Iliad
Distances

Discovered this album through YouTube recommendations about a year ago. The cover, with an image that evoked a sense of melancholy in me, piqued my curiosity, and I listened to it immediately. My initial perception is confirmed to this day: excellent album, well-played, with production in line with the standards of the time, imaginative and lively. A first problem arises: these are Americans. I'm bewildered and decide to explore further. They are described as a jazz rock band. I hate to pigeonhole bands into specific genres, but jazz rock is quite different from what I perceive. The theory that "I don't understand a thing" is more than plausible, but in my opinion, they have a distinctly English sound, specifically very close to the Canterbury scene with some shades of "mediterraneity," meaning that core element that characterized the progressive playing style of some Italian bands in the '70s. To cite some examples, from a strictly personal point of view, I would refer primarily to Apoteosi and Semiramis. As far as I'm concerned, jazz rock is something else. Regarding the band members, it's a trio: someone named Larry Andrews on bass and the brothers Sandy and Ted Owen, on piano and drums respectively. The piano work is the dominant part of the album and at times overshadows the other two instruments. It is likely that Sandy Owen was the band’s mastermind. Personally, I had never heard of this musician, but I discovered through his personal website that he has a forty-year career as a session musician and composer. In conclusion, it is a purely instrumental album that strongly winks at the convoluted and sophisticated scene typical of the Canterbury sound but also exudes warmth in the overall sound. Available only in vinyl format in a first pressing dated 1976 and solely from American sellers, presumably, it was only distributed in the USA. Reissue mode on.