BLOOM

Gee, something's gone seriously wrong here.

At the time of this release, Malherbe was still contributing to the odd Gong release. His contribution there was always a highlight to my ears.

On his first solo release of barely 35 mins, he managed to alienate me. Big time! "Bloom" lacks any sense of cohesion, totally different approaches heaped together in a mere five tracks.

Brazilian Carnival for starters followed by noodlings, even prose in a language I don't understand, a bit of spirited blowing in a mediocre and rather boring Fusion context just doesn't do it or me. I am left really, really disappointed. What a waste of time and effort!! The only good thing about it that it's perversely short. I don't know what's gotten into Malherbe, but he left me feeling seriously short changed.

Regardless of musical preferences, this album goes nowhere. Barely 2.5, rounded down with some regret..

This album may be hard to get hold of these days, but if you like your prog served with a good deal of jazzy salt, it's certainly worth it. Every single moment you can hear how much fun Malherbe and his band had recording this. It's a most uplifting and relaxing experience. Like Malherbe's sax playing in general, here also the compositions strike a perfect balance between lightness, energy, melody, surprising harmonies, rhythm and tempo changes and some jokes. The skill of the musicians can't be faulted, and despite the clear lead of the saxophone this is also good teamwork. All musicians get their spot to shine but in most parts every instrument contributes something essential; it's not one soloist in front and the other doing just the background.

Most of the time this is instrumental but vocals can be heard on most songs. They are never dominating but rather contribute to the teamwork and to the fun. Bateau-Vole is a wonderful opener with a strong fast and furious take off after some warming up sax in the very beginning. Whiskers begins in a very relaxed way but later comes up with a quite energetic middle and some rather astonishing changes in the last third. Indecision has vocals most of the time, although it's not a singer's song. It has rather weird harmonies, twists and turns and ends at much faster speed although it's hard to figure out how exactly it got there. I'd call this a jester's song and the vocals go with this idea. Dan-Dan is the most organic song. It starts in a very melodic way with acoustic guitar. Like all the songs its intensity and speed increase later, but without the sudden twists that feature elsewhere on the album. Suite a tout de suite can be described similarly to Dan-Dan with slightly more sea change along the way; I particularly love the relaxed but still energetic nicely flowing part in the middle; later there is more composition and everybody meets for a last gathering to finish off this great album.

Apparently this album isn't very widely known but it is a real gem; it has melodies, complexity and surprise, impressive musicianship and much fun.