This album sounds almost as a homage to great British progressive guitarists: Robert Fripp and Steve Hackett. Since neither are mentioned in the booklet, one has to presume that that is not necessarily the intention of this album, but the semblance is there.

The first seven tracks sound like the nineties solowork of Robert Fripp. Be both find tracks that have an electronic feel, close so soundscapes from that period, as well as we find more guitar oriented material.

The second part, starting from track 8, Armchair Fisherman, resembles the more classically oriented solo material by Steve Hackett, as can be heard most clearly on Bay Of Kings. Guitaristically the material is nice, but like Hackett's material: you have to be really into this kind of stuff, or you are going to lose attention after a couple of tracks.

A Current In The Vein is once again moving more in the direction of Fripp, especially the League of Gentlemen material, in being acoustic still. Autumn Rain stylistically falls in with its predecessor, whilst Lower Reaches mingles early Hackett solo works with the more acoustically directed King Crimson tracks (especially I Talk With The Wind).

Noticeable exceptions are Crescent, which is carried by flutish sounds and tockling guitar and River Blank Cyclist, a melancholic acoustic guitar with odd vocals. Both are quite beautiful, and really the highpoints of the album.

Conclusion

The music played sounds good in itself. However, it comes too close to Fripp and Hackett in its respective tracks to stand on itself most of the time. The two most original tracks of the album are also the two best, which makes me all the more for the lack of more of such material. Good music, but not adding enough new to the musical spectrum.

Synopsis. Do you remember Steve Hackett's "Momentum" (1988), most of the compositions of which consist exclusively of the parts of acoustic guitar, and two tracks feature in addition those of flute? The music of Mr. Fossil is highly original and doesn't resemble anything else, and nevertheless, some comparisons between this and the aforementioned album are inevitable. Hikaru Sekine is a masterful guitar player, and, like in the case of "Momentum", most of the contents of his first album represent classical guitar-based pieces and sketches. To be more precise, eight out of the fourteen tracks here (1 to 3, 6, & 8 to 11) consist of passages and solos of acoustic guitar, some of which were performed with the use of the "Chorus" pedal and, thus, are accompanied by echoes. The music is both beautiful and complex. All three of the last tracks on the album: A Current in the Vein, Autumn Rain, and Lower Reaches are also very interesting, though they differ from those depicted above both compositionally and structurally and have a more polyphonic sound. These present constantly developing interplay between varied, slow and up-tempo, passages of semi-acoustic guitar and soft, fluid solos of electric guitar. Tea Ceremony (7) is an Ambient-like piece, which is OK, but hardly fits the overall musical palette of the album. The remaining two tracks however, are certainly superfluous here, to say the least. The very short Notice (5) could've been regarded as an intro to the following track if there were no pause between them, while in reality it looks just like a strange foreign body in the album, as well as the preceding piece Crescent though, which is the only track here where there are only a few overdubbed and rather abstract solos of flute and no guitars.

Conclusion. Well, some, yet, distinct stylistically compositional inconsistence of the music on "Fossil" is a typically beginner's fault, and I want to believe that the next Hikaru Sekine album will be more mature. Nevertheless, about four fifths of the album are worthy to be heard and should be especially liked by those into an acoustic guitar-based progressive music.

VM: November 17, 2003