Buaas, Anders: The Edinburgh Suite

The Edinburgh Suite will be the fifth studio album by Norwegian guitarist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Anders Buaas. Mr. Buaas has partnered on this opportunity with drummer Marco Minnemann (Steven Wilson, The Aristocrats, The Mute Gods, The Sea Within, etc.), bassist Tony Franklin (The Firm, Blue Murder, Whitesnake, Derek Sherinian, Rocket Scientists, etc.), keyboardist Richard Garcia and percussionist Christian Berg to create this concept album about the streets and history of Edinburgh.

Two songs, two epics… old school in the sense that if released in the vinyl then each song would have been a whole side of the record. “The Edinburgh Suite Pt. 1 Old Town� is my favorite of the two tracks, both instrumental btw. Acoustic arpeggios open the first track, then the keys, then bass, then electric medieval guitar licks, all enchanting and beautiful, very folky and melodic, love at first listen. This track smoothly fluctuates through different music genres and subgenres, every single one masterfully executed by this cast of very talented musicians. They tease with cowboy-western banjo-based cantina folk, piano bar music with jazz elements, symphonic prog, neo prog, chamber music, medieval atmospheric organ-based music, and even some early electronic krautrock, it’s quite outstanding… Buaas is taking the listener through his interpretation of Edinburgh’s musical history. Marco’s drumming is amazing, same as Franklin’s incredibly rhythmic and melodic bass playing, but besides discovering a great musician/composer/guitarist in Anders Buaas, I feel very impressed by the keyboardist, Christian Berg, whose participation here is fundamental in every sense. An instrumental modern masterpiece.

“The Edinburgh Suite Pt. 2 New Town� is…well, a different beast. This track took a couple more listens to cast the spell. Modern sounding heavy metal, almost proggy and spacey, with shredding guitar soloing by Mr. Buaas, keys and guitar licks harmonizing and creating hooks that make the first quarter of the track memorable. Buaas briefly revisits the cowboy-cantina-folky melody but this time in steroids and then rescues the track with the anthemic guitars and keys. Floydian keyboards mixed with clean guitars and mallets provide hypnotic sounds that remind me a little of IQ’s “Ocean� (TROB) and that starts gaining tempo and impulse thanks to Marco’s amazing technical drumming and Buaas’s guitars. When Tony Franklin is invited to the rhythmic and melodic party his presence is well felt too, this is a wonderful crew of musicians doing an amazing job, well balanced throughout the whole trip, with no apparent leader or standout virtuoso, until the last 4-5minutes of this track where Andres Buaas emerges with his best guitar work yet to give his creation a well-deserved magnific ending, heartfelt, bluesy, happy and sad. Beautiful.

Track Listing:
1) The Edinburgh Suite Pt. 1 Old Town (20:30)
2) The Edinburgh Suite Pt. 2 New Town (21:30)

Added: November 2nd 2022
Reviewer: Jose Antonio Marmol
Score:
Related Link: Artists @ Bandcamp
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Language: english

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