Core is the 8th studio album by Norwegian Prog instrumentalists Pymlico. How time flies. Probably most people know nowadays that Pymlico is the brainchild of Arild Brøter. I still remember when I received their debut album Inspirations (2011, see review). He was at the time still a rather young unknown musician who played drums, keyboards and acoustic guitar. This album and its predecessors Directions (2012, see review) and Guiding Light (2014, see review) contained mainly retro progressive rock with influence taken from acts such as Steve Hackett, Camel, Genesis, Focus, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Kaipa and The Flower Kings. However on Guiding Light Arild already looked for the more dark side of progressive rock with influences also taken from different musical genres. World Music, Eletronic Music and Fusion. Then Meeting Point (see review) was released in 2016. The first album I did not review myself anymore. The reason was probably that Arild stepped away from my beloved retro prog sound and moved towards a sound which could be described as fusion and jazz rock. Reminiscent to acts such as to acts such as Spyro Gyra, Steps Ahead, Snarky Puppy, Yellowjackets and Mezzoforte. To be completely honest, I never really understood where this change in musical style came from. Probably heard it somewhere and wanted to play something different than the well-known retro prog. Also the albums that followed contained the same kind of instrumental music. Nightscape (2018, see review), On This Day (2020, see review) and Supermassive (2022, see review) are certainly great sounding albums but I do miss the old seventies progressive rock style. I guess too much of brass instruments and less Mellotron and synthesizer parts. It's like you are having a relationship with a girl you really like, but you are in love with her sister! And now the new album is out. The first of this act which I reviewed again since I did Guiding Light in 2014. So more than ten years later, once again an album from this act that is reviewed by myself. Even if it doesn't contain the retro sound of the seventies progressive rock acts and has lots of saxophones on it. I guess I must have fallen in love with my girl friend after all. The title for the album comes from a conversation Arild had with his six band mates after a concert in the South of France in 2022. He wanted to keep them together for the next album. No more extra guest musicians and only the same seven musicians which brought the music of Pymlico to a live stage. Only the those core members would be doing the job recording a new album. Hence the title Core. The aim was to maximize the potential of this line-up, which they did all the way. Which has resulted in a great album that is a lot rawer and fatter than its predecessor if I may say so. That's probably the reason I really got into this album. Let's go through the songs a little bit. Welcome Back opens the album and is a great up tempo tune with saxophone in a leading role. Ellipsis is next and has nice guitar parts and reminded me of Toto when they released The Seventh One (1988). Captain Teebs has funky shuffle setting with a nice blues kind of guitar solo. Fair Play is next and has strong sax and electric piano parts. Music wise moving again towards the earlier mentioned Toto. Don't Do That is the single taken from the album with musical inspiration coming from jazz and funk. Here again with strong sax parts but also the Toto influences are notable. Point Nemo is a nice relaxed tune with very strong guitar solo. However it is this time around a more keyboard orientated song with a jazzy melody that is countered by numerous accents in an irregular time signature. 221B is a great up tempo tune with again nice guitar and keyboard parts. Progressive rock comes to the surface many times! We even hear at the end some wordless harmony vocal parts on this complete instrumental album. Done And Dusted closes the album and is relaxing mellow piece with some great guitar parts which reminded me of Camel and the first three Pymlico albums! There you go! All song in detail. All I can say about Core, is that it is highly recommended to lovers of progressive rock who are also into fusion and jazz rock! And you do have to like instrumental tunes a lot. But that's always the case with the albums that came out under the moniker of Pymlico. My last words will be that I can conclude that the experiment to record an album with the same basic musicians was successful. So I would say it is repeatable. *** Henri Strik (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
