Monday, June 8, 2009

Sequitur review at Progressive Rock Brasil

FRACTAL - "Sequitur" Comments by Carlos Vaz

Fractal first convened in November of 2000 (thanks to a friend, Adrian Cockcroft, who posted an invite on Paul's behalf on "King Crimson" enthusiast site Elephant Talk) in San Jose, San Francisco, California. Nic and Jim were the first two to reply, and strangely enough the three have been together since then. It was more than a little fortuitous that such an unlikely grouping (Paul having just moved from the UK, Jim from Baltimore, and Nic from the Netherlands) has resulted in such a well-balanced complement of talents and musical personalities. Fractal started gigging in summer of 2001 and has continued intermittently ever since. In July of 2002, they started recordings for their first album, "Continuum". A few years after their instrumental debut "Continuum", and a year after a promising single "Aftermath", Fractal are back with their second full album, featuring the band as it has been operating live since 2004. Fractal has been together in its current formation since 2004 starting out as a trio in 2000. Fractal is a concept of modern prog band with a strong instrumental, may very well fall somewhere in between Progressive Rock, Experimental Music and Avant-garde, adding Electronic Ambient textures and various sound effects, everything turning around the footsteps of "King Crimson", "Mahavishnu Orchestra", "Gong", "Magma" and others in the same style. They know how to create intriguing arrangements, with a strong musical interchange and interconnected lines between the keyboards, guitar, bass and drums, with multiple orchestral parts and refined instrumental, giving the music a very special atmosphere, but very complex too. "Sequitur" has a little of each musical style, one hour tends to be melodic, but rapidly tends to be very complex and experimental. It's not so easy to make comparisons with other bands, but, we can say the music on this album it was created especially for all listeners very well connected with Experimental music's groups. "Sequitur" album was recorded all over the Bay Area, California, USA. Produced by Fractal, Engineering, mixing and mastering bu Paul Strong. Cover design by Paul Strong. A special and particular attention to and my favourite songs are: "Ellipsis", "Aftermath", "Mantra: Eternal Spring of Life", "Giving Tree", "A Fraction of One", "The Monkey's Paw" and "Churn - Overture, Part I, II and III". The complet Line Up on Fractal band are: Paul Strong - Roland V-Drums and other noises, Jim Mallonee - Bass, Synthesizers, Vocals, Nic Roozeboom - Guitar, Guitar Synth, Loops and Josh Friedman - Guitar, Vocals. Supported by: Adrian Cockcroft - Live recordings, Miscellaneous Encouragements and Rolf Bienert - Live Sound. Paul and Adrian are British, Nic is Dutch, Jim and Josh are American, and Rolf is German. Josh is a professional musician (classical guitar), the rest of them have day-jobs in various hi-tech companies. Brilliant and indispensable work, highly recommendable...