Band: Robin Taylor

CD Title: “Isle of Black”

Band Website:

Label: Transubstans Records

Release Date: 2008

For any prolific artist, the advent of inexpensive studio production and CD manufacture has been a godsend. Take for example Danish multi-instrumentalist Robin Taylor who released his first recording in 1991 and is now working on his eleventh solo effort. Known by some for his group projects Taylor’s Universe or Taylor’s Free Universe, Robin Taylor is one creative musician. His latest musical effort entitled Isle of Black is an eclectic mix of progressive influenced styles that has a rather charming, almost hypnotic appeal.

Isle of Black features five, essentially instrumental tracks running to a rather brief 31-minutes with an 11-minute bonus track. Featured on the disc are Taylor (guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion), Karsten Vogel (saxophones), Rasmus Grosell (drums) and Louise Nipper (voice). Now this is where it gets interesting, the first track, “Confession” (6:10) starts out with some electronic keyboard sounds droning underneath some electronically filtered speaking. At times the voice is almost singing or chanting as the electronic sounds continue to build to intensity to about the three-minute mark. At that point, drums, organ, guitars all kick in to an early seventies styled prog riff which then finishes out the piece. There’s almost a German proggy feel to the last half with its cascading organ runs and trance like rhythm. Track two is one of my favorites. “Johannesburg” (6:09) is representative of Taylor’s creative style, where a rather simple melody is crafted, in this case on piano and then played over and over, with other instruments coming in, drifting up and down in key and building slowly in intensity. Nipper once again provides some beautiful vocalizations that echo the melody. The track is lush and at times intense with its full arrangement. At the two-minute mark, everything is pulled back to provide the composition’s ‘expectation’ only to have the whole affair go into the anthemic ‘resolution’ around 4:39. I can listen to this piece over and over again. I love the way it just builds and builds, and the melody is to die for. Switching gears completely is “Swingers” (4:01) which is a straight forward traditional jazz combo featuring some nice sax lead work. Well done and an interesting break. Next up is the title track “Isle of Black” (4:55) which is probably my next favorite track. After slowly fading in a rolling riff, the piece launches into a kind of Canterbury flavored riff using loads of different organ and sax sounds working in harmonic unison. It’s rich, full and once again hypnotic. And that brings us to the final track “Mind Archeology” (9:13) which has the most variety, starting out with a strong introductory riff it then descends into droning synths similar to Echoes era Floyd, again building in intensity before a guitar riff comes in to dominate while the sax blows behind the scenes slowly becoming louder and louder until the piece becomes a cacophony of sound only to pull back around the four-minute mark and resume the spaciness and eventually some melancholic sax soloing. Around the seven-minute mark everyone comes in slowly building the final melody and then all fading out. Great stuff!

Robin Taylor’s Isle of Black is a kind of different affair. It’s short, but the music is exquisite. I only hope my descriptions have done the disc justice. If you’re in the mood for something different but not too ‘out there’, Isle of Black is the perfect disc and gets a solid recommendation in my books.