‘Chamber Works’ is released on the Favored Nations label and features drummer Terry Bozzio and Holland’s classical Metropole Orkest. The combination of Bozzio and the Metropole Orkest may seem an unlikely one given Bozzio’s biography; he’s drummed behind guitar legends Frank Zappa and Jeff Beck, and has also kept the time for the Brecker Brothers and the UK’s Missing Persons.
After first listening to ‘Chamber Works’, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to listen to it again. But ever since the second listen or so, this CD has been strangely growing on me, and now it is sort of an addiction I have to the opening of the six movements, “Tremenos.”
Most of the material here first struck me as contrived and shallow, particularly the second of the works, “Hypnotic.” But there is a complexity here I didn’t at first realize. It is sort of scary when music infects you in this way. But, I’m still not so sure about some of the orchestration, which seems rather bland and typical in spots, and less than avant-garde as the album is billed. However, the orchestration certainly has its moments, there are times when it and Bozzio’s drumming reach ecstatic unison; “IBO” is an example of this.
While I have reservations about recommending these six works outright, I am wholeheartedly enjoying them as fantastic background music!
