Clean Feed Records: CF091 
http://www.cleanfeed-records.com/disco2.asp?intID=221

* Mark O'Leary: electric guitar, 12 string acoustic guitars
* Alex Cline: drums, percussion, shells, sticks, stones
* Jeff Kaiser: trumpet
* John Fumo: trumpet
 
http://www.markoleary.eu/ 
http://www.jeffkaiser.com/ 
http://fumosonic.com/

Review
~~~~~~
by Stef

I have already praised Mark O'Leary before for his great sense of music, and he
proves it again on this record, and how! With Alex Cline on drums and a double
trumpet front line consisting of Jeff Kaiser and John Fumo, the line-up is
definitely unusual (apart from Jacek Kochan's "Another Blowfish", with Eric
Vloeimans and Piotr Wojtasik on trumpet, I'm not aware of any other quartet with
a double trumpet front line). The music on this record is light, spacious,
elegant, ... I would almost say the musical equivalent of high quality
champagne, very tasty, with bubbles, something to savour with every sip. The
guitar plays a very prominent role on the whole CD, often with a very low tone,
reminiscent of some of John Abercrombie's albums, but more avant-garde, more
creative, with the two trumpets and the drums adding shades of sound that bring
depth and sculptural relief to the music, even if they're pushed a little to the
back in the sound editing, a nice touch which adds to the overall
atmosphere. The whole quartet is absolutely brilliant. Alex Cline's playing is
precise, accurate, accentuating loosely, performing the difficult feat of
drumming on music that is essentially without explicit rhythm. The two trumpets
use every shade and sound their instruments can produce, in various intensities,
volume changes and lengths, because there is mostly no melody to hear - texture,
tonal changes and contrast is all there is, especially exemplified by the long
title track. O'Leary himself gets every possible sound out of his guitar as
well, and whether it's plain acoustic, or one of the many effects on his
electric guitar, his playing is not focused on the playing itself but on the
musical moods he creates, and it's also coherent throughout the album,
regardless of how he uses his instrument. O'Leary doesn't hesitate to push his
foot switches once in a while, bringing sorching fusion-like solos, pushing the
trumpets and the drums to high levels of intensity as in "Point Sketch", but
most of the music is subdued, tentative, fragile, creating open-ended
soundscapes, composed with skill and feeling, building layers of music to create
a very distinct mood, which is nostalgic, sad, but also reverent, jubilant or
mysterious at times.You can hear seagulls and whales, or even sirens, the surf
in the distance