VIOLA CRAYOLA "Music: Breathing Of Statues" 1974 (Fautna)

Instrumental guitar excursions with a hard edge and a playful vibe despite the album's lofty pretensions. Progressive towards the fusion camp but most of the traps of the style are avoided, thanks in no small part to the jammy feel provided by the rhythm section, while lead guitarist and main guy Anthony Viola soars on top, playing with a raw metal edge and plenty of fx boxes to help him. The music is carefully structured and composed, as evident from the back cover which provides sheet music for the basic themes of all eight songs! Some tracks such as "The bus to New York" go all the way into avant jazzrock but even at that remains reasonably open to the listener. "The last one on earth" has a nice doomy intensity, like Black Sabbath with a Juilliard degree. All over I found this LP surprisingly appealing, especially in small doses, and if you want to check the genre out this should be a good entry point. The memorable LP title comes from a poem by Rilke, printed on the front cover. Recorded in New York. [PL]~~~This isn’t the usual psych collectors’ fare, but never underestimate an album’s rarity as a factor in opening people’s minds to new genres of music. It’s instrumental progressive rock with some jazz leanings. Anthony Viola is a talented and creative guitarist, and at some points the soloing gets pretty wild. The songs are complex, full of odd time signatures and unusual riffs. I’m not especially knowledgeable about instrumental rock of this type, so I can’t compare the album to anything, but there’s no question that this is good stuff, instantly enjoyable. A couple of songs are really disjointed, while others flow smoothly despite the tricky time changes. The rhythm section keeps up nicely. The final song is a big goof, with the only vocal on the album, sped up Chipmunks-style and singing about sandwiches. Some of you will hate it, but after the rather serious music that preceded it, it’s kind of fun to end the album in a lighthearted way. Short album: 8 songs in about 25 minutes. [AM]