Detailed Reviews [Jaume de Viala - 2023 - "Calidoscopi Embruixat"]

Prolusion. Spanish composer and musician Jaume de Viala has a history that goes back to the second half of the 1970's as an active musician, but it wasn't until fairly recently that he stepped out of the shadows to highlight his skills as a composer and musician in his own right. The album "Calidoscopi Embruixat" is his second solo production, and was self-released at the start of 2023. Just shy of four years after Viala's initial solo album "Sonoritat De Mil Miralls" from 2019.

Analysis. While this is an album that cover quite a few different but also related traditions and styles, I rather suspect that jazzrock is where most people will place this album as far as general style is concerned. And probably with a bit of an emphasis that it is jazzrock as seen from a progressive rock perspective that is the case here. It is stated that quite a bit of the material on this album was actually composed in the final parts of the 1970's. With that being the case, and a few decades have passed since then, I can only imagine what treasures that are yet to be revealed from the mind and the pen of this composer. With the creations we get on this album, presumably elevated just a little bit by some very skilled music friends, comes across as elegant and compelling in very much of a timeless manner. What kind of material a more seasoned and experienced mind can craft is certainly a most intriguing thought. The majority of the compositions here revolve around a mix and a blend of style elements and traditions. The rhythm section tends to be slightly understated and subtle in the manner in which it provides a distinct jazz and jazz-oriented backing to the landscapes explored. Expressive, creative but rarely if ever entering the limelight, instead using their role to emphasize, strengthen and support the main instruments in a very good manner indeed. The starts of the show, so to speak, are the guitars and various forms of keyboards, with the flute popping in here and there with a suitably flamboyant and playful presence. Wandering acoustic and electric piano motifs and more expressive and dominant keyboard solo runs come and go here, motifs explored and executed with a deft hand mastering the support and the lead role in an equally expert manner, while we have the acoustic guitar as mainly a support instrument but sometime lead instrument, plucking and wandering its way through the landscapes explored. Flowing and floating elegant electric guitar solo runs gets a liberal amount of time and space to shine brightly throughout, while darker toned guitar riffs and licks are used to good effect to create and establish darker and more ominous moods and atmospheres when applied. The album feature instrumentals, songs with lead vocals but also songs with only a more atmospheric oriented backing vocals or vocal harmony presence, with female vocalists being the choice in all the songs here except the English language version of the ballad-oriented cut 'Les Jordies'. In terms of style and orientation we get sequences here with more of a romantic pastoral orientation that combine quite nicely with the often dreamladen and elegant jazzrock landscapes that is the foundation in the majority of the songs here. A little bit of flamenco find's its way into some of the songs, and a flirt with Mediterranean sensibilities are applied on occasion too. More solid ventures into landscapes with Eastern scales and tones given prominent and dominant roles is a part of the experience too, with side steps into darker tinged and more ominous landscape with more of a defined progressive rock orientation. And, of course, this is an album where the compositions just as easily will mix and blend these different tendencies rather than merely exploring them in a pure-bred manner. Which results in an album that has a lot to give, has the right amount of unpredictability, and with quite a few moments of brilliance to boot. At least for the audience that finds music explored within the scope of this album to be generally interesting. With a solid mix and production as the icing on the cake.

Conclusion. I recall that I rather enjoyed the first solo album of Jaume de Viala once I finally got around to giving it an inspection, but for my sake at least I do find this second solo album of his to be a superior creation to his first one. Those who tend to enjoy music that mix and blend different varieties of folk and world music with rock music elements inside of a jazz and jazzrock context and tradition should feel right at home with the landscapes explored on this album. Just about the only question I have with this album is why it has been self-released rather than being made available on now the label Moonjune Records. As this is the kind of album that strikes me as being a perfect fit for that particular label.

Progmessor: August 2023
The Rating Room