MAGIA OBłOKÓW

Through a prog friend from Poland whom I met through this site, finally I got this rare album (especially for me in "rest of the world" country) by Marek Grechuta. A bunch of albums actually that I received from him, including Collage that I just reviewed couple of weeks ago. I envy on you from Poland which in fact has many prog talents in the country. I believe Grechuta is a genius musician and composer as I can hear clearly through his creation in this "Magia obłoków". Most of his compositions in this album are explorative in nature or I might say it avant-garde with heavy influences from jazz music. His music also contains many surprises where he brings the listeners with varied styles from opera to something like jazz improvisation.

"W pochodzie dni i nocy" (4'07) opens with a repetitive music featuring vocal and choir and it suddenly changes to jazz music with dynamic bass lines and violin work. It's a good exploration of jazz music with surprises in styles. At first listen it sounds to me too monotonous, but with some more spins it brings me to another experience. The fact that it is sung in Polish has made the sound better even though I don't understand what it means. Well, I read through the band's brief at this site I know that the lyrics must be poetic.

"Igła" (2:08) is truly a song-orientated composition featuring vocal as main component accompanied with guitar fills. It sounds similar with next track "Świat w obłokach" (4:06). Though this song sounds like a pop song with relatively simple structure and repetitive vocal but when I observe the guitar work, it's quite interesting to enjoy.

The album really lift-offs when it reaches the epic "Suita "Spotkania w czasie"" (14:36)* which comprises track 6 "Walc na trawie" (4:24) a melodic instrumental in a bit of symphonic nuance with jazz influence. It moves into another beautiful track 7 "Ulica cieni" (5:52) followed with short track "Zmierzch" (1:49). The epic concludes with a melodic song "Ptak śpiewa o poranku" (2:25) where the music is enriched with nice orchestration. The song has a catchy melody. It's quite unique to my ears.

The album concludes with "Na szarość naszych nocy" (2:52), a simple structure song with good guitar fills. The CD version includes 9 bonus tracks.

Overall, it's a good album from Poland and it will satisfy those of you who love jazz fusion and avant-garde kind of music. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW