Short Reviews [Project: Patchwork - 2022 - "Ultima Ratio"]

It is unusual to read a booklet and realise this is the final album from the artist, as usually they are on a high when their art is finally being made available to the public, and that decision is made at some point in the future. However, Gerd Albers decided some time ago that his project was going to have a life span of three albums and as this is the third, he is sticking to that. While Gerd provides guitars, drums & percussion, backing vocals, he brings in other musicians and singers to assist him in fulfilling his dream, and it would be easy to list who they are and what bands they play with, but instead let us just say there are multiple guitarists, keyboard players and singers, plus a few others. I mean, the name gives it away in that this a project bringing together lots of different pieces which Gerd then puts together as a complete whole. Instead of containing the lyrics, the booklet instead explains the rationale behind each song, and while we have been talking quite a bit about Covid albums over the last few years when musicians have not been able to be in the same room, this is the first one I have come across which uses Covid as the concept. Everyone will have a different story about their own experiences, and these differ not only between countries but also between different areas – I work in Auckland, the most locked down city in Aotearoa, yet South Island (where I live) was hardly impacted at all (apart from border closures). Here Gerd attempts to describe the social results of the long-term lockdown situation in Germany and worldwide and whether the consequences of those policies are more serious and long lasting than expected. It is a project, with multiple musicians and singers, and it very much feels that way so is best to think of as an ensemble performance as opposed to a band. This is crossover prog, wonderfully melodic yet also touching into other areas, most notably Neo, and the use of different singers impacts on the overall sound. Interestingly, Gerd says when the songs were originally written and some of them heavily predate the pandemic and were then adjusted accordingly with “Code Red” dating all the way back to 2015 (wonderful vocals on this by Miriam Kraft by the way). Gerd may have completed his trilogy of works under this name, but they are still out there to be discovered, and this one contains more depth and thought than many.