NOVEMBER

Robin's 13th album is very much a solo effort, where he provides all of the instrumentation (piano & Crumar Stringman, electric, acoustic, & bass guitars, percussion, drum samples, processing, etc). Apparently he was inspired by the November of his native Denmark, and the result is something that at times is eerie and certainly very dark. This is an album that has its' roots in the avant-garde, and then moves to polar opposites so that while there is some that could be described as prog with strong guitars there are others that are RIO to the extreme, music that is pure experimentation that Eno would be proud of.

Yes there are elements almost of ambient, short pieces combined with longer more atmospheric, resulting in an album that is challenging yet consoling, jagged yet comforting, antagonistic yet welcoming. Confused? You should be. Listening to "Waiting For Something To Happen" it is hard to believe that this drone and gentle piano/acoustic intro is from the same hands that crafted the song before, "Lowest". But it's okay, before Robin gets too far down the Mike Oldfield track (and he is damn close, take it from me) he throws in enough piano dischord to shake the boat about.

Having now listened to virtually all of Robin's albums I find it hard to understand how he managed to keep the quality so very high ? it won't be to everyone's musical tastes but if you enjoy music outside the norm then you need this.