PAT METHENY — Orchestrion (review)

PAT METHENY — Orchestrion album cover Album · 2010 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
FunkFreak75
When this album came out in 2010, I think that the explanatory and illustrative YouTube videos must not have been available yet because NOBODY who has reviewed this album seems to understand the process by which this music was created (not even you, Slava G). Based on the principles behind the player piano and the follow-up phenomenon known as the "orchestrion", every single sound, instrument, note, chord, etc. on this album is played by instruments set up in a single room and ALL ARE PLAYING AT THE SAME TIME according to Pat's guitar and foot pedal links and programmed commands--and its done through mechanical methods, not MIDI or computer programs: that is, pneumatics, solenoids, pulleys and levers! Pat is, in fact, wearing (and playing) THE ROOM just as a circus act's one-man band might have done one hundred years ago, only with literally thousands of instruments connected to his manual and pedular ministrations (and with the advantage of electrical connections)! The effort to design a song much less performa and record must have been nothing short of gargantuan. Think of the roadies and sound engineers having to transport and set up the "room" on stages around the world when Pat toured for this album! I STRONGLY urge you to watch any and all of Pat's videos to gain some appreciation for the effort (and genius) that went into the making of this music (and the room!)

While I agree that there are very few groundbreaking sounds, melodies, or songs coming out of Pat's "experiment"--it still sounds like Pat Metheny and no other--I am so torn as to how to rate this album due to the sheer awe and respect I hold for this man's unbound creativity. "Genius" hardly seems to give him his due. He is a Wile E. Coyote of music: a "Super Genius"!

I'm going to call this "essential" for the sake of its ground-breaking means to delivering complex, multi-layered jazz music despite it's "smoothness" or familiarity. Plus, I invite you: any of you, to try to play along with Pat and his guitar. It's not as easy as it sounds; it's just that he's also a genius of melody-making (and a genius at making sounds that sound easy to make).
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