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After several
years as session musician appearing on numerous albums, mostly in Denmark,
Steen Grontved finally heads his own debut album ‘Night Vision Goggles’.
The album itself
mixes various styles and influences from the realms of jazz and rock and
fusing both into one altogether different musical experience. Things
get underway with ‘Timber’, a guitar/keyboard rich mix that leads nicely
into the next track ‘The Worm’, another fusion of keys and guitar.
The album
continues along its gentle path with the sublime ‘Playground’ before
picking it up the tempo a touch with the more melodic tones of ‘Home
Planet’. Next the rockier ‘Run’ which really gets the heart pumping
with some quite fantastic fret work.
Grontved
respects his roots with ‘Bye’, which is a take on a traditional Danish
song melody and a poignant piece to say the least. Grontved
describes the next track ‘Secret Lab’ as the brother track to 'The Worm',
and when you listen to it you can feel were Steen is coming from on this
one.
Another delve into the sometimes inspirational world of guitar album
are the next two tracks firstly ‘My Butterfly’, a swirling mix of guitar
and bass and secondly ‘Still Here’, a more melodic track that will sit well
with both the conventional guitar album lovers and also those who like
something a bit different from their guitar albums.
Steen ventures
into the more tribal elements of world music as ‘Round And Around’ uses
West African rhythms as its backbone for this gentle melody. And what
guitar album wouldn’t be complete without something a little diverse and
quirky and that's what ‘What Mango’ is, quirky.
The album
concludes with a little Spanish guitar feel on ‘Find The Pick’ which
Grontved describes as slap guitar, which rounds off a very accessible
guitar album and one which will see Grontved playing a more major role on
the guitar album scene. |
