If there was another record label in which every single album was produced by the same man, I'd be anxious for someone to apprise me of that unlikely circumstance, particularly when the label has been around for well over 30 years, putting out an untold number of albums every year, unfailingly consistent in quality. I'm quite doubtful of the possibility, but have to throw the question out there. Of a countless number of recordings on the unsurpassed ECM label, I've heard perhaps 50, and the similarity in mood is ever reliable. Manfred Eicher is the deity toward whom all who eschew jazz should look for many a pleasant offering. I used to think of Eicher's label as the experimental jazz label, then realized that was only my response to how untraditional the music here is, compared with what had come prior to the late 60's. Most of the material on this label is friendly to a somber lights-out listening experience, although it is not all dark, merely accomodating toward moods of the reflective sort. To show the consistency of the moodiness on ECM recordings, listen to any (and all) original compositions on ECM's modern classical sublabel, New Series, (most of it seemingly written or performed by Finns with a "K" surname, for seeming convenient recognition of Upper Echelon mystic space classical). Misted moors and tarns come to mind, inescapably so. The high standards in the recordings are above world class, or, rather, define it, as my response to all the unastute CD snobs who've made the claim that CDs sound better than vinyl because you don't have surface noise have obviously not listened to a single ECM record, the vinyl of which defies the laws of friction, and, if there is any surface noise, even in the quietest of passages, it is detectable only by high tech lab equipment. MoFi's, Half Speed Masters and Direct To Disc recordings are obviated in the face of ECM's masterful vinyl standards.

On this album, Abercrombie (guitar) is joined by Jan Hammer (organ, synth and piano) and the estimable Jack DeJohnette (drums). I've always said that many a rock band would have been a prog band had their drummer been any other than a metronome (Queen comes to mind). While Timeless would still be prog, or at the very least, jazz, it is the drummer DeJohnette who holds it together as if it were his project, entirely. The fluidity and the sense of spaciness as revealed through his deft use of the cymbals (a frequent mark of an ECM recording) are all his, Abercrombie and Hammer merely guesting on his performance. Where Hammer all but ruined the early solos of both Neal Schon (Journey, etc.) and James Young (Styx), via his clunky percussive manglings which almost gave me an appreciation for the thuddiness of the drumming in Nightwing, but brought to mind much moreso the crass playing of Van Halen's drummer, he is generally prevented from such ill moves here in his subdued capacity as keyboardist. Nonetheless, you can hear his attempts to turn a keyboard instrument into a thunky drum kit in the first track, a funking up that is, at worst, cute, though too early in his game as recording personality to do ruination to this fine album. In fact, it works best here when Hammer is using a keyboard in a percussive manner. Of 6 tracks, the first and fourth are Hammer compositions, and, having cast deserved aspertions on his later playing, I'll have to acknowledge these two are clearly the best two cuts on the record, that without question. Where the other four, all Abercrombie pieces, are more in the "good" newage category, light and introspective space and space-jazz, the Hammer pieces showcase a good bit of what I'll call worthy tributes, if seemingly premature, to Return To Forever. An element of classical music shows up ever-so-briefly amidst the playfulness of "Red And Orange", and, if there was any doubt at all about my RTF claim, the track ends with a distinctly trademark RTF finish. You'll be smiling if not cheering if you'd played Romantic Warrior a day before and were trying to find something akin to spin. There are doubtless many other jazz referents that could be made here, however my forays into that genre are insufficient to make adequate commentary or further comparisons.

Abercrombie uses several guitars it seems clear, very acidic while simultaneously wickedly fusionistic and reminiscent of early Amboy Dukes or even the brain-frying solo on the Ozark's "Jackie Blue" on "Lungs", then acoustic on "Love Song".

The entire recording is highly desirable in it's demand for return listens, and, if not as jammin' as some of the excellent and more ambitious fusions (RTF, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Brand X, Baltik, Suntreader), it is praiseworthy not only as a good melding of jazz and rock, but also as space jazz, as nearly everything on the ECM label is, the initial invitation evidenced by the cover art of so many items on the label.

-Mark Dumke.