SEA VINE

Although this is being portrayed as a band album, for the most part this is the work of keyboard player Michal Cywinski, who also provides drums (ok, programming) on five of the six songs. With a guest guitarist on 1, a drummer on another, and a singer only on a few, one wonders why he hasn't put this out as a straight solo project and why did he get the others involved at all? Michal has a wonderful touch on piano, and the production is quite superb so that one has a great presence of being with him in the room. But, what I do find strange is that on the solo piano piece, "Going Anywhere", there are a few wrong notes so I wonder why that has been kept in?

It appears that he is more at home with piano than electronic keyboards, as the sounds being deployed are often very dated, and without the passion and emotion that comes through when he is playing more naturally. There are times when this album does cross into the more Tangerine Dream electronic style, and not always in the best way possible. But, the major issue I have with this album is with singer Milena Szymanska who for the most part does a fine job with her clear vocals, but there are passages where she is obviously struggling. I could understand that appearing in the final product if this was a live album (with no re-recording, not that anyone ever does that..) but there is no excuse with a studio effort. So although there were parts of the album that were really quite pleasant, it was rarely more than that and at times it was worse, so this isn't something to which I will often be returning. www.lynxmusic.pl