UNTUNE THE SKY

Trey is probably best-known as being a member of King Crimson for the last ten years, but as well as other bands he has also recorded six solo albums. This album is a retrospective of those albums, and features Trey on warr guitar, Chapman stick, vocals and Bob Muller (drums), Dave Douglas (trumpet), Tony Geballe (sax, guitar) and Joe Mendelson (guitar). The warr guitar is an instrument that Trey developed with Mark Warr and is a 10-string 'touch' guitar with the range of a piano. This gives him the opportunity to play music that a conventional guitar would not be able to cope with.

This is fusion music, and it is very clever. There is no doubt that Trey is a fine musician who knows exactly what he wants to achieve, but the only problem is that when experimenting with new forms and styles it can either be brilliant or can make the music very hard to listen to. No prizes for guessing which camp this falls into. I know that many people get a lot of pleasure in music that is challenging, but having struggled all the way through this album a couple of times I doubt that I will do so again.

Originally appeared in Feedback #78, April 2004