CD Review by X. J. Scott

Over Seas, Cyberenaissance, Vol. 6 by Marc Jones

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It is my distinct privledge to introduce to you a rare treat.

Imagine an album of electroacoustic microtonal music played with an electric
string quartet. Imagine a four movement suite navigating the worlds of 32
tone Equal Temperament (tET), followed by a suite with 49tET played against
22, then 29, then 31, then 26tET.

No synthesizers. No tuning software. Only raw, bare-metal musicianship.
Human fingers touching strings and holding wood.

So far we are looking at some extreme musicianship and certainly a worthy
technical accomplishment in the world of live performance if nothing else.

But what if on top of this, the music was fantastic, sublime, reminescent of
the days when men were men wearing wigs and women were women drinking bowls
of coffee and composers were real composers walking hundreds of miles to
hear the latest in pipe organ technology?

Marc Jones' Over Seas is about alien familiarity. About the strange and
unimaginable in the context of the familiar. He describes one track as the a
dance in which the middle east meets flamenco. Another track captures his
experiences in Judo attacking imagined opponents. The first suite is about a
sea voyage, the second about foreign lands. But that is just a small part.
The music travels the world and explores the world beyond, as familiar as a
travel movie while intouchably unknowable at the same time.

Without even a remote competitor, this is the best microtonal album
released so far in 2002.

Only 25 minutes long? Big deal I say. I would much rather pay $12 for 25
minutes of outstanding music than $17 for an album with one good 4 minute
song and 81 minutes of dull stuff I never want to hear again.

Here's what I'm saying:

There are eight tracks on this album and every one of them is intricately,
meticulously and artistically hand-crafted. There is not a single dud track
on the album. Just try and find 25 minutes of prime tracks on any other
album.

I've played it a lot and have not gotten bored of it at all. That's quite an
accomplishment in itself.

Amazingly, it's also something that satisfies my cravings for extreme and
radical experimentalism while being able to pass as extremely conventional
and pleasant to those who simply do not know what is happening on this
album.

What to compare it to? It is as good as Beauty in the Beast. Yes! It's that
good.

But Beauty was Carlos' Swan Song, where as this is Orphon Soul's first
public release. I can only imagine (no I can't) what Marc's got on the
burner next.

But wait! Beauty was composed using synthesizers and MIDI sequencers. Here
we have an entirely electro-acoustic album. Marc playing electric violin and
guitar himself in a variety of uncommonly used scales that would give
graduates from Julliard, Stanford, or U. of Illinois screaming nightmares,
cold sweats, inexplicable fears and ultimately -- raw terror. So from a
performance standpoint this album kicks the best in the field down into the
dirt. I love Carlos' work dearly but I know she can't play like Marc can.

The mix is not exotic, it's pretty straightforward. So last year's top
offering Galunlati by maestro Jacky Ligon does have more going for it in
terms of the beauty of the mix and the wide variety of instruments but those
things would probably be over the top for New Baroque music like Over Seas.

I hear Bach. I hear the Beatles. Amazingly though it does not sound like a
school counterpoint exercise, which is what most would-be Baroque composers
sound like. No, Marc has absolutely mastered the Art of Counterpoint in a
way that has not been heard for 300 years. Here again I could compare to
Carlos' work. She has written enjoyable Classical style music but it just
doesn't touch the level of the Old Masters. But that's OK; there's nothing
wrong with that because we know that that Knowledge was lost a long time
ago.

Is Marc the reincarnation of a Baroque Master? How else could he do what he
does?

--

Over Seas; Cyberenaissance, Vol. 6 - by Marc Jones, 2002

Available for $10 + $2 S/H at http://orphonsoul.com/

(Note: this is a professionally produced and shrink-wrapped CD, not a CD-R.)