Time Traveller is the brainchild of Juhani Nisula, a Finnish multi-instrumentalist playing guitars, fretted and fretless bass, Hammond C-3 and M-100, Mellotron, Moog, Oberheim OB-sX, Roland SH-3A and JX-3P synthesizers, and he also does the vocals. After releasing Chapters I & II (see review) in 2008 and Chapters III & IV in 2011 this year (2021) Time Traveller presents its new album entitled Chapters V & VI. I a not familiar with the previous albums but to me Time Traveller plays in the realm of fusion, the work of Jeff Beck and Al DiMeola comes to my mind. But with a heavier guitar sound, and more coloured with vintage keyboards, especially the Hammond organ and Minimoog synthesizer. I am very impressed by Juhani's amazing skills, and the outstanding interplay with the other musicians. This formation sounds like a Heavy Fusion Orchestra: sumptuous, dazzling, like in The First Five Steps (strong interplay between heavy guitar and Hammond), The Lord, The Emperor (Minimoog, swinging interlude and exciting wah-wah drenched guitar solo in final part) and No Gravity (blistering guitar and halfway a spectacular pitchbend driven Minimoog solo). The tracks Sunday Morning Walk and Following The Light contain swinging rhythms while Diving Deep Down (tight beat and pleasant English vocals) more in the vein of AOR is. The most varied composition is Earth Above, alternating between mellow and heavy and bombastic, it sounds very dynamic with great work on the Hammond and lots of heavy guitar soli. If you like harder-edged/heavy fusion this is an interesting album to discover. ***+ Erik Neuteboom (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
