Italian bassist Alberto Rigoni (solo, BAD As, Natural Born Machine, and others) has released Songs For Souls, in memory of his father who recently passed away. “Considering the hard times, I was going to give up with music but suddenly my father passed away on October 15 2021... So, I decided to make an album in his memory.” explains Rigoni. With contributions from keyboardist Jordan Ruddess (Dream Theater), guitarist Jennifer Batten (Micheal Jackson, Jeff Beck) and drummer Mark Zonder (Fates Warning) to name a few, this all-instrumental album comes with very high expectations and definitely does not disappoint! The production and performances on this album are slick, polished and tight and the compositions are top-notch although none jump out, they are all full of emotion and passion. The album opens up with the bass guitar, soaked in delay and reverb, The Miracle which is very environmental and sets up the collection nicely. L'Origin Du Monde, featuring Jordan Rudess and Mark Zonder is a very well-crafted neo-fusion with orchestral-like arrangements and Youth features the stellar guitar-work of Jennifer Batten over a driving rhythm section After the mellow approach and solo bass guitar of Silence, we are practically jarred out of our seats by the phrenetic Keep On Fighting and Edoardo Taddei's Dream Theater-esque guitar stylings. Peaceful Acceptance follows, contrasting the prog-metal stylings of the previous track with the sombre and beautiful piano and acoustic guitar performance featuring Tommaso Ermolli. The final track, Souls Never Die, is a prog fusion tour de force that is a suitable closer for the album. In my opinion, the best track of album is The Battle with it's lush arrangements and superb playing Songs for Souls delivers on its promise of world-class performances and fantastic compositions - if I were to have one complaint it would be that the album is far too short, coming in at about half the length of many contemporary releases. I would highly recommend this album! ****+ David Carswell Where to buy? |
