The Trail is the eleventh solo studio album by Dutch guitarist Eddie Mulder, well known for his contribution in progressive rock bands such as as Leap Day, Flamborough Head, and Trion. On his previous album To The Centre (2023, see review), Eddie used various guest musicians whom he considers his friends. Friends who also made an appearance on the new album. Their input was very important to the album's overall sound. This is probably why he chose to credit them for this successor as well and release this album as Eddie Mulder & Friends. It should therefore perhaps come as no surprise that musically, The Trail bears a strong resemblance to its predecessor. Not that this is a bad thing, as that was a very strong album, just as this new one certainly is again. The many guest musicians once again provide musical variety across the different tracks. As a result, the nine songs remain captivating from start to finish. Something that is not always the case with an album. Just as on his previous albums, the songs are generally very calm in structure and have a soothing character. Eddie also plays all the guitar parts again, both electric and acoustic. Additionally, he plays the bass parts himself on five tracks. And his right-hand man is once again Henk Stel. He co-produced the album and also played on the keyboards. He also had a major input regarding the songwriting. With the exception of two songs written by Eddie himself, he was involved in writing all the songs found on this album. He wrote four compositions alone and three together with musicians who worked on the album. Henk probably also provided the rhythmic contributions on most songs when a real drummer wasn't being used. These quiet rhythmic contributions mainly ensured that there was some tempo to be heard in the mostly quiet songs. And because of that, boredom never set in. I can state once again that the nine compositions on this album are of high musical quality. No fillers or tracks where something is played aimlessly just to fill the time. No, for the connoisseur, there is plenty to enjoy again. Beautiful melodic pieces alternate with sometimes atmospheric sections. Besides the progressive rock element, the music sometimes leans towards New Age and reminds me of the music of the Austrian act Gandalf. Naturally, Eddie's guitar plays the leading role, but occasionally his friends also get to show what they are capable of on their instruments. This way, it naturally never gets boring. For the review of the previous album, I went through the songs one by one to give you an impression of what you can hear musically. I will try to do that again now: Ney - The opening track is a kind of Eastern sounding tune because of the Chinese pipes from the synthesizer. The playing on the guitars and bass are most of all wonderfully done. City Walks - This song features Colin Bass on bass guitar, adding depth and elegance. Gert van Engelenburg from Leap Day delivers a beautiful keyboard solo. Mulder follows with an excellent guitar solo himself. Although the album is an instrumental album, you can hear beautiful female vocals on this track that were probably produced with a synthesizer or some other device that contains vocals. Fantasy - Here Eddie shines on the acoustic guitar on this rather short tune. Bansuri - Starts like a Tangerine Dream kind of piece of music. Here are excellent guitar parts by Eddie to enjoy! Albert Schoonebeek played on the drums for this piece of music and Gert Blokzijl played on the synthesizers. Ethereal - The combination of atmospheric synthesizer parts with beautiful guitar parts works perfectly in this beautiful atmospheric track. Lone Wolf - You can hear the howling of a wolf next to excellent guitar parts. Camel kind of musical parts are there for you to enjoy as well! Chalk And Cheese -Starts a bit like Echoes of Pink Floyd thanks to the guitar and keyboard parts. But also Tangerine Dream comes to mind thanks to the synthesizers and sequencers. Next to the excellent guitar parts the synthesizers parts are also really enjoyable thanks to the wonderful playing of Gert Blokzijl. Katsura -Ton Scherpenzeel played some excellent keyboard and bass synthesizer parts on this New Age kind of piece of music. Of course Eddie again lays down some fine guitar parts as well. The Trail - Terje Craig can be heard on the bass guitar on the closing track. Which is also the longest on this album. The playing on the acoustic guitar is really beautiful here next to the excellent electric guitar parts. The Trail is a nice, laid-back album where influences from progressive rock and New Age come together into a beautiful musical whole, in which elements of blues and folk can also be heard occasionally. Eddie Mulder has once again created a wonderful album with his friends that they can be very proud of. I wasn't bored for a single moment with this fine instrumental album. So, all praise to everyone who made that possible on this beautiful album! **** Henri Strik (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
