Mark Van Overmeire is Belgian, which his good. He spent four years drawing inspiration and taking great photographs in South America (see cover art). And that's great. His restlessness has now taken him off to Southeast Asia, whence the next album is promised.
Musically, this CD has serious accomplishment and great diversity. There are convincing elements of roots, jazz, and orchestral styles. Each piece has a dreamy and evocative title. The whole CD could sit smoothly in the background of a pleasant evening in for two or three couples who wanted to pay more attention to each other than to the contents of Mr Obsessive's CD collection. The lightly expressed theme is a journey through the mysteries, glories and tragedies of South America, with snatches of pain and pleasure along the way. There are Spanish guitars, piano, drums, accordion, bass, violin, synthesisers and more besides. Many of them played by Overmeire himself. Snatches of solo voice come and go.
Overall the effect is surprisingly restless and unrooted. Having tried a dozen voices for resonant potential, I'm not convinced that Overmeire has finally decided how or quite what he wants to express. Somehow, his sheer virtuosity isn’t interesting enough. I want bigger tunes or grander structures. Or I want the kind of spectral textures and cross-continental shiver that I get from Juana Molina. And maybe I want it much simpler. This labour of love stops and starts more often than the six separate pieces strictly demand. It's as if each of the first sketches needed a second or third approach before they could be left to dry. Track 1, at eight minutes 20 goes through at least three distinct movements with sudden changes of instrumentation and feel, but no obvious logic or linking thread. Landmarks and themes are hard to find. Wherever you listen it feels like you’re right in the middle.
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Maybe it's just me. Stuck with the cheap simplicity of DVORAK and EXPOLSIONS IN THE SKY, I guess I'm not ready for the sophistication and range of MARK VAN OVERMEIRE. Track 3 offers a hint of the simpler and gentler bossa nova world of a Brazilian café bar world without the hair gel and neuroses. I like it. And then it wanders off for the last seven minutes into something altogether more fidgety and I have to sit up straight and listen like the jazz student has come in to do his examination piece. With a drum solo.
You will need to check/buy online for yourself. See http://www.markvanovermeire.com
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