Musea 2016
Morning Sun
Brooklyn auteur makes a turn to take a step up on a journey to the gates of dawn.
Not one to dwell on a stylistic notion, Gadi Caplan could see a variety of routes to venture from 2014’s "Look Back Step Forward" but, upon its release, he joined THE WEEPING WILLARDS and, abetted by their singer Danny Abowd, moved on to embrace prog idiom. Or rather explore it, because Caplan’s fusion leanings shroud his third solo offering in a haze of enigma.
Gadi’s pastel tones and delicate pointillism create a riveting vision, yet the guitarist doesn’t shy away from ripping the canvas when trumpets shine through this tapestry as they do on “Hemavati” with its exotically patterned dewdrops and six-string shards. Surprisingly, for all their softness vocal tracks such as “Good Afternoon” which features a trad jazz croon or “Island” – spiced with a lazily vigorous, Canterbury-way, organ solo – somehow distract from that corner-of-your-eye mystery… until “Vivadi Swara” has woven web-light folk into orchestral cocoon.
It may unravel with the silky strum and slider roll of “The Other Other Side” yet it’s a four-part “Lili’s Day” that adds sonic and spiritual depth – hooked on trip-hop buzz and marching drums – to the panorama, thus creating a cinematic experience to linger on long after the last note faded and daybreak freshness is gone. As to where Caplan will go from here is hard to say, although one may bet the adventure doesn’t end here.
****3/4
