Edward Powell - Spiritdance (2006)Ragtime Records

Mr. Powell used to immortalize his solo albums in a few places. This one was recorded between the years 2003 and 2006 in Czech, Switzerland, Greece, Austria and Canada. It was created by unorthodox artists on equally unusual instruments: Edward Powell (sitar, fretless and slide guitar, tanpura, baritone oud, gambribass, afrobass, frame drums, riqq, percussion, vocals, surbahar, tanbur, dotar, cura and various instruments from Ross Daly's collection), Sandeep Kumar (tabla, ghatam, dugli, duff, percussion, panjabi dhol, dolak, frame drums), Ulf Gjerdingen (contrabass, fretless bass guitar), Pat Feldner (kalimba, karkabou, percussion) and guests - Karin Gelnarová (vocals), Karl Schreiber (violin), Elena Kubickova (esraj), Niel Golden (tabla), Pedram and Peggie (duff and zarb groove loop).

"Spiritdance", as its title indicates, is filled out with a kind of world music which can bolster us up. Its hallmarks are hypnotic and a little improvised fragments. If we want to understand this stuff entirely, we must dip into the music and strip it down to embrace all ulterior motives and details hidden beyond the sonic wall. I'd like to stress that "Spiritdance" isn't an usual instrumental "waffle", but a well-thought-out music we can chill out by. I can agree with an opinion that the album can be hard in reception by conventional music listeners, but it can be so because of atypical character of Powell's output. "Spiritdance" is a ragbag of ethnic subgenres producing a neat spiritual treat. All musicians are the virtuosos of their instruments, so they are still dependable.

I am always unbiased regardless of a music style and hope that my positive assessment on Edward's music will be understood by Dear Readers. A Canadian professionally makes a distorted instrumental voodoo tones for those who tolerate buzzing instruments, haha.