M.A.S.C.

Marc Ceccotti is mostly known as the leader of Edhels.Born in Monaco, he started his career actually in early-70's with the group Legende, where he met future Edhels' bandmates Jean-Louis Suzzoni and Noel Damon.Legende split up in 1976 and his next stop was the short-lived act Royal Flush in the beginning of the 80's, followed by the formation of Edhels in 1981.During his main band's hiatus in early-90's Ceccotti found time to write and release his debut solo album ''M.A.S.C.'' on Mellow Recorrds with the help of Mauro Moroni and Ciro Perrino in the production section.Future Edhels' keyboardist Jean-Marc Bastianelli appears in a few tracks along with Mike Sabre, playing electric mandolin in another one.

This first solo work by Ceccotti is somewhat different compared to his offerings with EDHELS, although some resemblances, especially in his guitar work, are more than evident.Following the abscence of a back up group of musicians, Ceccotti relies heavily on the work of his guitar talent and synthesizers, thus ''M.A.S.C.'' can be fairly considered as a Guitar/Electronic Rock album as a whole.However his obvious talent cannot save alone this work from bland mediocrity.Basically ''M.A.S.C.'' could have been a nice Electronic/Fusion album if it wasn't of all these programmed sound parts making it completely unnatural and cold mechanic.The electronic drums are just awful and inhuman with not even the slightest sense of the physical presence of a fake man behind the kit, the electronic loops and synthesizers sound very plastic and thin like coming from the cheapest equipment on earth, while some sampled instruments like the sporadic flutes sound completely fake, moreover these factors are strengthened by the length of the album (a full hour).Under these circumstances the album cannot pass the thin line between a good and a mediocre release.Pitty, because some of Ceccotti's ideas are interesting, even if the music flirts with New Age at moments.The amalgam between some good guitar moves and solos and the constant presence of synths and pianos result a few nice ideas with both a jazzy and Electronic edge, but things go in fact even beyond these simplistic references, as one can find also elements from KING CRIMSON-esque complex Prog, Avant Garde and Classical Music in this effort.However the lack of natural instruments holds the whole thing down and makes it more of an average home production than a professional recording.

For fans of Edhels and anyone familiar with Ceccotti's work with them, ''M.A.S.C.'' will propably hold some interest.For the rest I would only recommend this album to fans of more experimental forms of music with a strong Electronic edge.