Carsten Sindvald may be a name you've already noticed, lately as the reed player in the band Taylor's Universe. With this new personal project, the Danish musician and multi-instrumentist signs a very eclectic album, which I'll place in the jazz fusion bag for lack of a better tag. But please understand fusion in its real ethymologic definition, instead of the more common and depraved one often associated to easy listening, muzak and other negatively charged words. We're dealing here with several fusions; the cultural one bringing together Danish musicians, percussionist Robin Mattuck of Danish-American origin and Irish guitarist, sound engineer Dave Hennessy can be paired with the fusion of musical styles; like painters and generally starting from fixed - but still much open - written structures, Sinvald and his band will discretely throughout the album bring forth various colours picked from the many facettes of jazz history: the contagious afro-drumming of Anders Mogensen on the starter track, on top of which is added a nice bodhran part; the hard bop inflected "What's Up, Crocks!" with its brassy riffs and unisson EWI/trumpet lines + a very cool vibraphone (Kai Stensgaard) bringing us back to the Blue Note years, though the piece strangely enough starts with a funny simili konakol mounted on a tightly syncopated bass rhythmic figure; the beach like and joyful "Sunboat Jive" with its ostinato drum beat, funky piano riffs, spicy wah-wah guitar, not far from the type of jazz played by the Pat Metheny Group; the Santana coloured "Hello Mr

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Carsten Sindvald may be a name you've already noticed, lately as the reed player in the band Taylor's Universe. With this new personal project, the Danish musician and multi-instrumentist signs a very eclectic album, which I'll place in the jazz fusion bag for lack of a better tag. But please understand fusion in its real ethymologic definition, instead of the more common and depraved one often associated to easy listening, muzak and other negatively charged words. We're dealing here with several fusions; the cultural one bringing together Danish musicians, percussionist Robin Mattuck of Danish-American origin and Irish guitarist, sound engineer Dave Hennessy can be paired with the fusion of musical styles; like painters and generally starting from fixed - but still much open - written structures, Sinvald and his band will discretely throughout the album bring forth various colours picked from the many facettes of jazz history: the contagious afro-drumming of Anders Mogensen on the starter track, on top of which is added a nice bodhran part; the hard bop inflected "What's Up, Crocks!" with its brassy riffs and unisson EWI/trumpet lines + a very cool vibraphone (Kai Stensgaard) bringing us back to the Blue Note years, though the piece strangely enough starts with a funny simili konakol mounted on a tightly syncopated bass rhythmic figure; the beach like and joyful "Sunboat Jive" with its ostinato drum beat, funky piano riffs, spicy wah-wah guitar, not far from the type of jazz played by the Pat Metheny Group; the Santana coloured "Hello Mr. Mummy!" (both guitar, organ parts and the Latin percussions deployed); the Arabian keyboard soloing in "Enigmatic Caravan"; the post bop contemporary "Abu Simbel" with again saxophone and vibraphone as main engine, but with an extra cylinder provided by Henrik Kunz on electric bass, bringing us on a quirky road filled of rhythmic laces that require a good driving technique; "The Sphinx" where the ghosts of Weather Report seem to appear but are pushed away by an interesting choral section; the title track, definitely anchored in early Chick Corea / Return to Forever (the album, not the band!), with a renewed appearance of vocal arrangements and so on! Eclectism and integration are the key words and no one is trying to steal the focus, music first! The longer tracks are furthermore interspersed with short solo piano interludes played by Carsten, equally marked by a classical or jazz inspiration... - Musicbymail/Pierre Tassone

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