It's fun that the title perfectly reflects the cover, and that each song title is part of the photo. It impressed me, at least. But in general, I'm no jazz pundit, so this album isn't really for me. I have a CD with the Norwegian Garbarek, where he plays his saxophone to the heavenly voices of The Hilliard Ensemble, which made me curious how he would sound more on his own. The record was found in a local record store here in Montreal recently.
The basic problem is, as mentioned, I'm not a jazz lover. I have never really understood jazz, despite some semi-committed efforts. I often experience jazz as too unstructured and that I never really understand where the music is going. Or it's way too messy and loud. Jazz is simply not my thing.
Another problem is that I often experience the saxophone in some musical contexts, and especially the soprano saxophone which Garbarek often plays, on the border to cheesy. Perhaps I've heard too many Lionel Richie songs from the 80's with the soprano sax. It affects the experience concerning today's album, sometimes it becomes cheesy jazz in my ears. The sound on the album is airy and clear, which appeals to me, this is no smoky jazz club or a crazy bebop dance floor. And we're not on a visit to the jazz avant-garde world. No, it's not difficult jazz Garbarek offers, and the musicians are of course talented, as jazz musicians usually are. When you turn the album to side B, it feels like the music gets a bit more difficult, as if the first side was a warm up. But still relatively accessible jazz.
I don't mind the record spinning on the turntable, I don't dislike it. But I can't sit and listen attentively to it, then I get bored. As cool background music it's perfect, and I can for once feel jazzy intellectual. I say like the pros on allmusic,com: Nothing too exciting occurs, but this is high-quality background music.
Tracklist
Side A
1 Blue Sky 6:44
2 White Cloud 9:03
3 Windows 6:44
Side B
1 Red Roof 7:48
2 Wires 5:18
3 The Picture 8:05
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