Michael Brook
Cobalt Blue

A pleasant, rather sophisticated listen is offered by "Cobalt Blue", an album released in 1992 by a guitarist with technique and creativity to spare: the Canadian Michael Brook. With a not excessive duration of 46 minutes, this work condenses in 12 instrumental tracks an inventory of expressive possibilities (and therefore not only technical) of the electric guitar.

The tracks vary in stylistic traits from one to another, but all favor a clear and crystalline guitar tone. From fingerpicking to echo, from layered soundscapes to captivating melodies, from sustained rhythms to expansive, dreamy passages very "space music", Michael Brook is the great star of this sonic kaleidoscope and enlists the help of a fair number of guest musicians, including trusted Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno (the producers of U2’s "The Joshua Tree") and Roger Eno on accordion and vibraphone.

It is no coincidence that I mentioned "The Joshua Tree": in the liner notes of that album, in fact, Michael Brook is credited as the inventor of the infinite guitar, a guitar modified with an electronic circuit that allows a note to be held indefinitely: The Edge plays it on "With or Without You". But in "Cobalt Blue", try listening to the relentless metallic-percussive tone of "Ultramarine", a true gem of this album, or the melancholic phrasing on the backdrop of "Ten", to immediately recognize the playing style of David Evans-The Edge.

Curiously released by 4AD, a label known for its dark wave sound in the mid-'80s, "Cobalt Blue" has nothing dark about it, although it should be noted that Brook co-authored the album "Sleeps with the Fishes" (1987) with Pieter Nooten of Clan of Xymox, a leading band of the 4AD at the time. Rather, it is a very particular album with ambient tones, some Middle Eastern flavor (in "Skip Wave"), refined percussion, and electronics as a binder. It can be a rediscovery or a brilliant surprise for those who appreciate the most intriguing and sophisticated treatment of the guitar.