TERRE

Disclaimer: I'm not primarily a jazz or jazz-related reviewer, so I apologize to the readers for my ignorance of the genre, which I will surely become apparent throughout this review.

But I do know what I like, and after being pleasantly surprised with Julian Julien's other project, Fractale, I was given another surprising opportunity to review Julien's solo music on this album. Compared to Fractale, this album is a significant decrease in overall heaviness while still displaying fantastic musicianship and greatly enjoyable music.

While this is jazz, ,Terre is not representative of the popular "funk-fusion" like Return to Forever or Weather Report. The music here has a very strong world music feel, almost like a combination of Al di Meola's World Sinfonia work and some of Nguyen Le's music, but still undeniably French sounding as a whole. Some individual tracks have their own feel, such as "Tupperware et Bibelots", which reminds me of Gentle Giant's "Inmate's Lullaby" fused with some of the more cheerful tracks on Aranis' Roqueforte (the RIO chamber music atmosphere on Terre is indisputable).

In addition to the musicianship on this album, Terre is an incredibly danceable album. A lot of jazz is either too fast or too complex to really let loose and let the beat carry me along, but most of these tracks are mid-tempo, rhythmically oriented, and relaxing compositions that are easy to get lost in. If you are too occupied to concentrate on what is happening with the instruments, then you can rather easily pay attention to the way that your body is subconsciously grooving. It may also be worth mentioning that I find this music to be rather romantic and sensual, I have that opinion on many things.

Whenever I look for European jazz, Terre is exactly the kind of music I have in mind and leaves nothing to be desired. Anyone who is already a fan of any of the artists I've mentioned earlier in this review, I'd highly recommend you give Terre a listen -- you won't be disappointed. Julian Julien has successfully landed a spot on artists to follow closely from now on, and I sincerely hope to hear more greatness from him in the future.