VEGIR

It was Tony Levin's involvement that especially piqued my interest in this album. Although being a demanded session musician Dominique Vantomme was unknown to me before I stumbled over this Moonjume Records release from 2018. The same goes to Michel Delville (guitar) and drummer Maxime Lenssens. Fortunately they once met at a Stick Men concert in 2016, and then, hurray, decided to form a music project. Fortunately I also reserved some time to get used to. Instrumental Eclectic Jazz Fusion might be a proper label for this sort of music. Seven songs, round about 60 minutes playing time. Extracted from one sole improv session probably, just close to a blend of SBB, Stephan Thelen, Terje Rypdal, Weather Report for example.

Rather equal minds are in the studio here, are going to design an extraordinary album. Fantastic, each track may be assigned with a specific attribute, for example I'd like to emphasize the melancholy of Double Down, Agent Orange then with its dramaturgy, the turbulence of Playing Chess With Barney Rubble, or the lightness within Emmetropia. Full artistic liberty, spontanity, virtuosity, this also features Canterbury and a lot of psychedelic respectively space rock imprints. Dominique Vantomme rules with his versatile piano, Moog and Mellotron drenched work. 'Vegir' offers highly inspired music, with the result of a sonic treasure really. It took some time to dig deeper, now I know that this is close to a masterpiece of progressive rock, 4.5 stars on the PA scale, at the minimum.