THE STOLEN HOUR

Hugh Hopper's 2004 multimedia collaboration with graphic artist Matt Howard The Stolen Hour is a groovy full on acid-jazz record, so some of its appeal to progheads might be lost. It is mostly instrumental, with bass grooves and saxophone leads almost exclusively carrying it through. The occasional famous guest (*cough cough* Robert Wyatt *cough cough* Didier Malherbe) drops by but remains largely unnoticed, as musically there is really nothing that memorable here.

The graphic side of the project is perhaps the most interesting. Included on the CD is a PDF file containing a 22-page comic strip by Matt Howard to which the music serves as a soundtrack (each track on the album can easily be attributed to a specific section in the comic strip). Listening to album combined with the comic seems indeed the best way to approach both, as each individually might fall a bit flat.

While the title The Stolen Hour refers to the plot of the comic strip, one can hardly resist using it as a cheap pun to describe the listening experience (the album clocks at just over 61 minutes). However, this isn't entirely the case - while not my cup of tea, it is an interesting project worthy of more than a couple of listens/reads, or even just as snazzy background music.

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