GORDIAN KNOT

When I look at the musicians and the instruments involved (only guitars & drums), I say: "This record is a real exploration of the sound possibilities a guitar can offer". The credits do not mention any keyboards, but it is almost unbelievable, since the presence of an organ-like sound on "Code/Anticode" and "Singularity": it tends to prove that the sound treatment of the guitars is very sophisticated here.

This record is maybe just made of 10% progressive metal: the rest is a rather modern King Crimson-inspired music! One can easily recognize the excellent Ron Jarzombek's guitar sound (Spastic Ink), reminding Joe Satriani, Steve Vaï, Vinnie Moore and even Mike Oldfield.

The music is often very obscure and mysterious, like the very disturbing tracks "Galois", "Komm süsser Tod, komm sel'ge" and "Megrez". Because of the presence of Trey Gunn among others, there are many modern King Crimson's influences here. I prefer this record to the modern King Crimson I know, because it is less brutal and more subtle.

"Grace" is a beautiful, ethereal, mysterious and enigmatic track full of Frippian guitars; note that Robert Fripp should listen it carefully in order to try to improve his own music! The very disturbing "Galois" has the strident "wagons that rub on the rails" sounds, through a very scary atmosphere a la Tangerine Dream circa 1985 (the movie soundtracks). "Redemption's way" and "Megrez" slightly have a Mike Oldfield's influence regarding the sound of the electric guitars, but it still remains quite dark, as it is the case for many tracks. The beginning of "Rivers dancing" has some "Liquid Tension Experiment"'s influences, and its electric guitar solo near the end is ABSOLUTELY IMPRESSIVE! The choked wah-wah part a la Mike Oldfield on "Singularity" is absolutely OUTSTANDING! There are some interesting tribal percussions a la Peter Gabriel on "Srikara Tal" and "Redemption's way".

The tracks that really retained my attention are: "Grace", "Code/Anticode", "Reflections", "Rivers Dancing" and the second part of "Singularity"; the other ones are more experimental although they have many excellent bits, consisting in keyboards-free atmospheric textures.

If only the modern King Crimson were able to sound like on this record.....