Allan Holdsworth
Hard Hat Area

The Maestro looms. We're talking about one of those few musicians who always had a fixed idea: "innovate." What does it take to play like Holdsworth? A Steinberger isn't enough, excellent control of the vibrato isn't enough; musicality, the expansion of tonal possibilities, and love for what you do are the important features to do something good. Here is this album with a cover of abstract shapes, and the word "Hard" in the title tells us how everything will be "complicated, tough, and difficult".

The brief and dramatic prelude immerses us in the album's atmosphere, with Holdsworth not immediately diving into virtuosity but offering us a slow and mysterious melody.

 After the deep string pad concludes, the second track "Ruhkukah" immediately strikes with the rapid flurry of initial notes, and a rhythmic offbeat bass sets the stage for the long keyboard solo that anticipates the harmonies Allan will use a few minutes later. The initial scale is taken up by the guitarist, who continues the track with an exchange between difficult-to-listen-to parts and others that are very sweet and heartfelt; everyone notices in this track how Holdsworth makes the transitions unexpected for the human ear.

The third track has an almost classical beginning followed by relaxed jazz piano passages; note the very dreamy bass solo and the keyboard backdrops that give a very pleasant sense of suspension. This time Allan's guitar suddenly overturns the harmony of the track, initially predictable and logical.

The titular track of the album, with dissonant and crazy sounds, synthesizes to the maximum all the nuances of the album, although without the lightheartedness and sonic eccentricity of "Tullio," the solemnity of "House of Mirrors," and the sound collages and various reprises of the Postludio, the album loses much of its meaning.

I chose not to delve deeply into the analysis of the various tracks given the myriad of emotions and sensations this album provides. The guitar sound in this album is outside all sound and harmonic schemes and it feels like Allan wants to isolate himself from the rest of the track and the group to enclose himself in his own world; those who have seen the guitarist in concert or simply in videos can notice how he actually never turns towards the rest of the band and sometimes fixes atypically on his instrument.

 One of the great Master's best works who, despite his advanced age (seventy years old), never stops having an extraordinary musical intelligence and a unique knack for catching the listener off guard.