Patrick Rondat |
| The musicians are
: Patrick Rondat on Electric Guitars and Acoustic Guitars Patrice Guers on Bass Guitars Phil Woindrich on Keyboards, Synthesizers and Piano Tommy Aldridge on Drums Drums played on the two LIVE tracks by Philippe Maullet The tracks are : 1. Amphibia - Part 1 (3:39) 2. Amphibia - Part 2 (6:37) 3. Amphibia - Part 3 (3:13) 4. Amphibia - Part 4 (6:34) 5. Amphibia - Part 5 (2:19) 6. Amphibia - Part 6 (5:55) 7. Camouflage (5:38) 8. Vivaldi Tribute (2:58) 9. Dreamstreet (4:38) 10. Backhand (5:26) 11. Shattered Chains (5:38) 12. Equinoxe IV (4:14) 13. Burn Out (bonus track) (6:57) 14. Just For Fun (bonus track) (4:08) You might ask "Who is Patrick Rondat" ? That was the first thing that sprung to mind as I stared at the Aztec frogman adorning the front cover of the CD packaging. After listening to the album, I found my answer. He is a very flash guitarist. But not just any flash guitarist! He's Jean Michel Jarre's flash guitarist. You would expect this to be very good if the instrumentalist is one of Jarre's finest, and believe me , it is. The opening track is the title track 'Amphibia', which is split up into 6 seperate but individually stunning sections, each with it's own feeling and mood. 'Part 1' comes in the form of an atmospheric introduction to the album, mainly filled with synthesiser drones and acoustic guitar sequences. The transition into the more rock orientated 'Part 2' is seamless. This feisty little number overflows with some extreme solo's and phat riffs, accompanied in places by a cheeky piano endeavour, as 'Part 2' fades away, 'Part 3' fades in. This is a very sad and reflective number that makes you reach for your hankies and blub in your beer. Within about 3 minutes, you forget your sorrow as you are faced with the prospect of the power rock 'Part 4'. Again endless brilliant solo's follow, backed by some nice chord progressions. You can almost hear the guitar scream out for forgiveness as Rondat really hammers away at the strings, giving all he's got. 'Part 5' starts with beautiful piano chords and is followed by some fine acoustic guitar chords and solo's.The piece continues to accelerate until a variation heard in 'Part 1' kicks in. Fantastic!! 'Part 5' finishes with some thought provoking sounds, then without trace merges into 'Part 6'. This 6 minute epic has a very distictive triumphant sound, as if Rondat had fought a musical war with his guitar, and emerged victorious! These six tracks combine to make of the best half hour pieces I have ever heard. The next track is 'Camouflage' and is difficult to sum up, but is very reminiscent of the solo's that Slash pulled off in Guns 'n Roses spectacular 'November Rain'. Next is by far the best track on the album entitled 'Vivaldi Tribute', it's based around the "Lété" movement (Summer) an really rocks out. Apparently Patrick Rondat used to play this as a pratice piece until Jean Michel Jarre suggested that he used it on the album. It's a good thing he did, or we would miss out on such genius. Rarely has classical music sounded this good. The ninth track is 'Dreamstreet', and is introduced by a splendid mixture of electric and acoustic guitars until it bursts into life, showing off it's true rock core. The next track 'Backhand' is rhythmically inspiring with it's amazing switches between basic 4/4 time and adventurous 7/8 time. 'Shattered Chains', is a blues-rock amalgamation that according to Rondat is close to the heart. Must have been very dramatic to have inspired him to write this. The twelfth track is 'Equinoxe IV', as you may know, was originally written by Patrick's good friend J.M. Jarre. Personally I find this version better than the original with it's very solid rock feel. You may think it's hard to beat the French 'Lord of Keyboards', but even Jean himself likes this reworked version. The next track 'Burn Out' is a live version of same track heard on his second album 'Rape of the Earth'. If I hadn't heard the screaming fans at the start of this tune, I would swear it was produced in a studio, because every note is hit perfectly. Not one finger strays from the magical fretboard, and not one string rattles or buzzes in the whole piece. 'Just For Fun', is taken from Rondat's first album of the same name and is described as a boogie-rock song. Again a live track and perfect in every way. That's a run down of all the tracks with my opinions of each, but my words can come nowhere near doing any of these pieces justice. All I can say is that Rondat's skill ranks up with some of the guitar greats and whilst his compositions sear around every great musician who ever inspired to write a song. His works are so varied as Shostakovick style modern classical and John Lee Hooker type boogie. Highly Recommended!!! Limb Music Products & Publishing Postfach 60 25 20 22235 Hamburg, Germany Fax: +49 - (0)40 - 53 10 90 50 Website : http://www.world-online.de/limb-music Email : limb-music@digital-design.de |