BETWEEN NOTHINGNESS & ETERNITY

The only official live album by Mahavishnu Orchestra has a very ambitious name, lengthy tracks and star-filled line-up so one would have highest expectations of the album. What comes out is a jam masterpiece full of great and sometimes overblown playing that lacks structure and coherence. The audio quality is not good enough to enjoy all single tones of instruments, especially violin, keyboards and bass guitar. Quite understably, Cobham and McLaughlin are mostly visible, followed by Hammer as he has one number - 2nd track. In the first track, there is a furious rock'n'roll section with notable violin soloing, then come guitar and Moog as duett. The dexterity and speed of playing is phenomenal and not easily matched on other fusion records.

"Sister Andrea" has Fender all around but guitar easily beats it with intensity. "Dream" is overly long and difficult to be focused to from the beginning till its end.

This album has an important documentational band character but it is not an excellent or essential live fusion album.