Wojciech Pilat - Crowless Creations (demo) (2001)Self-released

Mr. Pilat is a Polish guitarist well-known for such bands like White Crow, Panaceum and Natural Born Killers. In order to express his own personality on this instrument, Wojciech has prepared the first instrumental demo with a great art cover whose concept is grounded on Leonardo da Vinci's painting. Mr. Pilat is responsible for guitar, bass guitar and drum programming.

Even though my review concerns a demo, I admit that the stuff is enough voluminous and consisted of ten tracks. Beyond any question, the melody is predominant factor on this stuff where subdued elements are intersected with torrential moments. As far as "The Final Creation" and "Out Of Your Mind" go, Mr. Pilat sticks to Joe Satriani's formulas, but it doesn't mean that a Pole is his copycat. For example, another track called "The Boogie" has become saturated with a style by James Patrick Page a.k.a. Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. One of my very favourite composition is Johann Sebastian Bach's famous "Toccata d-minor" with a rich guitar sound and its original dignity preserved. Neoclassical command reigns! In this case, Polish wizard's style is comparable to Katsu Ohta's and Borislav Mitic's. I wish Wojciech recorded a full length neoclassical CD. Generally, his improvisations are founded on progressive standards that are still approachable. Wojciech Pilat is a technically proficient ace and can blend instrumental rock with progressive and neoclassical conventions.

As you can guess, I have kept back my personal opinions on the sound and tried to focus your attention on music itself. From my "hearpoint", any of sound ripples don't interfere with listening. The drum programming can irritate some of the listeners, but I'd like to remark that the core of "Crowless Creations" is guitar music indeed. If Mr. Pilat administered a greater amount of money, this promising demo would sound better for sure. That's why I always estimate virtuosos' ideas first, and then other less important details from my viewpoint. The demo doesn't carry away for the first time, so you'd better acquaint with it deep in order to form an opinion on the stuff. I am not sure if "Crowless Creations" will turn out to be a haunting demo, but there are undoubtedly some clever ideas on guitar. Although Mr. Pilat hasn't put out an official solo release so far, the demo is also worth listening.