Anthony Curtis - "Book of the Key" Review

Artist/ Band: Anthony Curtis
Title: Book of the Key
Label: Jester REcords
Year of Release: 2004
Artist/ Band Link (click for details/ ordering)

The Review:

On Anthony Curtis’ latest album, Book of the Key, he is joined by Tony Levin on bass, Mike Keneally on keyboards, Jeff Gauthier on violin, and Lewis Pragasam on drums. The music on Book of the Key is a nice mixture of prog rock, jazz fusion, and moody avant-garde sounds. Sometimes it reminds me of Wetton-era Crimson with a splash of Mahavishnu Orchestra.

The two highlights for me are the opening cut,"The Ruins" clocking in at about 13 minutes and the epic 23-minute title track, which has the afore mentioned influences showing the most. I haven’t heard any of Anthony Curtis’s previous works but he sure has assembled a quite a line-up here on Book of the Key. It’s by far one of my current favorite releases and highly recommended for instrumental progressive rock and fusion fans.

Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on May 24th, 2005

Tracks:

1) The Ruins

2) Gallabalba

3) Inland Sea

4) Hymn to Helios

5) Saturnalia

6) Balinus

7) Oracle

8) Book of the Key

9) From Towers to the Dome of Heaven

10) Hikmat Al-Ishraq