Gravity Fields is a rock band based in Barcelona that combines instrumental rock, electronic music, fusion and progressive rock on their debut Disruption. While it is a new name, the musicians involved in it are experienced musicians who have been active before in Harvest (a symphonic prog band alas so far unknown to me) and the excellent progressive jazz-rock group On The Raw of which I had the pleasure to review two CDs before. Gravity Fields is now the third project by Jordi Amela (keyboards), Alex Ojea (drums) and Jordi Prats (guitars). They have worked together since 2008, and for Gravity Fields they were joined by bass player Toni Munné. In addition, we find guest musician Pep Espasa on saxophones and flutes on the track Prime time. It seems that Disruption is some kind of a concept, taking an introspective look at the evolution of the human beings on their inevitable journey towards an uncertain future. However, if you just take it as a collection of top-notch instrumental songs, there is nothing wrong with that! I won't go in each and every track to describe the music. To get a general idea, imagine a powerful combination of instrumental progressive rock, jazz-rock fusion and electronic music. In fact, Gravity Fields is in many ways a logical continuation of On The Raw with some modifications. Take for example opener Rage which initially seems to incorporate influences from one of my favourite modern prog groups, Pure Reason Revolution but then takes a decidedly different direction towards jazz-rock fusion (something I sometimes hope PRR also would try) with a faint touch of ethnic influences. This piece also shows us one characteristic of Gravity Fields, namely a very typical keyboard/synthesizer sound, which reminds me of Genesis around Abacab. Now, I know that this is one of the least liked albums of this legendary prog group. Still, I like several of its tracks (especially the long Dodo/Lurker is underappreciated in my opinion) and I like that particular keyboard sound. The album has a wonderful flow, sometimes it seems that certain themes are picked up again in later pieces. At the same time there appears to be a progression or shift in direction throughout the album where the first half is perhaps more dominated by prog elements and electronic influences, while the second half is perhaps a bit more oriented on jazz-rock fusion. Any which way, it drags you along and it's over before you know it. Luckily there is a solution for that: replay! **** Carsten Busch (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
