I KNOW YOU WELL MISS CLARA — Chapter One (review)

I KNOW YOU WELL MISS CLARA — Chapter One album cover

Album · 2013 · Fusion

5/5 · 2025-06-01
FunkFreak75

Incredible Jazz-Rock Fusion from Indonesia with guitar prodigy Reza Ryan in the lead. I can definitely see why Moonjune Records is backing this band and album.

1. "Open The Door, See The Ground" (10:17) for the first 2:15 of this song, keyboard maestro Adi Wijaya and his rhythm section perform over a chord progression that feels Crimsonian, UZedian, and eerily dystopian. But then bassist Enriko Gultom and drummer Algiah Akbar establish a totally new rhythm structure to support the odd chords while Adi switches to Fender Rhodes for tinkling his ivories for a bit in a Chick Corea kind of style. Then at 3:42 Reza Ryan makes a bold entrance with his loud and heavily-distorted (and compressed) electric guitar, playing in a dynamic and dissonant style that could be called a blend of Larry Coryell with hints of Allan Holdsworth, and Tevor Rabin The next motif feels almost Zeuhlish with some really odd guitar note play over some weird Yes-like "The Solid Time of Change" (first section of the song "Close to the Edge") only on speeded up as if on steroids. This section crescendos then leaves us at the edge of a cliff looking down into a great canyon of limited movement, limited life (a recapitulation of the song's opening Fender Rhodes-created theme). A brilliant song and a great album opener! I KNOW YOU WELL MISS CLARA definitely have my attention--and full respect (already)! (19/20) 2. "Conversation" (8:02) another sparsely supported Fender Rhodes opening using odd chord progressions--this time sounding more jazz-oriented: like something from a John McLaughlin album. Reza's guitar joins Adi in the second half of the second minute, playing off and with Adi's chord progressions, and then the bass and drums kick in, though with minimal form and flow thus far, while Adi moves to supportive chord play as Reza steps up to lead the melody making. Surprisingly, Adi soon steps up to play off of, against Reza's note play: not as a duel but more as a curious but shy friend trying to mimic or copy his friend. Quite cool! Such clever ideas being rendered with such creativity and dexterity. (14.25/15)

3. "Pop Sick Love Carousel" (6:16) opening with a very cool ominous ECM jazz rock fusion sound and motif, the moody, spacious music takes about 1:35 to really form out of what feels like a very pungent primordial soup. The melodies and funky Jazz-Rock Fusion tune that emerges is surprisingly organ-centric for a bit before a full-band breakout early in the fourth minute reminds the listener why Jazz-Rock Fusion fits under the Progressive Rock umbrella. There are some really cool sounds used here--as well as some really interesting (and super cool) engineering choices (really up-close and personal--like you're sitting in the chairs of the musicians!): from the guitar, keys, and even engineers. Each motif is great and feels continuous--like it all fits just the way it was meant to. And the solos from Reza are nothing short of astounding! Some of the best I've heard in the 21st Century. (9.75/10)

4. "Reverie #2" (14:51) the first song that has me thinking of "What if Herbie Hancock's Headhunters and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra ever composed and performed together"--like the Santana-McLaughlin album Love Devotion Surrender. Bass player Enriko Gultom is sure having fun with his wah pedal and other effects while Adi's Herbie-like chord exploration is beyond prediction or comprehension and Reza's blaring-with-feedback guitar sound gives Mahavishnu's decibel level a whole new category. The guitar sound and style of play in the first motif of the song is so similar to that of EEF ALBERS' "Wingless" and "Orion" from FOCUS' 1978 album, Focus Con Proby. Cool, cool song! One to be studied for years to come! (28/30)

5. "Love Letter From Canada" (4:26) post-apocalyptic atmospherics (from a world nearly void of any activity signifying the presence of life) from Adi and Reza with subtle, minimal help from Enriko and Algiah. It sounds very much like something the ECM label would have fostered and/or created. (8.875/10)

6. "Dangerous Kitchen" (9:04) more heavily-treated guitar--this time coming in single-strummed chords progressing up and down the fretboard--starting out very starkly accompanied by subtle cymbal play and walking bass line that gradually fills and speeds up while sax and rest of the drum kit join in. In the third minute there is a coming together of the full band with a bridge of chords before releasing time and space to the walking bass drum shuffle before a second whole-band bridge. Adi emerges from this second bridge on his piano, soloing with both hands seeming to be trying to get on the same page together. Fascinating! If I didn't know better I almost would have guessed that there were two different pianists playing on two different tracks, neither having a clue as to what the other was doing. Bridge and up front steps Nicholas Combe--but I find myself still glued to paying attention to Adi's fascinating "two-mind" piano chord play beneath. Reza enters in the seventh minute with a very creative choppy solo--even trebling up his sound with two other tracks of heavily-treated guitar backing his own soloing from each of the wings. The band comes back together, livening things up with some more energetic whole-band spirit, for the finish. Fascinating song: definitely unusual and highly creative. Not sure (yet) whether I like (18.25/20)

7. "A Dancing Girl From Planet Marsavishnu Named After The Love" (10:48) as the awesome song title suggests, this is a song inspired by and imitative of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The open motif is quite like something from the First Incarnation of the MO, using an ascending chord progression of unusual chords to build the song around. In the third minute solos break out from keyboardist Adi Wijaya's electric piano and Nicholas Combe's alto sax, and then Reza's guitar. All the while bassist Enriko Gultom and drummer Algiah Akbar keep things moving: at first continuing the same ascending chord progression from the opening motif, but then, beneath Reza, switching to a more centralized groove. At the end of the seventh minute the rhythm section changes pace, slowing things down a bit with a swirly swing within which Mr. Combe takes the lead again. This swirling passage is quite hypnotic, allowing Nicholas lots of room to shine--and shine he does--but then the song is suddenly over! Faded out right in the middle of a great groove! Too bad! A great song! Listening to it again I can also see where those King Crimson albums of 1973 & 1974 (Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, and Red) came from. (19/20)

Total Time 63:44

This record has such an intimate sound and feel--as if you're there creating the music with the band. At the same time, the individual musicians are so creative--as are the constructs of the wonderfully-creative compositions and melodies. I feel that keyboard player Adi Wijaya is well-steeped in everything HERBIE HANCOCK (maybe even figured out how to channel the Sly Chameleonic Butterfly), whereas Reza and the rhythm crew seem to hold Mahavishnu John McLaughlin close to their core.

A/five stars; a masterpiece of modern-day Jazz-Rock Fusion that pays respect to (and draws from) so many of the masters of classic Jazz-Rock Fusion! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.