Michael Shrieve
Fascination

There is no use in continuing to walk: you wouldn't know where to go. It's useless to try calling someone: no one seems to hear you. Useless even to close your eyes in fear: nothing would change. The fog surrounds you... And you are immersed in something boundless.

The music of Michael Shrieve contained in this beautiful 2001 album does just that: it aims straight at the heart and essence of jazz, rock, and blues, rendering them into pure concept and expanding them into something that is hard to define upon first listen.
Each individual piece flows into and invokes the other, weaving a refined veil—delicate yet misty and undefined—hiding a stage where anything can happen, providing immense enjoyment for the listener.
But to put on this unique show, the American drummer collaborates with two great musicians experienced in "demolitions and musical transformations": Bill Frisell on guitar and Wayne Horvitz on organ.
Thus, the picture of the situation begins to become a bit clearer.....

Clear up to a certain point!

The musical fog released by the trio's instruments will confuse you at first but will gradually win you over if you decide not to stop at the first obstacle: "Sam The Man" glides through the surrounding "space" with a rhythm between funky and soul, enhanced by organ solos first and then guitar, with Shrieve setting a square and precise rhythm. Already with the following "Tell Me Everything" the fog begins to thicken, taking the form of a melancholy jazzy tune.
The more we look around, the more we are enchanted by the beauty of this gray landscape that moves like a slightly rippled sea: we move with it. "Circus! Circus!" is like watching the world through a drunkard's eyes, while "The Glass Tent" and "The Great Ambassador" are instead his freshly emptied bottles: filled with sounds, rhythms, and crooked melodies as only these three musicians can create.
Just recovering from the intoxication, the fog continues its relentless descent: "One Nation, Invisible" arrives like an unexpected punch to the face from the heart of the foggy blanket with distorted guitars and double pedal, making you lose your senses. The last two lengthy tracks ("Jig Saw" and "Soundings In Fathoms") indicate the way out of this nightmare/paradise of infinite fog, with one having an oriental melody on a purely jazz rhythmic carpet and the other offering echoes and cosmic/ambient reverberations.

The veil of maya, therefore, is served: art that doesn't settle for creating something absolutely well-defined, but rather continuously seeks confrontation and that openness to other genres, sounds, and ways of understanding music in order to be, if not entirely original, at least personal: this is, in my opinion, "Fascination" and what has characterized Shrieve’s entire career, a versatile and unique musician (he was the first drummer for Santana until the mid-'70s and collaborated with Schulze, Steve Roach, Rolling Stones, Al Dimeola, Amon Tobin, and others...).

The fog has cleared; you haven't taken a step away from your stereo... Strange... and yet.....