Jan Garbarek
In Praise of Dreams

And here we have another "sacred monster" in our hands, an untouchable now revered everywhere like the new messiah of ECM, the one who brought us "Officium" thus changing the features of that jazz-ambient of a "mystical" nature. After the half flop (intellectual, artistic, and commercial) of the follow-up "Mnemosyne" and various collaborations, our Viking saxophonist continues his verbose discographic production, giving us this time a product almost identical to that "Visible World" from almost 10 years before (it's from '95!). Similar is the structure of the tracks, the slow pace on a sly and rarefied rhythmic carpet, with the sax never exaggerated but always moderate, now a true trademark of our artist.

What did Jan want to tell us with this album? What is the artistic maturation or rather the evolution undertaken by him? Everything seems unchanged and identical as if nothing has changed, as if these 10 years have remained the same, as if the world, events, things remained outside the work of this artist who, if he produced fewer albums and thought them through better and with more attention=participation, would still have many arrows in his quiver. Instead, when the tracks are mere tedious executions (listen to the track "One Goes There Alone" rather banal if not a sterile formal exercise or little more) or "routine jobs" that add nothing to what has been done so far (listen to "Knot of Place And Time" with the sweet and almost rhetorical violin that counters the sax always the same, yet in its class and elegance), it makes you want to listen again to "Officium" or "Ragas and Sagas" or any other work from the good old days.

In confirmation of my theory of 5 max albums for each artist, after which one either retires or becomes a pianist/saxophonist in cruise ship piano bars for the wealthy. Which isn't a bad life: if things go well, you might even end up becoming the Prime Minister, just imagine...