NOCTURNE

The American band OZONE QUARTET released their first CD, "Fresh Blood", in 1997. This is the second album from this quite unusual band that is playing unusual music on unusual instruments. The set-up consists of Chapman Stick, Drums and many different percussion instruments, Electric Violin and Guitars. Hollis Brown are playing the Electric Violin, and he's perhaps the most important musician in the band, as the violin is the main lead instrument most of the time. OZONE QUARTET's music is an all-instrumental mix between funky jazz-fusion and progressive rock, with reminiscent to APOCALYTICA, BOUD DEUN, DIXIE DREGS, FLESHQUARTET, KING CRIMSON, KROUMATA, LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT and MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA. Although there's a lot of time changes and odd-time signatures, the music is quite easy-listened considering the complexity. The highlights are "Flood", "Backbone Of Night" and "Diamond Eye" which contains a wonderful show-off on the Chapman Stick. This is a very exciting CD to explore and you won't get tired when listening to it. Recommended!

"Nocturne" is the second album by North Carolina's OZONE QUARTET. The band's instrumental music features atmospheric, and playful, interplay between Chapman Stick, violin, and guitar. These guys tend to be compared to BOUD DEUN quite alot, but the music here never gets that complex. The strongest influence seems to be Tony Levin-era KING CRIMSON, if you can imagine that they also had a violin player at the time.

Yet OZONE QUARTET's guitarist doesn't seem influenced by Robert FRIPP. One noticeable difference on this album compared to the first album is the inclusion of vintage-sounding keyboards on some of the tracks. These include Moog-like bubbling, and Hammond B3 chords. Nothing dramatically different, but fans of the first album will take notice. Some of my favorite tracks include "Backbone Of Night" which features Middle-Eastern percussion, and scales. And "Diamond Eye" which has a section featuring some quick flurries of notes from the Chapman Stick.

Not a bad Jazz/ Fusion album from this quartet out of Raleigh, North Carolina. Violin, Chapman Stick, drums and guitar create a little bit different sound but to be honest this is very much violin driven all the way and kind of samey. The lack of electric bass takes away some depth here as it does come across a bit lightweight overall. No keyboards either that could provide some atmosphere. Produced by the band but this was mastered by Bob Katz at least. A far cry though from "Red" era KING CRIMSON or MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA as advertised and I mean far. Worth checking out only if your a huge violin fan in my opinion.