ECO

Okay, it's obvious that I am a great admirer of this gifted composer/musician, and 99 times out of 100, I'm only going to submit a review of something that I consider an essential to add to your collection. This will not be the exception...

David starts ECO out with a beautiful, subtle piano intro adding strings most tastefully on "Universe in a Crayon", which then segues into "Satellite" where the opening vocal harmonies (provided by Dan Wieten) wouldn't seem out of place on a Yes or Glass Hammer release, but of course, this breaks into a djenty groove that David so excels at. And the album just grows from that point onward...

David is a master craftsman indeed, whether with his playing, composing or production. (Fact is; if I were still in the game as a professional musician, I'd be asking this guy to produce my stuff...).

David deftly creates such a wonderful balance of aggression and subtlety on this release...

"500 Seconds Before Sunset" has a wonderful groove, and the song grows and changes direction almost like a Bela Bartok composition; it's like a tree, with branches going into several directions. Unlike Bartok however, David reigns the song back in to the groovy head before moving on into "The Flock" which is a track that probably wouldn't have been out of place during the Destiny Potato project. The vocals of Scampi and the harmony vocals which I believe were done by Aleksandra Djelmas are wonderful, and the addition of the electric violin of Shravan Sridhar add beautifully to this track.

Next up is "Voda", which begins with some gentle guitar (Which I believe is a combination of David and Plini - but I'm not positive on that), the gentle guitar is added to by a slide sounding guitar part which then expands gracefully, majestically and beautifully into a choral arrangement (again, I think that this is Aleksandra Djelmas). Lovely.

Finally, we have "Stardust". Again, this is another track that would have been a fit for Destiny Potato, The opening whispery vocals of Miyoki break into full-throated wonderfullness, followed by a clever, perfectly fitting guitar solo (Plini or David, I'm not sure) and wrapped up neatly again by a reprise of a well done vocal performance.

Needless to say, I'm going to give this my highest recommendation to all of you out there at PA.

As always, your actual mileage may vary. Grace and peace, Cylli Kat