AUTOBIOGRAPHIE

The year 2023 is proving to be a great year for the comeback of England's Canterbury Scene with February finding the long awaited sophomore album from Zopp blowing away a Canterbury crazed prog scene and released on the very same day is the USA's own Muffins spin-off group MANNA / MIRAGE which finds its fifth album AUTOBIOGRAPHIE crashing the wacky party of avant-jazz-prog run amok. This project of David Newhouse which began as a side project from Maryland's The Muffins has turned out to be an equally fascinating group in its own right that has developed its own identity without jettisoning its Canterbury connections.

While Newhouse (who has also been involved with Skeleton Crew with Fred Frith and another side project Diratz) is the main man here who handles keys, reeds, guitars, kalimba, accordion, harmonica and who bunch else! Joining him is ten guest musicians covering the basics like bass, drums and guitar to more exotic sounds including the violin, trombone, mallets and bells. The Bandcamp page claims that this if the fifth and final album from MANNA / MIRAGE so this very well could be the end of the road for this band that has so effortlessly melded the warmth of the Canterbury jazz rock scene with the more angular excesses of avant-prog.

AUTOBIOGRPAHIE features nine all-instrumental tracks at just over 46 minutes of playing time. The music is roughly a third Canterbury jazz, a third avant-prog and a third various ethnic folk music styles all mashed up into a cool stroll into the world of instrumental prog. The album also finds a cameo of two early members of The Muffins, Michael Bass on drums and Michael Zentner on electric violin. This album is well paced with each track sounding distinct whether it's the Canterbury dominated opening "Phantosmia" or the tango-fueled "Practicing Tonglin In A Time Of War." The wealth of instrumentation provides an endless supply of tones and timbres adorning each musical motif like a wildflower bloom after the spring rains.

Not much to say about this really. This is mostly on the slower to mid-tempo range and doesn't get as wild and adrenaline fueled as classic Muffins albums. This is more like easy listening avant-prog with the warmth of Canterbury tones and keyboard workouts. The instrumental interplay on this is excellent with all kinds of instruments sharing space with the consistency of the keys, guitar, bass and drums. Supposedly Newhouse is just retiring the name MANNA / MIRAGE but continuing music in this style. Considering he's involved in so many other projects perhaps he's just overextended himself or simply doesn't want to exhaust the MANNA / MIRAGE playbook. Whatever the case AUTOBIOGRAPHIE isn't a bad way to end it all. A beautifully consistent album that may not scream out masterpiece of the ages but offers an excellent roster of diverse tracks.

Dave Newhouse and his ever-growing, ever-impressive collective of collaborators is back with yet another installment of the Manna / Mirage offshoot of the old Avant-Canterbury band, The Muffins. Sadly, Dave serves notice with this album that this is "the last" of the Manna / Mirage project releases.

1. "Phantosmia" (6:30) very interesting for its unusual (for Dave) rhythm track. Saxophone and Michael Zentner's Eddie Jobson-like violin lead us through the first three minutes but then the horn section takes over in the foreground while individual instruments try to vie for attention from behind the wall of winds. In the fifth minute the band falls into the Rock Creek as Jannick Top-like single-pluck bass notes reverberate in order to keep the song moving above multiple reverse guitar tracks. Interesting. (8.75/10)

2. "Rounded by Sleep" (8:36) great steady mini-big band foundation that reminds me of Herbie Hancock's 1970s music in the late 1960s and early 1970s sits beneath some really awesome fuzz-saw guitar playing from Mark Stanley. At 4:00 Mark's play and the drums and bass cut out and we're left with a Phillip Glass-like tuned percussion weave within which trombone, woodwinds, and piano play a little bit. Then, at 6:20, a new kalimba, bass, and electric piano weave fades in and takes over. Lots of tuned percussion joins in and VERY cool three-part song! (18.75/20)

3. "Practicing Tonglin in a Time of War" (4:13) accordion and piano start up this European street song before drums, percussion, and bass join in. Second (or third?) accordion track doubles a violin to carry the melody for the first two minutes before a shift into a more Gypsy-klezmer-like weave incorporating horns and winds occurs. Now the violin and accordion are carrying one melody while the horns and winds carry a completely different one. At times it feels as if five or six separate melody lines are all woven together! (9/10)

4. "Section W" (4:56) a weave of stringed instruments: bass, guitar, percussed electric guitar, even banjo (dobro?) are all cycling within a steady repeating flow. Once established, radio tuning noises are strung into the mix giving it a Holger Czukay sound and feel. But then low flute (shakuhachi?) enters--on multiple tracks--providing a whole different feel and texture. (9/10)

5. "There Was a Time" (2:21) one of those classic beautiful piano-based chord progression songs that only Dave seems to be able to generate. Organ tracks, drums, keyboard bass, and some reeds provide most of the instrumentation for this little "soundtrack" ditty. (4.5/5)

6. "Close the Sky (5:52) a song of several parts, Guy Segers' heavily-treated bass and Mark Stanley's heavily-treated muted guitar play provide most of the foundational stuff for the first two minutes while reeds and harmonica provide entertainment on the sides, but then marimba takes the place of Mark's guitar for a minute, but then he returns for another solo--still playing off of Guy's interesting jazz bass. Then formally horn section step in to take the fore, providing their own tight melody as drummer Sean Rickman freestyles. (9/10)

7. "Instant Cloud Effect (3:18) opens with a descending chord progression of Fender Rhodes electric piano, bass, flutes, and clarinet, a pattern that is repeated with interludes of a second motif for the flutes and clarinet to do some flitting and flying off on their own. Nice. Peaceful. (8.875/10)

8. "Love Song for a Country" (5:30) slow and melancholy, this one feels as if the entire band are all on the same page--in the same mood--thus the song's overall feeling of uniformity--of the band's entrainment and indivisibility. It would've been interesting to hear this with Nick Prol's vocals. Nice avant garde guitar soloing from Mark Stanley in the last 90 seconds. Dave sure has a genius for great, nostalgic chord piano progressions. (9/10)

9. "Hope" (5:00) like Dave's swan song. I feel as if I'm listening to Dexter Gordon's playing from the film 'Round Midnight. (8.875/10)

Total Time 46:16

I swear, Dave's productions, compositions, and ideas just keep getting better and better with each successive album release. Beginning with 2015's wonderful surprise, Blue Dogs, through Rest of the Time, Face, and 2021's Man Out of Time (my favorite), the music has continued to evolve as it expresses and fulfills many of Dave's old ideas with new inspirations and inputs.

I really love how Dave puts detailed descriptions of the songwriting, studio recording, and evolution of each song into his album's "liner notes." It's a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the artist and his process.

I'd like to add how much I enjoyed Sean Rickman's drumming; his is by far my favorite drumming on a Manna/Mirage album.

A-/five stars; another minor masterpiece of progressive jazz-rock fusion from one of the longest-running, hardest working masters of the Canterbury Scene, Dave "The Muffin Man" Newhouse. Highly recommended. With this album and his previous release, 2021's Man Out of Time, you have two delightful masterpieces of the sub-genre.

MANNA/MIRAGE is the project of former MUFFINS member Dave Newhouse, a multi-instrumentalist and composer. Naming the project after THE MUFFINS debut album this is studio album number five and I have the debut and this one only. I do prefer this one over the more jazzy debut but both are very good records. I really like the packaging including the album cover. But Dave goes to great lengths to list who is playing on each track and also a little blurb from himself talking about each track. Nine tracks worth over 46 plus minutes of classy music.

There are only two musicians that I recognized including Guy Segers from UNIVERS ZERO playing bass on two tracks and Michael Zentner adding violin on the opener. This was mixed and mastered by Mike Potter over at the famous Orion Studios in Baltimore, MD. The opener "Phantosmia" features both Zentner and Segers and I have to say the start of this track and album surprised me at the depth and power. Not that it's that strong but for this project it is. This is a top three track for me and you have to check out Zentner after 1 1/2 minutes where he gets a little avant. It turns surprisingly dark and experimental after 4 minutes with those piano lines and atmosphere.

The kalimba from Newhouse sounds pretty cool on "Rounded By Sleep" especially late. Bass and trombone standout as well. "Practising Tonglin In A Time Of War" is my least favourite with the accordion and rhythm sounding like a European Folk tune. "Section W" is a top three for me and the flute, piano and intricate sounds are appealing and there's even some static from a shortwave radio. It's interesting reading Dave's words about the song "Close The Sky" because it was a new way for him to compose and he's quite detailed about it. Segers plays bass here we get busy drums along with marimba and harmonica. It does get experimental along with some dissonance.

So much going on in "Instant Cloud Effect" with the flute, bass clarinet, keys and percussion all played by Dave. "Love Song For A Country" was originally to have vocals, Dave even had Nick Prol lined up to sing on it but changed his mind because he didn't like his own lyrics(haha). "Hope" the closer is my final top three and a ballad I would say although all instrumental. It reminds me of some of the stuff that trumpet player Ibrahim Maalouf plays. Dave is playing a baritone sax here though and he says that instrument can be so delicate and emotionally charged.

A solid 4 star recording. Mature, classy and quite jazzy.

According to Dave's Bandcamp site this is the last album we will hear from Manna/Mirage, which is a real shame as this is possibly the most enjoyable to date. Dave Newhouse of course provides most of the instruments, and on a couple of tracks all of them, but he has also brought in old friends such as ex-Muffins bandmates Michael Bass and Michael Zentner, his Moon Men and Cloud Over Jupiter colleague Jerry King, along with the likes of Guy Seger from Univers Zero. Dave has been at the forefront of the Canterbury/Jazz/Avant Prog scene for more than 50 years now, and I have yet to come across any of his releases which are less than thoroughly enjoyable and that is again what we have here. Dave does not feel he is restricted by what anyone expect of him, and consequently he goes where the music takes him, so if he wants the guys to "play it like they're in a small band in a seedy club in Berlin in 1933", as he requested for those involved with "Practicing Tonglin In A Time Of War" then that is what happens.

He is also never restricted in what instruments he uses, so arrangements can be very different indeed from one song to the next, and his high presence in the scene means he has access to more music and musicians than the normal person. One song on this album, "Section W", started off life as a piece on the compilation album ' Frets of Yore' which I reviewed recently, here extended and given new life. Another song was originally written for Moon Men and has now been released here.

There is a life and presence in all he is involved with, and even though he is not as young as he used to be, Dave is hugely active in multiple different musical projects as well as continuing with his artwork. This means that although this may be the end of Manna/Mirage, there is still plenty of music left to come from him, and long may that continue. For fans of the Canterbury scene this is a wonderful album which twists and changes so one never knows what is coming yet, all wrapped in the wonderful arrangements and musical sensibilities of Newhouse.