts using more minor chords, and it results in an album on which the listener can concentrate some attention. While the previous three albums were more light, here there's more prog. The principal influencers can be find during the listen, but some sounds are really interesting,

As in the previous albums, I hear echoes of CAMEL and Jean Michel JARRE, but the biggest surprise in this short album (30 minutes long, more or less) is in the closing track, wich starts withthe same bass line of careful With That Aze Eugene. The Pink Floyd mood comes and go until it disappears completely.

There are no track titles. Tracks are just numbered from 1 to 6, and knowing about the love for VANGELIS that Mr Corvisier declares, having 6 "movements" is the same kind of approach that was used by the Greek keyboardist in more than one album of the 90s.

So, it's a step forward respect to the first three releases. Surely not a masterpiece, but a decent album, just a bit too short.

— First review of this album —

After the second release, Jaz took 6 years to publish a follow-up. During that period he continued to make music, and this album is a sort of collection of what he did between 1998 and 2002, when this album was released.

Da Bep Lec'h means "to all the directions" in Breton language. You can see it on the roads in Bretagne. Searching for "Rün", it should mean "hill". This first track is a very light electronic tune based on major chords and suddenly ending on drone percussion. Just an intro, then it comes "Hydrogen". It's another quiet track with a newage flavor. As in the first two albums of Mr Corvisier, this music would be suitable as soundtrack for a discovery channel documentary. I imagine it commenting seascape, corals , seafood, and so on.

Things start to become more interesting with the third track "Synkronization" which lasts for over 10 minutes. I've had a quick chat with the artist and he mentioned CAMEL as influencer. Listening carefully, a touch of Camel can be perceived, also not too far from the style of BELLAPHON, a Japanese band clearly inspired to Camel. During those 10 minutes the melody changes several times but smoothly, with continuity.

"Shadow Bride" is an interesting one: slow tempo and minor chords which trigger a switch in my mind. It's a lifetime that I don't listen to the Greek newage keyboardist YANNI. This track has something that brings my memory back, even if the style is closer to the other Greek maestro, VANGELIS. In particular the period of "The City" and "Direct".

"MIdnight" is different. I don't like much the organ vibrato, but when it stops and the bass introduces a different line, we are back to the Camel style. 2002 is the year when Peter BARDENS passed away. Thos track could have found a place on his "SEEN ONE EARTH". As I have written on other reviews, when commenting instrumental music, the best I can do is comparing it to something else. So I'm not saying that it's a clone, as well as Vangelis is not a clone of Tangerine Dream and vice versa.

Let's go ahead. The title track is another "long" one. Calling long a 10 minutes track on a progressive rock site may sound unusual, but it's the longest of the album. The initial theme is a little dissonant, then it becomes more regular. This is more or less how the electronic music was sounding around the end of the 90s and the beginning of the new Millennium (hey, are we already close to the '20s...I can't believe it...), so having to provide a reference I'd say that it's more or less the kind of things that TANGERINE DREAM were doing in these years.

"Air" closes the album. Lazy tempo, minor chords, a little dissonance mainly due to the organ sound chosen for the main melody. It doesn't progress much, but in the last minute it changes direction. It sounds like a MIDI, and makes me think to the soundtrack of a videogame ("Another Code" to name it).

So it's another light and enjoyable album, far from being a masterpiece or a must, but it hasn't anything bad and because of its suitability to soundtracks it can be a very good background listening if you are reading, studying , working and so on.

— First review of this album —

The second album of the French one-man band JAZ is opened by a bass line strangely similar to a famous Michael Jackson's song, but luckily it evolves into a nice electronic tune. It's just few more than two minutes and I think it's the right duration for a track of this kind.

The second track is different: piano harping on minor chords and obviously a longer track reminding of TANGERINE DREAM of the 80s. As for his first album, also this may be used as soundtrack. The melodies are nice, nothing too special or too original, but good enough to be listened in background while working or reading or whatever else you can do while you listen to music.

Another two minutes track follows. Again a bass line, with a structrue similar to that of the opener, but some words are deserved by the title track, the longest of the album, which is made of different sections and in my opinion belongs to a different legacy. It's still an electronic instrumental, but Mr Corvisier has put a consistent number of musical ideas inside.

On the other side, "Ambre" is quite poor, in my opinion. a melodic track which could be used for a nursery rhyme. At least in this album, Jaz seems to express his music better when he goes on longer tracks. The 8 minutes long "Trilogie" is not a masterpiece, but it's a good track between Alan PARSONS and Peter BARDENS, let's say.

"End Of Data" does its job as closer. three minutes which more or less summarize what has been listened up to it.

A little step back respect to the debut, but still enjoyable.

As many electronic gurus with melodic tendencies, the debut album of Jean Marc Corvisier, aka JAZ, is somewhere between VANGELIS and his conterranean Jean Michel JARRE. Good references, isn't it?

The album is fully instrumental and is clearly a one-man electronic effort. It sometimes reminds also to what Peter BARDENS was releasing in the same period, the final part of Extreme II in particular. Differently from many electronic artists, his music is not much repetitive. I can define it as an easy-listening ambient music, relaxing and very suitable for soundtracks. I can imagine it commenting a National Geographic documentary, and if you consider that Vangelis has released a couple of very good albums as soundtracks of Frederic Rossif's documentaries, that's not a bad thing for sure.

The musical themes are quite variable even inside the same track. Being fully electronic the drums don't vary much, but this staticity in the tempo is counterbalanced by the variations in the melodic line which happen several times inside the same track. My personal favorite on this album is Atom, but the whole can be listened without taking care of which track you are listening to as it's omogeneous in the sound.

Taking into account that's a self production and self-released, the audio quality is very good, which I think is an essential requirement for an electronic album.

So, nothing very original but nothing bad, too. A good but non-essential debut from 1994.