kev rowland Dominique Vantomme is a pianist, keyboardist, composer, band leader, music educator and producer, equally well known for his work with many European pop and rock acts as for being the jazz piano instructor at the Music Conservatory in Kortrijk, Belgium. In 2016 he travelled to Holland to see Stick Men, and after befriending the Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Stick Men plus, literally, countless others), they decided to record together. They were joined in the studio by guitarist Michel Delville (The Wrong Object; douBt; Machine Mass), and drummer Maxime Lenssens, and with Dominique providing the musical sketches, it was then just a case of everyone else settling down and letting the music take them wherever it needed to. The whole album was recorded in just one day in October 2016, and one can’t imagine this being a highly constructed and layered affair as the four musicians are just bouncing ideas off each other and seeing where they will go.

I have known of Michel Delville and his other bands for a number of years now, and here he is at the fractured best that I would expect of him. Tony is melodic, keeping things tight and mellow, while the drums keep playing ahead of the beat to drive things along while Tony holds into the leash. Then there is Dominique also keeping things in a melodic vein with fine organ, but Michel is out to take the music in quite a different direction, and it is the energy between the four as they ride the musical stallion and try to all keep it in the same direction although they all want to go off in different directions, that really makes this work. This is fusion and improvisational jazz working together to create something that is quite special.

js Fusion musicians indulging in a little psychedelic rock is nothing new. Miles Davis’ mid 70s band with Pete Cosey was one of the best psych rock bands ever assembled. Terje Rypdal doesn’t mind dishing out some cosmic grooves now and again, and there is always John McLaughlin’s Hendrix-sounding “Devotion” album with Buddy Miles and Larry Young. You can add Dominique Vantomme’s “Vegir” to that list as it features a quartet of top notch fusion/jazz musicians laying down some of the best inter-stellar rock this side of Ozric Tentacles. The psych rock element figures strongly on “Vegir”. but you also get some Middle-Eastern influenced rhythms, as well as some down tempo type grooves and more. “Playing Chess with Barney Rubble” features a post bop drive with a pronounced backbeat along the lines of Jack DeJohnette. All of these different rhythms are topped with free flowing jazzy solos and/or wall to wall electronic ambience and hallucinogenic drift.

The best parts of this album happen when the solos are going down. Speaking of Pete Cosey, guitar maestro Michel Delville spins out some of the snarliest fret work since the passing of Master Pete. Dominique’s echoed Fender Rhodes rides are also a treat. The times when they rely on just sound and groove without the solos can sound good for a while, but left to this too long, you start missing the energy of the solos. The tempos range from medium to deliberately slow, often recalling the atmosphere of an electronica chill mix. Many of the songs have multi-part arrangements giving the album some of that ‘epic’ prog rock vastness. If psych rock meets fusion is your sort of thing, this album should do the trick. There is a mature cohesion in presentation and production on “Vegir” that puts it a cut above others who may try the same type sound.