Detailed Reviews [John Edmonds - 1991/2003 - "When Schemes Come True"]

Prolusion. Described as an instrumental Jazz-Rock intrigue for guitars and electronic orchestra, "When Schemes Come True" is John Edmonds' very first album. It was originally released on cassette in September 1991 but was available only briefly because the distributor had folded. Mastered for CD a couple of months ago, the album now comes back to life. Those interested can read the review of John's latest effort "Subzerosonic" by clicking >here.

Synopsis. "When Schemes Come True" differs from John's latest album by many aspects, including such key ones as composition and sound. While performed with practically the same set of instruments as "Subzerosnic", this is a more diverse, complex, and warm album, which isn't cluttered with electronic features and doesn't concern electronic music as such. It seems at the time the album was written and recorded John was very much impressed by Classical Music, as there is no one composition that doesn't have a classical feel to it. Only two pieces: Networked and Relapse (1 & 3) have the sound of a full band, which remains indestructible throughout them. The music on these pieces is highly diverse and complex and is quite a unique combination of Symphonic Art-Rock and Jazz-Fusion with elements of Classical Music. The alternation of intensive and mild, but always thoughtful and effective arrangements often notable for amazing tempo contrasts between the parts of guitar and keyboards (synthesizer and piano) and those of a string ensemble, bass, and drums is typical for both of them. Not a single track on "When Schemes Come True" does feature repetitions, but the ever-changing musical events on the album never exceed the bounds of (classic progressive) logic and harmony. The other four compositions: Talk of Times, Ghost of John, Brainwatched, and When Schemes Come True (2, 5, 6, & 7) are somewhat the experiments on uniting Classical Academic Music with varied manifestations of Progressive Rock. To be more precise, Contemporary Classical Music is the essence of these pieces, and in a pure form, it covers about two thirds of each of them. The remaining one third represents a classically influenced Space Rock (on 2), Jazz-Fusion (on 5), and Symphonic Art-Rock (on 4 & 6). While all of the aforementioned instruments were used on these pieces, too, to the forefront of arrangements is brought an electronic orchestra, all the parts of which, i.e. those of varied string and chamber instruments, including oboe and harp, sound so realistic that the impression of hearing a real symphonic orchestra I had while listening to them was almost full. Which is certainly due to the fact that everything on this album is genuinely inspired and free of any bit of pretense and theatricality. (Being the adherent of symmetry, I only would've placed Relapse either on track 2 or at the very end of the album: for the sake of a stylistic symmetry, of course.)

Conclusion. With the release of "When Schemes Come True" John Edmonds has promoted himself to the class of the most creative Solo Pilots 'flying' alone (i.e. without a crew or 'useful passengers'), such as Peter Frohmader, Arne "Apogee" Schafer, Jeremy, etc. Of course, this effort gets my highest recommendations, and I am sure that it will be liked by most of the profound and open-minded connoisseurs of progressive music.

VM: October 14, 2003