reviews of singersongwriters

Market Square Kevin Ayers : Still life with guitar (2002)-

Most CD's or LP's I start to listen to I know mostly from the first seconds how much worthwhile it will be to dig out the gems, and I am rarely wrong, even when of course there are some projects where you have to take time for it. Kevin Ayers CD starts by saying "there's not a lot to say.." and that might be the most appropriate introduction. The first track is pumping pompous light weight folk pop. But we also have some maudlin sentimental middle of the road songs, may be imitating Leonard Cohen on the third and tenth track. But we also have a country and western hoedown, "There goes Johnny". "Ghost Train" has an interesting guitar sound, but the song never arise above the ordinary. The following tracks are also completely uninspired. The "M16" track is ok, where the rhythm follows the guitar solo nicely. The first bonus track (an alternative version, not really knowing why it should be there) has a recognisable Danny Thompson bass but is also nothing more but a light blues workout, followed by very mediocre country blues song. The CD ends with a dried out anecdotal tale.

PS. Kevin Ayers was part of the musically very inventive and energetic Canterbury music group Soft Machine before. I heard also some interesting solo items from the 70's.

Other review of this item : http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~marwak/waws1/stillrev.htm

More information about aditional musicians : http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~marwak/waws1/still2.htm

Interview with Kevin Ayers : http://www.writenyc.com/kevin_ayers_interview.htm

(Mostly the early) story and discography of Kevin Ayers at http://www.gepr.net/ar.html#KEVINAYERS

Kevin Ayers Tree at http://www.macgraphic.co.jp/ich/kevin_ayers/

Robert Wyatt more recent releases are reviewed at http://singersong.homestead.com/Singer.html

Market Square Sonja Christina : Songs from the Acid Folk (UK,1990)*° (ok)

There is a difference when music comes forth from a love life, out of a environment full of challenging ideas, love or other living expressions or music meant for gigs in bars. In the last category the attention goes to a certain amount of entertainment, a minimum of noisemaking or loudness in expressing and a certain recognisability, with a certain primitivism in rhythm to build upon hopefully more brighter ideas. Sonja felt back on the second area, possibly meant folk gigs in folk bars. The essence of "Acid Folk" here is not its own spontaneous source, but rather as a remembrance for inspiration. Curved Air had very nice compositions full of experimentation with beautiful violin, even some electronic and nice vocal parts (by Sonja). Hearing this album, although not at all an expression of unhappiness, I can't believe Sonja had a beautiful life at these day of her recordings. Most compositions on this album might have derived from folkbar live expressions. It arrived in 1990 and it was Sonja's first solo album which is now re-released with some bonus tracks. Certain tracks have nicer instrumentation ideas without reaching that point of magic. The more quiet "Acid Folkpop" passages I like the most, because these are more modest and fitting with the musicians abilities or amount of available creativity. Most beautiful of all for me is the bonus track "Penumbra" (with cello,..). Resumed I believe the "new sound" has potential, but it is not developped much yet. People interested in Sonja have to try this album to find an opinion on that for themselves.

Neil : "Actually it wasn't her first solo album. The first was simply entitled "Sonja Kristina" and was released around 1980 on the Chopper label. I don't think it's on CD. "Songs from the Acid Folk" isn't an acid folk album really (!) or any kind of folk for that matter but it does have some nice songs.

"Colder Than a Rose" is a lovely track and really shows her deep alto voice at its best in my opinion. It's well documented that she went through a bad time following her marriage break-up with Stuart Copeland (the Curved Air drummer who went on to join The Police) and I suppose some of these personal songs reflect this." "If you want more on this try the Yahoo group dedicated to Curved Air : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/curved-air. Sonja herself joins in (as "SK"), and has given her own views on her albums in the past, so does Rob Martin the original bass player of Curved Air, and Francis Monkman keeps an eye on things too. Mike Wedgewood (Curved Air, Caravan) has also been a member at some times."

Curved Air reviews page at http://starling.rinet.ru/music/curved.htm

Label entry : http://www.themusicindex.com/marketsquare/skristina1.htm