STREAM

I stumble upon this album by pure chance. But I had liked the song Sad Eyes when a friend post it for me on my Facebook page, so I was curious about Dave Sinclair´s solo album. I´m not very big fan of the so called "Canterbury Sound" and I´m no expert on this kind of music. All I knew is that Sinclair was the keyboards player of the classic line up of Caravan. And I was stunned by the big list of major players and singers that give a hand on this CD: Robert Wyatt (vocals & cornet, ex Soft Machine and Matching Mole), Jimmy Hastings (flute, clarinet and sax, from Caravan), Andy Latimer (Camel), Annie Haslam (Renaissance), Barbara Gaskin and Dave Stewart (Stewart & Gaskin) and so on, even Morgan Fisher from Mott The Hoople is credit here. So I guess I was expecting a very strong prog album.

But really what you get is a very laid back, soft sound with celtic and even pop overtones. Almost all songs are very short (only Between Us and Sad Eyes break the 4 minute mark) and there are very few solos. Needless to say, everything is very well done and produced, but I guess some people will not like the lack of bolder. jazzier and longer instrumental parts. Of my part I liked Stream very much: it is a peaceful and pleasant sounding piece of music, if not too original. The choice of singers was a fine move, as the performances are also spotless. I enjoyed it form beginning to end. there are no weak tracks. Highlights are the opener Sad Eyes and the 7 minute Between Us, the only one where the instrumental parts have a little more freedom to fly.

Rating: 3.5 stars. Not really essential, but a fine record anyway. For the ones like me, who can appreciate subtle and very melodic music.