Review Summary: Crystal Garden is a mellow progressive rock album. Bruno Pitch is at home playing mid-paced, odd-timed grooves, with uplifting melodies soaring over the top. Fans of Phish might dig on this record’s laid back feel, diversity of genre’s, and overall p
The Chapman Stick is a captivating tool that blends elements of piano, guitar and bass into a single instrument. Using both hands to ‘tap’ the strings of the Stick (a la Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption”), Bruno Pitch generates more sound than what one would commonly associate with a single guitar player. Along with drummer/percussionist Guix Huré, Pitch created Crystal Garden, an instrumental progressive rock album dedicated to highlighting the Pitch’s versatile abilities on the Chapman Stick.
The album opens with an amorphous psychedelic-tinged track, “Liquid Garden.” The track combines harmonic soundscapes, unsystematic bleeps and vocal samples over random teases of hand drumming. While the extended opener seemed to hint at a record full of long stretches of unorganized sound, the following tracks were far more focused than their predecessor.
“Karachi” is the album highlight. The track features Pitch’s signature Middle Eastern vibe in the introduction. Once the formalities are out of the way, the song drops into a huge beat, before morphing into funky breakdown, and again morphing into a slow odd-timed groove. Huré displays his versatility by effortlessly steering the song into reggae territory, before the track twists a few more times again to its ultimate conclusion. The musicianship, while good, is not jaw-dropping, but leaves the listener with just enough flair to stay interested.
Overall the album has a mellow feel. The duo is at home playing mid-paced, odd-timed grooves, with uplifting melodies soaring over the top. The songs on Crystal Garden often touch on several genres, including jazz, rock, reggae, with an occasional metallic guitar-style lead, and a baroque-era harpsichord riff. Often, Middle Eastern melodies are utilized to great effect. Pitch’s strength comes in blending the genre’s under one roof, all while giving the songs his own unique feel. Fans of Phish might dig on this record’s laid back feel, diversity of genre’s, and overall psychedelic attitude.
