Sunday 24 March 2013

Budjana. Dewa - Dawai In Paradise (2013)



The first international album from this Indonesian guitarist and songwriter and his fifth album overall. The Wikipedia article has a lot of info on him.

This album is indeed a reminder that we should check out the Indonesian scene a lot more. Thankfully, Moonjune Records is doing that job for us and this is another great find. What should we compare Dewa Budjana and this album with ? Guitarists like John McLaughlin and Pat Metheny is obvious references. Add a lot of local Indonesian folk music and jazz too + the likes of Weather Report and Return To Forever to the mix too = this album.

The music is very laid back with extensive use of acoustic guitars. I expected an all out electric guitar attack like on the first Mahavishnu Orchestra albums. I got a light breeze instead with music that breathe instead of rages. The quality of the material is not great either. I am also kind of missing the concept here. Maybe because I suspect this is more a compiliation album of his Indonesian releases than one studio session. I may be wrong, but this album sounds a bit fragmented. Actually, I am wrong here. This is a proper studio recording. It still feels a bit fragmented to a prog rock and metal listener like myself. I am not used to jazz yet.

When that is said, this is still a very good album which is opening my eyes to Dewa's music and makes me want more from him. I sincerely hope we get a lot more from him in the future. I also really like the album cover and would not mind having that on my wall.  The album is streamed below.

3.5 points

The album

1 comment:

  1. No, you were right. From album's description at store.jazzuality.com: "Giving the title Dawai in Paradise (Dawai in English means String), he introduced 3 new compositions along with 8 songs taken from his previous albums Nusa Damai (1997), Gitarku (2000), Samsara (2003) and Home (2005) in new arrangements."

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