Review of John Link's CD

I just received and enjoyed John Link's new CD, hot off the press.
There are 23 tracks and 66+ minutes of music, and what better compliment
can I give than that, when it was all over, I longed for more? Yes, I
do have a few criticisms. But they should be received in the context of
overall delight.

I very VERY much approve of the basic premise of the disk: using the
human voice as a musical instrument. With few exceptions, there are
no "words" recognizable in any spoken language; rather, the voices are
used to form musical syllables.

The one non-voice instrument is a guitar (classical?) adeptly played
by John Link himself in every one of the cuts (second listening: not
quite all). For the most part, it provides a good accompaniment to the
voices, but at times I grew tired of it, and wished either for no
instrument at all, or another, or for it to be pulled back a bit in the
mix...

The women (two sopranos) are IMHO excellent, with clear lovely voices.

At times I was critical of the pitch control of the male voices. Please
understand, this is coming from someone who loves to sing, but whose
voice is lacking compared to anyone on the CD.

All arrangements are by John Link. Included are compositions by famous
names: Mussorgsky, Debussy, Satie, Chick Corea, and Miles Davis, plus
other composers whose names I don't recognize, and several pieces by
John himself. The largest of these last is a 7-movement work called
"Suite for Quintet" in rondo form (A-B-A-C-A-D-A) which is very nice,
showing strong promise as a composer.

Since this is a recording of a live performance, there are occasional
coughs (there's one in every audience).

Strictly speaking, the disk is not "microtonal"; it is 12-tET, as far as
my ear can tell. But, as I occasionally admit, JI is not the most
important component to good music; many other factors make or break a
performance. Count this disk as "make".

I ordered mine for $15 plus $3 shipping (more outside the U.S.) from:

John Link
141 West 26th Street, 3rd Floor
New York NY 10001

John, the spirit of music is with you. I'm ready to buy your next CD
when it's released!

JdL