Short Reviews [Alberto Rigoni - 2022 - "Songs for Souls"]

During Covid, Alberto decided he was not going to release any more music, but after his father dies towards the end of 2015, he decided to bring in some friends to assist him in making an instrumental release as a tribute. Rigoni is of course a bassist (solo, BAD As, Natural Born Machine, Bassists Alliance Project, Vivaldi Metal Project etc.) and this release includes contributions from Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Jennifer Batten (Michael Jackson, Jeff Beck), Mark Zonder (Fates Warning) and others. The result is something which contains some amazing musicianship, yet somehow leaves me really cool. This is while there are some interesting numbers such as “Talking with My Demons”, which has mightily impressive contributions from drummer Mike Zonder and keyboard player Alessandro Bertoni, there are plenty of others with huge note density but no direction. I have played this a few times now, but each time I soon start wondering what I am going to cook for dinner and how much longer does this have to go? That I find it more interesting than his release with Marco Minnemann, ‘EvoRevolution’, is not exactly something to shout about given I found that one tedious and boring. This is not in quite the same league, but while pleasant I found little here which makes me want to go through it again.