FunkFreak75 If Pat Metheny ever worked with Paul Hardcastle or Ed Wynne or Lars and Martin Horntveth this is the music you might get. Yves is, like Ed Wynne, a genius at getting synthetic 'nature' sounds out of his equipment--which I LOVE. And this is no poor imitator or second rate musician! We're talking virtuosity! His textures and solos are all so well thought out, so perfectly layered or alternated--all with this amazing percussive foundation (some manual, a lot electronic).

"Jazz multi-instrumentalist Yves Potin puts lush soundscapes together in a way that might be familiar to lovers of the music of Andreas Vollenweider and Robin Guthrie or even Ozric Tentacles and Paul Hardcastle but where Yves' music is different from the cited artists is in his exciting and use of percussion, layers and layers of synthetically-rendered musical nature sounds over which he employs heavily treated guitars and other synths to move the music forward on their melody lines. It's truly gorgeous music, soul-engaging music." --from my review of Forest Stairways.

1. 'Lake of Night Ruins' (6:47) slowly picked and echo-strummed guitar over thick, jazzy bass, steady, heavy drums, and water synth sounds sets up a nice foundation over which a Pat Metheny-like synth-horn guitar joins in at the 2:00 mark and slowly, steadily introduces its sound and then starts to really solo in the third minute. Yves definitely has the Metheny sound and style down! This is awesome! In the fourth minute Yves even lets us know that he has the speed and technical chops to further earn the Metheny comparisons! Cool song'definitely more jazzy than electronica'more Ozrics than Alio Die. (13.5/15)

2. 'Droplets' (6:40) very catchy melodies in a groovin' jazz song constructed very much like a soundscape of Ozrics Tentacles. Great lead work over the awesome driving rhythm sections by the electric guitar and synthesizers. (9/10)

3. 'Oceaniques Part 1' (3:01) computer/synthesizer-generated water sounds open this song before electrified acoustic guitar joins in with chords and arpeggi. Fretless bass and distant 'French horn' guitar are added to the mix in the second minute. The song pretty much floats along without much development or meat, as one would almost expect based on the title. (7.5/10)

4. 'Swirls' (10:26) opens with more wave-like computer-generated synthesizer sounds behind which slow-attacking electric guitar chords appear about every six seconds. In the third minute a pulsating sound joins in (moving at a time and pace different from the waves on top). Gradually the wave-sounds begin to shift to sound a little more like keyboard chords. Then, at 3:50, a funky bass sequence enters and begins to take over as the pace-setter. By the end of the fifth minute a Allan Holdsworth-like guitar enters and begins to solo in quite an impressive way. He is soon joined by a second guitar lead, this one more synthesized (or is it a keyboard?) The Holdsworth influence (and imitation?) is remarkable. The two go on exchanging the lead in 'duel' fashion keeping us interested by each remaining founded in their own melody lines. So cool! Around 7:40 this begins to decay and a spacious, more cave- like airy section of synthesizer washes and percussives enters. At 8:42 an alarm-like keyboard sequence makes itself briefly known before just as quickly disappearing'and alternating (as if in a conversation) with a slower-attack synth playing chords. Then it ends! too soon! I want more of this conversation! Great song! Really interesting! (20/20)

5. 'Crustacean' (6:07) saw synth washes with heavily reverbed guitar arpeggi are soon joined by very cool funky/fretless/computer-popping bass and keys (so psybient like). David Torn-like guitar enters to take the lead at the end of the second minute. This is so Sylvian-esque! (Brilliant Trees Side Two or Disc Two of Gone to Earth!) Awesome! (9/10)

6. 'Oceaniques Part 2' (7:37) Straightforward jazz with heavily treated instrumental sounds and water/wave samples. The scaled down, more spacious third minute is cool'though it makes you anticipate something dramatic to follow. The muted synth washes and fretless bass in this section are awesome! Electrified acoustic guitar play becomes a soloing instrument. Nice! Again, Yves can't help but show us: he can play! Great musicianship and songwriting skills on display here! (14.25/15)

7. 'Underground River' (7:11) More 'real' water sounds used at the opening with large brass metal bells, gongs, and/or cymbals being played over the top. Early in the second minute an electric guitar screams out a single note that slowly decays. Soon, these 'outbursts' recur while beneath a bass and drum rhythm line is slowly, almost imperceptibly being established. Two chords of magical synth wash support while a very emotional lead guitar solo takes over in the fourth minute. I'm out of comparisons for this sound and soloing style (maybe Narada New Age guitarist Paul Speers), but it's beautiful. (13.5/15)

8. 'Oceaniques Part 3' (3:31) water flowing, washing, over which bass, drums, and guitar weave into a little spacious jazz motif. The soloing, like Part !, and the music here just kind of meander without ever really gelling into a concrete direction'flowing aimlessly despite the currents of the ocean. (7.5/10)

For lovers of the more synthesizer dominant release of 2017, Forest Stairways, be prepared: this not the same; there is much more of a guitar and jazz dominance to this album (which is just as amazing as the synth work of FS.

I haven't said this enough in my reviews of Yves music, but this man can set up some amazing bass lines! I don't honestly know which are programmed and which are played manually but IT DOESN'T MATTER! They're amazing!

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music and definitely a progressive jazz fusion artist to check out!

FunkFreak75 French jazz guitarist Yves Potin has contributed another sophisticated and thought-provoking contribution to Prog World in this decidedly cooler, more unsettling collection of soundscapes. While Yves instrumental and computer prowess is undeniable, the music here is quite dystopian and bleak. I shouldn't be saying that as if it's a bad thing, it's not--it's just the reality of the way things are progressing--especially on the human-disrupted surface of our planet. In that respect, the music presented here is quite powerful in its representation and reflection of the harm and chaos we have wielded upon our Mother. Ridley Scott and Vangelis would be quite appreciative of this music. 1. "Stress" (5:12) Though the power as a support of some tense, deep-in-the-night scene is undeniable, this one is a little too soundtrack-like and less the kind of music that you'd want to play without something theatric or visual to go with it. (Are there videos to any of your songs, Yves?) Virtuosic modern jazz-rock fusion guitar play (in a JERRY DE VILLIERS, JR. kind of way). (8.5/10)

2. "Anguish" (4:22) is like standing in a big city train or bus station and trying to fathom the surrounding chaos. Amazingly affective. (9/10)

3. "Stoned and Blurred" (5:26) unfortunately uses the same guitar sound and arpeggiated chord from the previous song to introduce the theme over the stark industrial soundscapes established by the computer synths. (9/10)

4. "Inverted Twilight" (8:06) Disc Two of Gone to Earth! Awesome job of replicating the ambient soundscapes that David Sylvian created on that awesome album! (8.5/10)

5. "Those I Left Behind" (9:17) More from Disc Two of Gone to Earth! This time with similar guitar parts to the ones that David Sylvian, Robert Fripp, or Bill Nelson added to those ambient landscapes. Add the fretless bass, water drums, and Steve Jansen-like percussive rhythms to the final section and it's a perfect Sylvian replica! (8.5/10)

6. "Cold Bright and Quiet" (9:09) reminds me of the music from Vangelis' 1995 album, Voices. Spacious, deeply engaging and magically hypnotic. Though the lead instruments are nothing but hand percussives and a kalimba-like or kalimba-MIDIed vibraphone, it is eminently effective. The bass and synth washes could be higher up in the mix. (9/10)

An aural masterpiece in its representation of mankind's self-created troubled times, this is music that you don't want to listen to if you're already depressed. I commend and laud Yves' efforts and skills, but this is one of his discs that I'll probably not return to very often. (But then, you never know!)

4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music though this is probably a true masterpiece of progressive electronic music.

FunkFreak75 The second album released by guitar-based prog electronic/jazz/fusion artist Yves Potin under the JazzComputer.Org name. The music here is very difficult to categorize. It is a fusion of many eclectic styles, all very nicely engaging the listener on some wild and otherworldly yet relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable journeys through some very exotic aural topographies that might be better described as coming from "ancient futures."

1. "Indian Mood on Thethys" (9:38) opens like a jazz guitarist's solo sound experimentation. I'm reminded of both Pat Metheny's totally solo album from 1979, New Chautauqua, as well as some of Jan Akkerman's late 1970s solo experimentation (Eli). Gorgeous stuff. The first half goes with very little rhythmic structure (the occasional background synth wash chord), but in the second half the guitar and newly-present bass and talking drum and rim shot percussives become support for the soloing of a koto. Cool sounds and cool stuff. I'd like to have seen a little more melodic development to engage me a little more deeply. (8.5/10)

2. "Dawn in the Snow" (11:34) opens as if it came straight from outtakes from Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack, this song contains some absolutely magical moments (like the sparsely used operatic voice notes) but lacks from full development in many overly-spacious places. (8.25/10)

3. "Elsewhere" (24.55) other than the opening atonal space synthesizer section (which is very cool but a little too long), this song stands up as one of the prettiest, most deeply engaging and evocative electronica pieces I know of from the Naughties. The section from the beginning of minute seven to ten is absolute prog perfection. The percussives in the next section are really cool, as are the space sounds and unsettling synth worms in the thirteenth minute and the guitar "punches" in the fourteenth and fifteenth minutes. The next section that establishes itself around 17:30, driven by the "lunge jazz" beat, is really cool for the scurrilous flights of the synth "bats." If the opening four minutes were as peaceful and engaging as the final four this would be a perfect prog epic. (9.5/10)

A five star minor masterpiece of ambient electronic jazz fusion (or something like that) and a gorgeous example of the possibilities of 21st Century technological potential.

FunkFreak75 Jazz multi-instrumentalist Yves Potin puts lush soundscapes together in a way that might be familiar to lovers of the music of Andreas Vollenveider and Robin Guthrie or even Ozric Tentacles, Steve and David Gordon, and Paul Hardcastle but where Yves' music is different from the cited artists is in his exciting and use of percussion, layers and layers of synthetically-rendered musical nature sounds over which he employs heavily treated guitars, koto, and other synths to move the music forward on their melody lines. It's truly gorgeous music, soul-engaging music.

1. "Flying Owl" (10:12) has the rhythmic drive of a Berlin School sequence-driven song but is guitar, koto, and percussion dominated! The opening 90 seconds is more ambient and relaxing, but by the two minute mark we are off to the races! (9.5/10)

2. "Fern Chimes" (9:47) sounds like the music I would have made had I stuck with it! Love the deep bass tone, the percussive and computer-generated nature sounds, and the guitar strums, and the gentle keyboard play. At 4:50 there is a shift as a bulfrog-like bass line takes over as the main driving force. Many layers of keyboard-generated sounds are interspersed over the top of the bass creating quite a busy image of a nature scene. Vibes in the seventh and eighth minutes are cool. (9.5/10)

3. "Forest Mist" (9:20) wonderfully beautiful and relaxing "Tropical" background over which heavily reverbed electric guitar strums are spaced out so that they can float away with the mist. This is so like a Robin Guthrie soundscape! Then the koto comes in as the lead instrument. Gorgeous! (9/10)

4. "Mirror Lake" (9:17) despite the draw of the lush synths and deep bass lines, it is the busy hand percussion that is my favorite stuff to pay attention to on this one. Great chord and melody lines from the keys here. The added keyboard percussion in the final third of the song is really cool. (9/10)

5. "Future Tribes" (11:32) opens with very slow attacking synth washes and lots of waves of tuned and electronic percussion sounds over which large hand drums are played in hypnotic patterns. Echoing guitar strums enter in the fifth minute while some slow-decaying lead notes also present themselves, one at a time. At the very end of the sixth minute these lead guitar notes start to feel as if it's Allan Holdsworth playing them. Then Pat Metheny-like synth-horn guitar lead joins the party! (Think "Are You Going With Me?") This is awesome! The bass has transformed into something more upbeat and insistent and the percussion falls right in line. I'm dancing! I'm in Heaven! (My version of heaven will have lots of dancing and lots of music like this.) (9.5/10)

I will repeat the statement I made in song #2: Yves has created music that I feel would very well have come out of my own heart/mind/brain had I continued trying to pursue a course as a musician/composer--music that comes from the soul and feeds and affects other souls. Well done! Bravo and Encore! LOTS more!

Five stars; a masterpiece of progressive rock music and definitely a shining masterpiece of prog electronic music. This is my first exposure to Yves' music! I can't wait to get to know his previous (and future) work!