Sea Vine comes from Poland and is a musical project from multi-instrumentalist Michal Cywiński (keyboards, guitars, drums). Later on he turned it into a band after the release of their debut album. They are now consist of Mr. Cywiński of Milena Szymańska on vocals and Wojtek Warmijak on drums. Their eponymous album is a rather keyboard-orientated album on which Milena Szymańska already was responsible for the lead vocals on two tracks. Furthermore the album has Konrad Daszczyński (guitars) and Mateusz "Tymon" Walerski (drums) as guest musicians who both are featured on one single track. The musical goals of Michal are most of all playing illustrative and improvised music created with analogue instruments. He does this rather well on the six tracks that are featured on this release. Sound wise he goes into the direction of keyboard players such as Dave Greenslade, Tony Banks, Rick Wakeman and the late Rick Wright. That he doesn't reach the same level as them is not a surprise, but I guess not everybody can be of this level music wise. But I don't care at all because the songs that he performs alone or with his fellow musicians are rather entertaining and give enough musical pleasure to call this debut a good release! Sure you have to be in the right mood to love the sometimes improvised parts. Hearing them more often certainly helps to dig into them all the way. The highlight on the album is without a doubt the final piece The Little Ones (Come And See) which is fifteen minutes long and has an outstanding guitar solo played by the already mentioned Konrad Daszczyński. Sea Vine's fine debut moves between symphonic retroprog, funk, fusion and Canterbury, between jazzy and classically inspired ideas. Because of this, enough variety is available on this release that you could say never a dull moment. I am already curious what the next musical steps are for Michal Cywiński and his band Sea Vine. Hopefully he won't let us wait that long! *** Henri Strik (edited by Robert James Pashman) Where to buy? |
