Music from the yesterdays and today!

The Nova Project's official bootleg album, Unplugged: Live At  Cafe Acoustic is a collection of songs composed by master classical guitar player and band member Anthony Glise. The music explores the possibilities of welding prog rock with classical forms, with jazz, African rythmns and 16th century poetry. This all sounds like a bit of a tall order to say the least, but the band have come up with something distinctly original that, despite the disparate influences, works very well.

'Black Soul' displays all the ingredients spoken of above with deft acoustic guitar playing , searing electric guitar, fairly ferocious cello accompaniment and complex drum patterns with attendant time changes. It's a breezy yet forceful opening salvo that immediately displays how the mix of styles works in practice. 'Lullaby' has the feel of a classical guitar piece played with a jazz backing, it's lilting and gentle but swings too. 'If Faithful Souls' illustrates amply illustrates how the setting of 16th century poetry to this band's music works in practice. The music weaves in and around Anthony's vocals, the whole piece twisting and turning with the interplay of the musicians. 'La Creation' begins a suite of songs that take the album to it's conclusion. The gentle acoustic timbres here give way to more forceful playing on 'Le Feu' before the band come in to augment the main theme. The lyrics are in French from here on in, which is no easy task for a non native to sing with any authenticity whilst playing complicated guitar passages at the same time, so hats off to Anthony for his skills in this area. 'Les Vents' has a more pastoral feel, which gives way to 'Les Fontaines et Rivieres' a more strident but dexterous piece of ensemble playing. 'La Terre' rounds off the suite with a medieval guitar figure to start with that develops with the addition of the electric guitar and the rest of the band, again with restless twists and turns in the rythmn and timing. Bonus track, 'Rounded Earth' is possibly the most aggressively played piece of the whole set and almost gets to the point of being 'heavy', but this ensures that the band have made their mark on your memory!

The music on display here, if one needs a reference point, is loosely somewhere along the lines of Focus at their most eclectic, but with much more emphasis on classical acoustic guitar and is not to be regarded as merely a Focus sound alike, there is too much of a unique identity to this band. The band, Anthony Glise, Jason Riley on electric guitar, James Kew on six string electric cello and Nick Baker on drums are all first rate musicians and their ensemble playing is impeccable and delightful on this very interesting and satisfying album.