Dewa Budjana
Zentuary
Favored Nations/MoonJune Records
2016
Dewa Budjana returns only a year after the amazing “Hasta Karma”, with a double album this time, titled “Zentuary”. Dewa has Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Stick Men) on electric upright NS Design bass & Chapman Stick, Gary Husband (John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth, UK etc.) on drums, keyboards & acoustic piano and Jack DeJohnette (Keith Jarrett, Miles Davis etc.) on drums & acoustic piano by his side in this album. But there’s more than that, as the album features some special guest appearances by guitarist Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats, Steven Wilson), Tim Garland (Chick Corea, Bill Bruford) on tenor sax, Danny Markovich (Marbin) on curved soprano sax, Saat Syah (Tohpati) on custom made Indonesian suling flute, Ubiet (Tony Prabowo, Dewa etc.) on vocals, Risa Saraswati (Solo, Homogenic) on vocals and finally the Czech Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michaela Ruzickova. I guess Dewa never ceases to impress us with his great collaborations.
Still, it is impressive how Dewa manages to blend various music styles such as: prog rock, jazz-rock, jazz/fusion, ethnic music, art-rock, atmospheric, smooth jazz with lots of improvisations and present such an inspiring & stimulating final outcome. All tracks have been composed, arranged and produced by Dewa himself, except for “Crack in the Sky”, which was composed by Markus Reuter & Tony Levin. The album was mixed & mastered by Robert Feist at Ravenswork Studio, Ojai, CA. The sound is smooth, clear & lush as always.
Dewa does not need any special presentation, as he is already known to the Western music world too (apart from the Eastern one) and with his new collaboration with Steve Vai’s Favored Nations music label, he will eventually gain some more publicity in the West. “Zentuary” is a qualitative & imposing album, which follows the same music path of Dewa’s latest music works…
Still, it is impressive how Dewa manages to blend various music styles such as: prog rock, jazz-rock, jazz/fusion, ethnic music, art-rock, atmospheric, smooth jazz with lots of improvisations and present such an inspiring & stimulating final outcome. All tracks have been composed, arranged and produced by Dewa himself, except for “Crack in the Sky”, which was composed by Markus Reuter & Tony Levin. The album was mixed & mastered by Robert Feist at Ravenswork Studio, Ojai, CA. The sound is smooth, clear & lush as always.
Dewa does not need any special presentation, as he is already known to the Western music world too (apart from the Eastern one) and with his new collaboration with Steve Vai’s Favored Nations music label, he will eventually gain some more publicity in the West. “Zentuary” is a qualitative & imposing album, which follows the same music path of Dewa’s latest music works…