Rich Gordon

Rich Gordon´s third album has arrived. The multi-instrumentalist, whose work includes ´Heroism: The Annals of 2006´, and ´Torn: The Annals of 2008´, plus turns with the likes of Garry Stanton ('indigo flats'), offers the attentive ear a journey into sound, a voyage along a river which thunders with electrified chords. Gordon´s mastery over an increasing range of musical instruments is demonstrated throughout, but his passion – clear-sighted as it is, and unapologetic – is for the guitar, which, if the album is any faithful indicator, he finds endlessly intriguing. His play of it offers none of the ennui and exhaustion of some other guitar ´heroes´, but a fresh mind still discovering both the instrument and his own skill with it. He is, effectively, still making his way through the euphonious labyrinth, eyes wide and bright.

It is progressive rock, certainly: there is, here, a wish to move music forward. Gordon is not content to steer a middle-of-the-channel course, but to begin to explore the more intriguing banks and shoals and whirl-pools of the guitar. Yet he isn´t about avant-garde masturbation – he wants to carry the audience with him on this journey.

He appears on his website in quasi-Victorian fashion – monocle, handlebar moustache and chin puff, and anachronistically armed with electric guitar. ´I want to tell you about a hobby of mine,´ he says modestly at the opening of ´Punch and Crunch´, before launching into a song that is anything but modest. Nor does it need to be, with its evocation of, for me, eastern deserts, of a rock tour down the river Nile. If Led Zeppelin had toured the Arabian desert and allowed inspiration to take firm hold, then this is what they may have produced: thunder over the desert sands, music to blast away the dunes.

Gordon clearly likes loud: witness the finale of ´FGT Song´; and ´Vainglory´ rocks something fierce, flooded as it is with fast guitar-playing, scorching the fingers. In ´Renegade Vision´, the guitar is joined by a saxophone for a touch of classy Lalo Schifrin-like touches, but not so much as to become dependant on them.

Smile´ is a slower, quieter, more reflective addition to the album, as is – at least as far as the rest album is concerned – ´Dignity´, which, for me, is the stand-out song on the album. If a single album can have a masterpiece, then ´Dignity´ is the masterpiece, the star, of ´Sound: The Annals of 2010´. Gordon the instrumentalist steps to the side to allow Gordon the vocalist to shine. His performance begins as an ethereal whisper before growing into something more solid. ´How can you compare me to a fairytale?´, he demands. His voice is never whiny, never monotone, but light and crisp. The lyrics are thoughtful: ´finally found, finally found my insanity´ he sings, leaving the listener to interpret, as it should be. If I have any complaints concerning ´Sound: The Annals of 2010´, it is that there is so little by way of vocals. Gordon has a fine singing voice and he ought to make more of it. ´Dignity´ reveals a range and skill that ought to have greater opportunity to show itself.


Interpretation is personal: witness the varying reactions to, say, a Mozart string quartet. With instrumental music, without lyrics to guide the listener along, meaning is assigned by the listener, and as that meaning, that interpretation, is always personal, such music can come to be more heart-felt and particular to the individual listener. It amounts to – to paraphrase a philosopher – the ´death of the musician´. A John Adams, a Simon Fisher Turner or a Richard Pinhas can, as a result, create epic (and long) audio explorations of musical landscapes that say one thing to them and another to their fans. Rich Gordon is more self-disciplined than this: the longest song on the album is the eleven-and-a-half minute ´Sound´, the finale. But he is interested – I feel – in interpretation (witness the names that he gives his songs: ´Space Swastika´; ´FGT Song´; ´Legends of Shib´; ´There Is No Face´, etc.), he allows space for the listener to ponder the meaning (with the exception of ´Dignity´, which is undoubtedly the most personal of the songs on the album).

Finally, with ´Sound´, the album finale, Rich Gordon demonstrates that he has read and understood the term ´finale´, and so has created an eleven-and-a-half minute piece, full of strong melody, urgency, and fast-paced guitar-playing. But do not take my word for law: you can listen to the album at www.theannalsof2010.co.uk. His own site is www.rgannals.com, where more about this fresh multi-instrumentalist can be uncovered. - American Chronicle (Duncan Mackenzie)