(35:01; Ivan Jacquin) Track list: 1. Un Chemin 4:18 2. In the Air 6:57 3. On Revient 3:49 4. Derriere La Fenetre 7:15 5. Si 3:58 6. Un Prenom Un Visage 2:37 7. Autre Depart 6:07  Line-up: Ivan Jacquin - vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion with: Henri-Pierre Prudent - drums Trev Turley - bass Maria Barbieri - guitars Denis Codfert - drums Richard Lefranc - bass Amanda Lehmann - guitars, vocals Prolusion. French composer, vocalist and musician Ivan Jacquin has been active in the French music scene for more than 30 years, with guest appearances and tenures in a number of bands over the years as well as being a central part of several project constellations. In 2025 he further expanded his CV by recording a solo album, "Intimites", which was self released in the fall of 2025. Analysis. Jacquin is an artist that has been active in a number of different styles and types of music from what I can understand, with pop, jazz and metal all being genres he has explored to a lesser or ...

(42:51; Greydisc) This is the first collaboration between Kevin and drummer extraordinaire Paul Wertico who will always be celebrated for being a long-time member of the Pat Metheny Group with whom he won seven Grammy Awards. Here Kevin provides 30-string Contra-Baritone guitar, 30-string Double Contraguitar, 26-string Double Sub-Contraguitar, 24-string Double Sub-Contraguitar and Paul acoustic drums and  cymbals (featuring the Wertico Ride), prepared drumset and talking drum. Wertico has appeared on hundreds of recordings, is Associate Professor of Jazz & Contemporary Music Studies at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, and conducts drum clinics worldwide, as well as releasing numerous critically acclaimed recordings, and also authored the groundbreaking drum instructional book, ‘Turn The Beat Around’. On this collaboration he often brings a very busy approach, while Kevin is more laid back, and the two styles are very contrasting in nature. It works bes...

(28:45; Greydisc) This is the second album from Kevin Kastning (36-string Double Contraguitar, 16-string Subcontraguitar,  24-string Subcontraguitar, 26-string Contraguitar) and Bruno Råberg (Double bass), following on from 2024’s ‘Silent Dimensions’. Råberg is a Swedish musician who has been living in the States for more than 40 years and is a teacher at both the Berklee Global Jazz Institute and at Berklee College of Music and  has recorded 12 albums as band leader and another 30 as a sideman. What makes this such a fascinating release is not only the way the two musicians interact, but also that Bruno is pushing the boundaries of his instrument just as Kevin is with his. There may be staccato notes plucked very high on the neck which provide an almost percussive element, jazz-like melodic runs or even a bowed technique which provides a totally different backdrop for Kevin to play against. As on the last album, Kevin often sounds more as if he is performing on a  harp o...

(39:52; Greydisc) “But wait, there’s more!” (as they say on those annoying TV ads). Not content with releasing ‘Codex I’, we also get ‘Codex II’, released on the same date. Many of the pieces are connected to the first album, at least in title, and one wonders if Kevin had thought about releasing this as a double CD set instead of two separate albums, given one is 45 minutes in length and the other 40. There is also a separate argument of possibly cutting some material and releasing it as a single disc, but I am truly glad he did not as there is something very special here. The concept and approach are the same here as on ‘Codex I’, so much of the same commentary and descriptions still apply, but I discovered there is something “more” about this album. I must confess I am not sure if it is just falling under the spell of Kevin having always played this after listening yet again to the first one, or if this one is actually that bit more special, but when playing this time stands still, ...

(44:44; Greydisc)                   I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have become aware of Kevin Kastning some years ago and to have reviewed a great many of his albums since then. However, he normally works with other musicians such as Mark Wingfield or Sandor Szabo (who produced both this and ‘Codex II’), and prior to this I had only heard one of his solo albums, and here he is now presenting us with two at the same time. For those who have not heard of Kevin, he is a musician who discovered that normal instruments were not capable of allowing him to play what he could hear in his head so he has invented many different multi-stringed instruments over the years, and on this he provides 30-string Contra-baritone guitar, 30-string Double Contraguitar, 26-string Double Sub-contraguitar, 24-string Double Sub-contraguitar and a normal 6-string guitar. He is playing these in an unusual manner, with one hand on each neck, which means that h...

(3xCD, 1xBlu-ray; Atomhenge [2026 Edition] ) In many ways I feel I was rather late in discovering Hawkwind, as they only came to my attention after the release of ‘Quark, Strangeness and Charm’ when I was 14, but I soon discovered their key releases up to then, and there is no doubt that ‘Roadhawks’ was one of the most played releases in my collection. However, I don’t actually remember listening to their debut, although I must have done back then, so coming to this reissue now is like hearing it for the very first time and it is absolutely fascinating. What we have is a deluxe boxed set comprising three CDs and a Blu-Ray disc featuring a new remaster of the original album, an additional CD of rare live recordings from 1970 from Dave Brock’s archives, plus seven bonus tracks taken from a 1969 demo session, both sides of the “Hurry On Sundown” single and a studio out-take and new stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound mixes of the album by Stephen W Tayler. One of the things which Hawkfans will ...