INVENTIONS: LOGICA

The newest studio album "Inventions: Logica" from the Dutch multi-instrumentalist Christiaan Bruin might give a great first impression but, unfortunately, repeated listens fail to grant the same experience.

Although this record was my first encounter with the aforementioned musician, initially I found myself captivated by the inspiring, symphonic sound reminiscent of a soundtrack to a magical film. "Inventions: Logica" blends together the well-crafted (even if at times repetitive) melodies from the string quartet, saxes, and flutes with the smooth, warm, comforting vocals, and a cracking, distorted narration. This is true for nearly every piece on this album: all of them maintain the same style, at times repeating similar musical themes. As such, this record can be plausibly called a conceptual one. At times, rock elements, such as the guitars in the titular track or in "Mind of God" enter. The song lyrics and narration mention philosophy, humanities, and even mathematics, in an attempt to complete the atmosphere of inspirational grandeur already established by the sound. Unfortunately, this might be a choice that ends up making this album too easy to see as pretentious or pseudo-intellectual. In addition, at repeated listens the record ceases to sound original, coming close rather to a wannabe (and not succeeding) successor to Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells", while the monotony of some musical ideas and the vocals become tiring if used for any other purpose than background music. This is a pity, considering how interesting the initial idea is: it seems as if Christiaan Bruin ended up both overdoing (in terms of the grandeur/epicness) and underdoing (in terms of variety) it on "Inventions: Logica".

It's probably a good idea to give this album one or two listens: but not more than that, unless you're fine with the risk of losing that good first impression. "Inventions: Logica" remains a piece of pleasant film-like music with intellectual lyrics and a beautiful cubist album artwork, but unfortunately, not much more than that. 2.75 stars, rounded up.