ZENTUARY

Indonesian composer and musician Dewa BUDJANA is a well known and regarded musician in his home land of Indonesia, and for the last decade or so he has been established as a prominent musician also in the west, helped and guided by his western label Moonjune Records. Following a handful of albums released and reissued on that label, he was signed to Steve Vai's label Favored Nations in 2016, for the release of "Zentuary", which is his most recent album to date.

Dewa Budjana and his various guests on this double album have made a mainly positive, uplifting and smooth production that exists somewhere on the borders between jazzrock and jazz fusion, in a smooth and polished contemporary manner. The material does feature some world music elements here and there, flavoring the soundscapes nicely, and there's room for controlled excursions into more expressive modes of delivery on regular occasions too, but without the material ever becoming too challenging for any longer period of time. The slight emphasis on jazz details gives me the impression that this is an album that will have a stronger appeal for jazz fans than for jazzrock fans, but both audience segments should track this one down and have a go at it on some occasion. I suspect that the greater majority of those who choose to do so will find the experience rewarding.