BLUMENTAL BLUES

The Jazz Rock/Fusion band Fermata has quite the interesting past. They were formed in 1973 in Slovakia by Frantisek Griglak (guitar) and Thomas Berka (keyboards). Their music was somehow accepted by the USSR government as their music was released on the government owned label Opus. The released albums quite regularly until around 1984, went on hiatus, then released another album in 1991. After that, albums were released quite sporadically. Their 12th full length studio album, "Blumental Blues" was released in October of 2019, 14 years after their previous album.

"Blumental Blues" sees the return of both Griglak and Berka. They are joined by Maxo Miklos on keys, Tamas Belicza on bass and Igor Teo Skovay on drums. The album is available on digital download (Spotify), CD and vinyl. There are 10 tracks on this album and it has a run-time of almost 44 minutes.

The album begins with "Booze Night" which quickly establishes a nice rock groove and which soon goes into a pattern of interchanging guitar and synth solos. The music is very western sounding, plenty of blues-induced improvisation, but with a moderately fast beat. "Ladies of Avlon" has a much more mellow and jazz based feel to it mostly generated from a chord progression played by the keys, and then some improvised soloing is played by more keys. The guitar comes in later, bringing in another level of intensity, but the music stays smoothly textured. The synths even bring in a brassy sound. "Blumental Blues" returns to the blues grooves, with a moderately slow beat. The guitar and organ pretty much present a nice, but mostly standard blues jam. There is a nice acoustic solo that comes in the middle which is a nice change of pace.

"The Pigeons of St. Florian" begins with a rhapsodic piano solo. The piano then establishes a foundation and the drums and synths soon join in. The guitar establishes a theme and trades back and forth with the synths doing some improv based on the theme, and the piano gets to a chance to add some atmosphere along with other keys. The synths bring in orchestral effects along with tonal percussion. After a return to the theme, the piano comes back in to finish it off. "Last Dance at the Firsnal Place" is a straightforward beat and is mostly played by keys and synths with guitar soloing coming in later. "The Cooper Cock" comes in with heavy guitars and thick synths which play the main melody together. Then they go off on their separate soloing sections. Again, it's pretty basic jazz/rock fusion with a strut (probably has to do with the chicken from the title?). "Pocta Marianovi" is a nice, little piano solo, expressive and lovely.

"Stupid Morning" begins with a soft synth and distant chimes. A pattern starts to boil underneath it all as synths play along. At about 2 minutes, the band kicks into gear bringing in a call and answer from the synth and guitar as the song solidifies. "Thje Breakfast at Stein" continues with the basic synth/guitar fusion. "First Morning Tram" adds some interesting changes in texture throughout, but is mostly along the same lines as the rest of the album. There seems to be more passion in the melodies here.

This album is pretty much straightforward jazz/rock fusion. There isn't a whole lot of progressiveness here, and the best tracks are the first 3, after which the music continues along at a mostly even pace. The music is pretty good, the production is great and it flows along quite well, but, again, it's pretty straightforward. There are no real surprises here at all. But if you like the basic jazz/rock formula, then this will work for you. It tends to sound a little too much alike to me after a few tracks. 3 stars.