GHENT, SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE

If Kandahar had made some very interesting records around the mid-70's, they had broken-up partly for being broke financially, but also because they had said everything they had to say. So what pushed Delaruye and De Visscher to reform and do an album over a decade after breaking up? Nostalgia, an order from the local tourism agency, I do not know. But clearly this album is inspired from their hometown, the superb Flemish city of Ghent. Whether it was from an official contract or really a labour of love is rather difficult to answer, but the results are certainly not to expectations and resemble nothing to their brilliant works. What we are dealing with is a New-Agey jazz with synthesised rhythms, rather clumsy (never unpleasant though, but rather pointless, IMHO) elevator-like music. It can also make you think of the scarier releases of ECM - the great jazz-rock label but sometimes awfully close to muzak. Some tracks have medieval-sounding ambiances to evoke the photos and buildings that each track was supposed to represent, others have some JM Jarre at its cheesiest keyboards, etc.. Very deceiving, completely and utterly pointless album. Non representative of their early albums. Best avoided, but unfortunately the only record available from this once inventive group.