GILGAMESH

I dont think that there excists any album with Alan Gowen that wouldnt be great. Gowen's recording career started with Gilgamesh in 1975, when their self-named debut was released. Gilgamesh is better and tighter than eg. Rotters Club. There's no attempt of a prog-epic like Mumps was, instead there are three smaller 7-10min entirety's (One End More, Island Of Rhodes, We Are All) all of which are instant 5-star pieces of music. Lady and a Friend and Notwithstanding are also excellent 3-4min songs. Lady and a Friend starts with a calm and beatiful acoustic guitar play by Phil Lee and builds up to the end whereas Notwithstanding starts as energetic as possible. The rest of the album consists of two acoustic-guitar pieces by Phil Lee (Arriving Twice and For Absent Friends) both of which last about a minute. The album ends with a piece by Gowen called Just C. This could mean either Just See or then the fact that this one minute piece consists only of c-major and menor-chords repeated by an acoustic piano. In my opinion this album is far from jazz-fusion but it isnt quite prog either. It's pure Canterbury Scene. I dont think that Gowen counted himself as a jazz musician because of his musical ambitions. His and Gilgamesh's music was far too broad to be counted merely into jazz-fusion. There are hints of classical music and blues which blend this album.

Excellent album!