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Jay Tausig: Trip Around the Sun 2012, Pisces Vast Ocean Dream / Aries the Fire Within
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Self-released
  Jay Tausig is a multi-instrumentalist who mainly records at home in his Studio Lemuria in Nevada, CA. He has taken part in various projects either by himself or with others along the years and been involved in Genesis, King Crimson, VDGG and Yes tributes among others but also released lots of stuff on his own and with his bands. In 2011 and 2012 the man has also been featured on four Fruits de Mer releases and that’s how I better got to know him. This year Jay has a totally megalomanic project going on: he will about once a month release an album dedicated to each of the Zodiac signs so by the end of the year his Trip Around the Sun 2012 series will include as much as 12 albums of music! One key figure in this project is the artist Ed Unitsky (who we know for example as a cover artist for a couple of OSC albums) who makes the amazing cover art for the project. In addition, Jay has some quest musicians on every part when needed. Originally the idea was to just release the material digitally to those who preordered, but there might also be something out on CD. So this is rather massive affair and Jay has been working on this for four years.
I’ve only got parts two and three of this progressive space rock package to review here. Both quite suitably include 12 tracks, like the other parts I guess… The aquatic Pisces Vast Ocean Dream dedicated to the sign of Pisces starts off peacefully with ”Pisces Transmission” that includes mostly just keyboards, soft sax and female narration, and the spoken word also continues on the cosmic and psychedelic track ”Twisting the Tail” that soon starts to rock in the progressive way. ”Now Let’s Focus on the Fish” is a tranquil and beautiful song where Jay also sings. Then comes an acoustic, great ”Vast Ocean Dream” while ”Tidal Persuasion” is a short, more ambient piece with female narration. The instrumental ”Fins and Scales” continues peacefully including some excellent solo guitar and ”Not too Far from Pisces” is another short, minimalistic ambient piece with narration. The heaviest rocking piece is the mid-tempo instrumental “Oceanic” that is true space rock in the Hawkwind vein filled with synthesizer swooshes and it is one of my favourites. ”Water and Stone” is superb, cosmic and progressive jamming and proves that Jay is a top-notch musician and a master of psychedelia! He picks up his acoustic guitar again for ”Vast Ocean Dream (Reprise)” and also the instrumental ”Water Improvisation #1” has an acoustic, pleasant acid folk feel to it being over ten minutes in length. The album’s longest track still is the final piece ”You Are Water” that is very enjoyable, sequencer-driven and keyboard-dominated floating that is kept going by the groovy drums and skillful bass playing. There are also some psychedelic effects, laid-back, manipulated speech, lots of amazing solo guitar work and great saxophone that enhances the brilliant, jazzy mood. This is a superb, cosmic ending that towards the end starts to remind me of Gong!
As a whole Aries the Fire Within is a bit more rocking and energetic and it begins with a rather hard ad metallic number ”Aries Ignited” that has that female narration that we’re used to by now. This sort of brings to mind Space Mirrors. ”Determination” is airier, jazzy and groovy jamming in the style of Gong and Steve Hillage and the saxophone makes a return here. Great and psychedelic stuff! The slow ”Vernal Equinox” goes a bit to the free jazz territory and seems a little headless improvisation. There’s more material like this on the album, but for example the next cosmic jam ”Focus and Flame” is a lot more successful I think. ”Betwixt the Fish and the Bull” is a bit more structured, pretty and atmospheric track where the splendid Cyndee lee Rule plays her electric violin. The atmosphere and guitar solos at times approach Mahavishnu Orchestra so this really is high-quality stuff. ”The Fire Within Part 1” is hypnotic, meditative and cosmic floating a bit in the Pink Floyd spirit also including some sitar and ”Aries Fire Horse” continues the jazzy, progressive instrumental jamming path in a great and energetic manner. Starting with some sequencers, ”The Birth of Intention” is like some of the more laid-back Ozric Tentacles tracks and the slow and dreamy ”The Fire Within Part 2” has some vocals again after a long pause continuing where the first part ended. ”The Quest of Mars” is a mystical, quite small-scale instrumental space jam and “Ram” a beautiful and peaceful atmospheric piece with female narration. The album ends with the soft, ambient instrumental ”Aries Spent” that has no rhythm so maybe there wasn’t that much of the more rocking stuff on the album after all but this sure is excellent, cosmic and psychedelic material. If you have overdosed on New Age / Zodiac stuff already in the 70’s this 12-album whole just might be a bit too much for you but I know I would like to hear some more since Jay Tausig is a really talented musician and he also knows how to produce interesting, great music.
www.jaytausig.com |
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