| ORIENT SQUEEZERS Sadhu RECORD HEAVEN 1999 Håkan Almkvist is a Swedish multi-instrumentalist that is involved currently in three projects of a different musical orientation, such as the ethnic-oriental progressive band In The Labyrinth, the avant-garde RIO innovative band Ensemble Nimbus, and the musical adventure we review now, Orient Squeezers. I should mention that behind the name of the group, we find the solitary work of this musician, which is based on playing progressive rock with a strong Oriental element, and we could even argue that the music in this album is closer to the second than to the first. It is possible that Sadhu may not be an interesting album for some progressive fans, as it moves away from the established patterns of the genre. On the contrary, its interest for me resides mainly on its wide-open ideas, in the search for new roads inside progressive, and only for this reason I value this work very positively. If to this we add that the compositions are excellent that wealth and variety of the music is enormous, and that the production is of high quality, we stand before a great and a very interesting work. The instrumentation in this album is very varied and comes in good part from Africa and Asia: sitar, tabla, tanpura, zither, electric guitar, keyboards, electric bass, percussion, voices, samplers, tapes, loops and Fx. All instruments are played by Almkvist, which gives an idea of his greatness and the sound mixtures that a single person is sometimes able to carry out. Orient Squeezers' music gives a lot of different feelings to the listener, is very hipnotic and can introduce you in an exquisite world full of pleasures. The 13 songs included in the album present a great diversity of atmospheres. We can listen to songs of a clear oriental style, as "Oriental dreamer", "The man from behind", "Nidung" or "Bay of Bengal"; Arab and Moorish pieces as "Black water", "Palika bazaar" or "Hunt of rabas"; and even oriental-progressive-ambient pieces as "Ganesha", "Prasad" or "By the frozen river". All of them share a brilliant work of the percussion, wonderful melodies and a new way of understanding progressive rock as a synthesis, mainly for the expansion of ideas proposed in this album. In conclusion, Sadhu is a great work that paves new roads in progressive. Surely, these will only be crossed in the beginning by the most open-minded prog-heads, but it would be nice to see in the end all of us walking on this path, enjoying the colours around it. Progressive rock continues advancing, already three decades after it appeared in this world. Jaume Pujol - March 2000 |