A delightfully eclectic double album by Spanish-based artist, Ed Zero. Ambition wrought large
Ed Zero, or as his mother knows him rather better Eduardo Cherchi, hails from Argentina, but is based in Madrid and is yet another in what is coming to be an extremely long line of talented multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and sound engineer that I have reviewed on this website. I’m only jealous!
In August, Ed released his third full-length album, Introspection/Retrospection. It is a double CD and a monster of a work jampacked with music which takes its influences from a wide spectrum of classic rock, art rock, prog, blues, psych, metal, you name it, it is there in a smorgasbord of musical dishes for you to sample and enjoy. Musical tapas!
2021’s Odyssey of Thoughts was a classy concept album. The new work contains themes, as opposed to a linear concept, so sadness, melancholy, nostalgia, dreams, and we will discuss each of them, because this album deserves a very serious listen and consideration.
Alright! It’s Repeating starts us off, and it’s a nice, moody opener, blues infused with some delicious bass licks, classy guitar riffs, and a swirling Hammond a la Lord in a song which strikes me as being reflective on mistakes we keep on repeating, even with the best will in the world. I have embedded the video below. Class classic rock, and a great way to open proceedings.
Fragile follows this. It strikes me as a personal song about anxiety, stress, and the silent pain you feel when attacks hit you. The guitar which opens this track is lush, and Zero’s voice puts across the fragility of the state of mind extremely well. This is surprisingly catchy given the subject matter. Halfway in, Zero provides us with a guitar solo from deep within his guts, and this continues moodily beneath the vocals which sing the words about looking forward, with certainty that things will get better. Very melodious and very good.
Silence at Sundown has an acoustic guitar and the sound of wind setting the scene for this song about dreams, a pastoral delight for which the official video is below. The bass melodies are again striking, and I think this track drips with feeling, the acoustic guitar solo especially raising the appreciation of what we hear.
Your Own Time follows. This is a far heavier affair dealing with the sometimes-difficult art of living in the moment. Musically, there are interesting moods on this one. At turns classic metal, others melodious blues, then simply stunning you with the musicianship inherent in a lush guitar solo, but also containing some very interesting synth-driven experimental rock.
You will have guessed by now that the writer of this review deeply appreciates the eclectic barrage of sounds and moods Zero produces. Up to now, the tracks have been in the mid-length range five to seven minutes, but he now produces the first of two monstrous epics, Sailing the Vastness, which is the second longest track at over 22 minutes. It is split into five distinct movements with a birdsong Introduction before we get into a toe-tapping instrumental segment which has a feel of late 1960’s psych to it, with Zero again demonstrating his prowess on acoustic guitar. This leads to Echoes of the Day, a very introspective segment with some lovely orchestration within it echoing the theme of the vastness of time, space, and, indeed, humanity itself. The reprise of the closing lyrics on this is very pretty as we move into the third part, We Need To Stop, in which the pace picks up considerably with some complex guitar work and synth effects above a rhythm section moving matters along before we get an jazz infused piano and bass guitar duet in a segment which I thoroughly agree with philosophically, that we need to damned well stop, take a look at ourselves and our world, and perhaps take time to do the right thing. A mighty guitar riff leads us into a reprise of the lyrical theme of this segment before the move into Revelation, a piano and synth producing a grand intro in a segment which deals with some existential questions about the sense of eternal self but in such a playful manner musically in a passage which races and races along in a grandiose rock symphony featuring another wonderful guitar solo. It closes with Find The Place featuring some more incredibly clever acoustic guitar work. Lyrically, it all ends well in that we might not know what is out there or, indeed, within especially after the inevitable corporeal end, but in the vastness of life, everyone finds their place someday, and on that note the track builds itself into a monumental wall of sound to close a deeply impressive epic which should have all progressive rock nuts salivating. In fact, it is embedded below. Put your feet up and enjoy!
CD2 starts with a Whole New Beginning. It has a beautiful start in a track lyrically full of hope for the future musically mixing traditional prog with some jazzy bass and guitar leading into more quieter moments talking about having to wait for the new beginning. My feeling is this track might have benefited from being a couple of minutes shorter and concentrating on the undoubtedly gorgeous pastoral feeling it had. For example, the brass section feels utterly out of place to these ears, as does the Moodies type psych pop and I feel that there is perhaps a bit too much going on in this single track.
We are then back to three shorter pieces starting with Retrospection. The electric piano and soothing synths remind one of some of Tony Banks’ lighter moments as a solo rock artist. I really like this song which draws on some very personal and fond familial memories. I have embedded the track below.
Summer of Saudade is bathing in melancholy and nostalgia alongside never-ending dreams. This is a very pleasing pop-rock song, soaked in Americana, which never tries to be anything else, and it is manna to these ears.
This sequence of songs ends with Imaginary World. It is a lovely and very knowing lookback to one’s childhood and the urge we all have to go back to that safe and pure place. Musically, again there is more than a hint of Americana in this track. It is embedded below. Lovely and all the better for its simplicity.
This takes us to the longest track and a huge epic weighing in at twenty-four and a half minutes of music – Beyond The World of Dreams.
As with the first epic, there are five distinct movements in this. Entrance has some more lovely piano introducing us to proceedings before the track gets going with some South American orchestration from the synths and some deep guitar riffs in a passage which is expansive. Better Than Anywhere Else takes us again into the land of dreams with some beautifully delicate electric and acoustic guitar work with feeling vocals and harmonies mirroring some of the finest folk-rock music I have listened to this year. Travel to Another Side takes us into a dystopian trip or nightmare and is musically interesting, with some more of that American folk-rock placed alongside notes which could feature on any classic Rush album before the spoken nightmare takes us into pure psych pop territory, so again a mixed bag but this holds together far better and works very well. A gorgeous piano solo closes this segment, before a dark bass riff takes us, appropriately, into The Abyss of my Fear, electric blues nightmarish music, very powerful and very good. This passage closes with a mix of the downright strange (but fun) and rocking out before the dream/nightmare ends with Remembrance, that stage of the journey when your conscious mind knows it is time to let go, but the unconscious mind wants to stay in this place forever, no matter the consequences. There are some very good percussive bells, and the piece enters its penultimate phase rocking out with another deliciously clear guitar solo – Zero is a consummate guitarist, of that there is no doubt. Thumping drums, pulsing bass, and a racing riff herald the closing passage, which is loud, fast, operatic, and very good in the finest progressive metal tradition before a gentle piano brings us down to earth and wakes us from the immersive drama.
A couple of minor quibbles set out above aside, Introspection/Retrospection is a very ambitious work by this talented artist, and I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to it. Sweeping, intelligent, and very well performed, take yourself off to the Bandcamp page to listen a few times before adding it to your collection at https://edzeroprog.bandcamp.com/album/introspection-retrospection