BEST OF

I gather that by reviewing this album, I have now reviewed albums in all the twenty-two ProgArchives sub categories. Not that it is a goal in itself. It just proves how diverse music ProgArchives exposes me and the rest of you to. So please go on an mind expansion through ProgArchives. So here I come, Progressive Electronic.

In this case, the album is also free and an easy download from Jazzcomputer.org's homepage. A well worth download.

Chit chat/small talk over. Here comes the mind expansive difficult bit. Jazzcomputer.org music is no easy listening and pretty difficult to describe in words. At least for a first timer in this genre like myself.

So........ No more excuses then...... Jazzcomputer.org has released this as best-off compilation of various tracks. All Jazzcomputer.org has their own identity so this can only be a small taster. None of these songs are hit material by any stretch of imagination. Not even by a wild imagination too....

Jazzcomputer.org's music is based on electronic, but with added guitars as the organic bit. So purely electronic as by use of computers only, it ain't. The guitars is more jazzy than shredding and power chords. There is no shredding and power chords here. Just gentle finger picking. In the back and foreground, you find the mood and atmospheric creating electronics. Synths in other words.

All this creates a very good blend. Style wise....... well, I have to plead ignorance and refer to the interview with Yves Potin. In short, I have never ever heard music like this in my life before.

Quality wise and which decide if you should use 10-15 minutes of your time downloading and then listen to this album, I find this music worth the effort. It is a compilation though and I will put the individual albums on my playlist sometimes soon. But I find what Yves Potin/Jazzcomputer.org is doing intriguing and well worth exploring. I am a bit hooked on Jazzcomputer.org, I have to admit. More hooked than I thought I would be.

This is an album worth exploring and I give it three stars + I will move onto the other albums.

3 stars

JAZZCOMPUTER.ORG is the artist moniker used by French composer and multi-instrumentalist Yves Potin. Since 2006 he has issued a steady stream of full length records where his aim is to produce material incorporating details from progressive rock and jazz with the floating dynamics of ambient instrumental music. "The Best of" compilation is his own selected favorites from earlier releases.

Ambient music appears to be the main focus of Yves Potin's creations while using the Jazzcomputer.org moniker, and he is good at assembling textures and motifs into pleasant instrumental excursions of a dark, dream-laden variety, occasionally flavored with Asian inspired or jazz oriented themes, but always with a firm foundation in musical journeys of a more tranquil nature. I'd suspect that those who enjoy artists like Vangelis and Kitaro would be a key audience for this production, and possibly with fans of the former more so than followers of the latter.