OCEANS OF THOUGHT

For his fiftieth birthday, Marco wanted to put out his best album yet. I followed him on Facebook as the album came together. Once again, guitarist Peter Matuchniak (Evolve IV, Gekko Projekt, Bomber Goggles, solo) was involved, his third time to play on a Marco Ragni album, I believe. Jojo Razor also appears, a name I know from Gekko Projekt's "Raya of Titan" album. Having a few of Marco's albums in my collection already, I was eager to hear what he would do on "Oceans of Thought".

Marco's style is labeled as psychedelic/space rock, but from the albums I have, I think he shows a strong folk rock/Pink Floyd/California '69 feel to his music. There are times some very nice melodies but often a fair bit of meandering. The longer songs can feel a lot like floating down a river where you find something to latch onto for a moment before the current carries you away, and then something else comes along. On "Oceans of Thought", I found the latch on points to be more frequent once I began listening intently. There are some beautiful piano intros on tracks like "Hammil's Thoughts", the title track, and "Open My Arms" and as well many songs open with lovely acoustic guitar. Marco's voice I find to be quite distinctive and after a few albums he had become very familiar. I feel the sound of his voice could have easily put him among the more well-appreciated vocalists of the seventies had his career been spawned around that time.

Soothing music aside, there's a lot of action with rollicking keyboards and grooving guitar solos provided by both Marco and Peter, the two with noticeably different styles. "Dizziness" is one such action-packed song that switches between gentle acoustic passages and quick-paced instrumental parts. One thing about Marco's songs is that you usually can't tell from the intro what kind of song it will turn out to be. Each track becomes its own little journey, traversing slower acoustic parts, grooving instrumentals, assertive vocal passages, and some surprise twists and turns. Did I mention the guitar solos? Lots of those!

I think the two tracks I love best as the title track for its beautiful piano intro and cool lead guitar, one solo sounding like Marco's and the other Peter's. The longest track, "Open My Arms", also has some very lovely piano and a powerful instrumental part in the middle where Marco reaches almost mainstream rock chords, but nevertheless achieves an emotive impact, at least for this listener.

I can't say it's Marco's best album because I like all of his albums about the same with "Land of Blue Echoes" gaining just a bit of extra favour. But after a few listens, I really find myself enjoying "Oceans of Thought". Marco has done very well for his fiftieth birthday project.