NEW ALBUM: Tom Rogerson with Brian Eno - Finding Shore

[Ruby]

TOM ROGERSON WITH BRIAN ENO ~ Finding Shore



I got all happy hearing the first three tracks on this new album; Tom Rogerson’s keys are lovely and delicate, and it’s always good to listen to something outside of the ordinary, however, things became a lot less enchanting from track five onward, and there are thirteen in aaaalll. In contrast to the delicacy mentioned above, No. 6 sounds quite a lot like my cat crashing his way across the piano (which is a slightly out of tune and rather jangly upright). I think the intention was for Rogerson to recreate his three year old self having a good old thump of the notes with his fist, as some kids do (unless they are Mozart) and frankly, my cat sounds better, lol!
 
This is instrumental/experimental/ambient - Eno is responsible for ‘sounds’ and Rogerson for ‘notes’ and in all fairness, it IS improvisation, which is what Rogerson does, so I suppose it should be expected to reflect that. He's using something called a Piano Bar which is an obscure piece of Moog equipment and I think these two are speaking their own language - they literally have common ground, having both come from Suffolk (or having lived there) - the landscape of which has a lot to do with what they've done here, apparently. To my ears, although there seemed to be such potential at the beginning, it dwindled away as the album progressed - or was that my end-of-the-year attention span??!   There will likely be approval from many quarters, thanks in no small way to the Eno stamp, but on the whole, and with the exception of one or two tracks other than the first three, it’s either far too clever for me, or I haven't enough patience.
 
Nice album artwork though - very simple, very effective. The vinyl cover looks better because it doesn't have all that bumf at the side (couldn't find a pic online) - and the actual record is a pretty cornflower blue too ... 
 
The first track …