Time for another MoonJune release! And one the company speaks highly of, with a press sheet boasting words like amaze, astonish, treasures or phenomenal. Since we are talking a debut here, with a quartet of fairly young aged musicians, there must be something happening.
Centred around the indeed considerable skills of Reza Ryan on guitar and Adi Wijaya on keyboards (with Enriko Gultom on bass and Alfiah Akbar on drums) this concerns another Indonesian instrumental progressive group. That progressive tag has to be taken with a lot of liberty here, as I think for most people this would fall into more of a jazz – fusion scene.
And with instrumental music where a lot is based on improvisation, you know before hand it will take time to digest the music. Especially when 7 songs take you across the one hour mark. Opener Open The Door See The Ground makes clear the listener will have to endure a lot of free form. But then again next track Conversation is beautifully crafted around the interplay between keyboard and guitar. Very moody piece and actually one that is instantly enjoyable. The other tracks move between these two faces of the band. For me personally, I like the band best when they focus on melody and structure. Still no denying the players all are very accomplished, despite the young age.
So the praise, even if coming from the record company, is understandable.
