THE STORY OF I

After the fantastic contributions to the Refugee only album and Relayer, the highly underrated keyboard wizard Moraz did not lose any of his ambitions for his first solo album. The variety on this album is incredible, both in styles and playing. Being one of the most versatile players in prog rock (I feel I haven't heard that big array of keyboard sounds on any keyboardist solo record), Moraz demonstrates to be a passable composer, not at the height of Banks/Emerson but he compensates this lack of strength with incredibly passionate and fueled playing and an ear for change.

Brazilian and Carribean moods are combined with romantism (not too distant from Genesis of 76-77). Interestingly, there isn't much Yes' influence on the record, with the exception of the mellow "Interemezzo" ending. Some proggers will be put off by the relative commercial appeal on the sung tracks but these are no throwaways. They are actually quite good to take rest between some busiest moments that I can recall on a prog rock album.

Rhythm section, especially percussions and drumming by Mouzone are another big magnet on top of fantastic playing by Moraz. Moraz amply amplies his Moog soloing and sound that was applied on "Relayer". "Cachaca" wouldn't it out of place on a Return to Forever album, combined genuine Latin percussions with more symphonic sounds.

The hottest track to me is the modestly titled "Intermezzo" that is nothing short of fusion excellence. After the first minute when the water is being cooked and instruments gearing up, we proceed to the furious fusion exchange with extremely complex drums, bass and keyboard lines. Clearly these battlefield drumming could only come from Mouzon or Cobham. Moraz cleverly shifts the order of various motives on his ARP seconded by the bass and drummer. There is a hint of similarity to the dense atmosphere of the "Gates of delirium". It's a pity that this track only spans 4 minutes whereas the amount of ideas could make it easily up to seven. The Yes-like outro leads us to the overly romantic "Indoors" that could have been a radio favourite. The second half of the album has some not too successful moments, such as hard rock guitar on the pop oriented "Incantation" and slightly embarrassing singing. "Dancing now" with busy Mouzon helps the spirits to go high again as well as Moraz' fantastic solo. Two other styles come into play: classical music piano "Impressions", although feeling somewhat out of place here. "Like a child is disguise" could have been an Elton John song. Not really needed on the Moraz album. Thankfully, we're not the second album highlight "Rise and Fall", back to the instrumental Latin fusion. "Symphony in space" falls in the progressive/symphony electronic pot, musically a fitting way to this mixed bag of styles.

I think it is best Moraz' album, not too commercial and quite demanding to appreciate all Moraz keyboard lines.