RAVO

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Having several albums in the bag in the meanwhile the ROVO project is consisting of experienced Japanese musicians, you bet. Very important to mention - they don't repeat themselves, every album bears new spirit and surprises. The trademark, which all the albums units though, is a special virtuoso and intricate attitude with space prog as well as fusion background, overall based on massive (dance) grooves. No wonder - they have two drummers aboard regularly. So this time they offer 60 highly enjoyable minutes filled with hypnotic as well as accessible moments. Every track crosses the ten minute mark, which points to a quite improvisational and experimental attitude overall.

This means, a repetitive motif is given in general where the crew carefully varies over the course. Violinist Yuji Katsui actually seems to be the only member with significant solo ambitions here. They overall provide an enormous groove and pace, based on joy of playing I believe. Wow - due to this dynamic performance it must have left them sweat-soaked afterwards, no question. Just to pick up Eclipse which is a fantastic dancable affair which reminds me on Hidria Spacefolk a bit. RMD offers a spacey groove close to Oresund Space Collective or Ozric Tentacles but also infiltrated with Mahavishnu Orchestra sentiment.

The main motif on Sino + seems to recur from the epic track 'Sinno', which originally appears on their live 'Tonic 2001' album. I would say Katsui's violin is THE remarkable placement this time. Heads up ... 'Ravo' comes as another gripping affair, if you like to listen to a versatile blend of composition and jamming. This even comes close to krautrock here and there. Recommended!