Ralph Towner
Anthem

A few weeks ago, during one of my musical "journeys," I purchased this album by Ralph Towner. I must honestly admit that the simple and essential packaging made a positive impression on me. The compact disc case is covered by a cardboard sleeve that features the same black-and-white image present on the booklet, inside there's a rectangular photo of the guitarist. For a fraction of a second, it seemed to me that the case was wet from the rain, although it wasn't raining that day. In reality, it was just the image on the album cover depicting a car's windshield in the rain. The view of the landscape in front of the windshield is blurred, and you can vaguely make out a stretch of road with some trees.

Sorry... but I've always been a keen observer of album cover images.

In this completely instrumental album, Towner plays the guitar (classical & 12-string guitar). The result of the work is highly refined and intimate throughout all twelve tracks, totaling about fifty minutes.

The album opens with "Solitary Woman," a rather immediate and convincing track, striking for its guitar "breaks" that are, at times, nervous and assertive and at other times meditative and calm. The title track "Anthem" is unforgettable, with a guitar that, in its "monologue," manages to "paint" music with ancient sounds from a distant world. "Anthem," meaning hymn, a song to human creativity, perhaps the only hope in an "absurd" world that we cannot fully understand and focus on, just like the CD's "rainy" cover. This is, of course, my personal interpretation of the meaning of this track and consequently the whole album. Extremely delicate and touching is "Simone." The guitar strings seem to be almost brushed and caressed by the guitarist. "Four Comets" in four parts and "Three Comments" in three parts are decidedly memorable.

The pieces are enigmatic and mysterious, full of tension and varied and at times even rapid in the guitar passages. They are all small masterpieces that should be listened to attentively. "Raffish" with a more cheerful and playful demeanor, with a particularly fast and intriguing guitar. It is inevitable and almost expected to have a sophisticated "Goodbye, Pork-Pie Hat" by Charles Mingus to close the album.

I did not want to mention all the tracks of the album, both not to completely remove the pleasure of listening and because certain musical passages are complex (at least for me) to describe. I also add that certain parts of the work require a more active and repeated listening over time to be fully musically savored. The recording quality is excellent and, as always, being an ECM production, it is endowed with that subtle and always appreciated characteristic reverberation.

Do not forget the wonderful work Towner has done with Oregon and the various collaborations with musicians of considerable artistic and creative prowess. Before concluding this review, I would like to quote the great Albert Einstein, who once said: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." This album is just like that, simple and at times revealing genius.