Label: Zenpool Productions

Producer: Carl 'Kirk' Kirkendall

Release Date: 2005

In January 2004, I had the pleasure of presenting Carl Kirkendall and 'Zenpool' with the 2004 IOMA for Best Producer as well as four IOMA Nominations for Best Instrumental, Best Soundtrack, Best Electronic Artist, and Best Instrumental Artist. That's one hell of an achievement by anyone's standards and it's an achievement that came just over a year before this incredible and sensually stunning album was released!

Working with some of the world's most notable musicians that includes Von Babasin (OnOffOn) from LA, and Steve Hall (the questionnaires) from England, Carl and his entourage have pulled off another extraordinary achievement in Kharmonics' - a highly engaging assortment of front line progressive rock and horizon brightening electronika. This album is without doubt, a masterpiece of collective musicianship and advanced production techniquery and this review is here to explain exactly why that's a fact..

Scirroco opens the album up like an anthem representing the world of independent music and it's very bright and prosperous future, OR, like an anthem representing the very best directions that independent music could possibly take, OR, like the opening of a world class artist before a maximum capacity audience at one of the greatest stadiums ever built! You see, in approximately three minutes, Scirroco not only identifies it's composer, when your familiar with his work, it also acts as the sound stage and lighting rig for what's about to unfold in your listening experience. Superb sweeps and pads and keyboard canvas paintings are beautifully realized along with Steve Hall's fantastic guitar work. It's a wonderful arrangement; the kind of thing that makes you wish you could devote every waking hour in pursuit of the same thing Zenpool pursues cos it's gotta be bloody good for you in all kinds of wonderful ways!

Majiker arrives with a happy almost Christmassy tapestry of electronic fluorescence and very tight bass playing before the guitars join in to add even more contrast, colour, and brightness. Joel Kelly's vocal is so well styled and synchronized into the mix that you could swear your listening to one of the best Yes tracks ever produced. The 'Zenpool' difference is in the highly contagious arrangement especially in the vocal delivery and drum workings. Watch out for the rather astonishing guitar meanderings as the track moves forward into the 4.40 mark!

Night of a thousand stars part 1 is the one minute twenty eight second piece that you wish would go on for another couple of hours. With it's very apt title, you're being invited to Zenpool's night sky... visually magnificent and awe inspiring, and free of light pollution of any kind. This is a lovely little drift track.. and your the path ahead is provided by the little specs of light above you.

For bleeding hearts and artists again features the fret board talents of Steve Hall and is one of the most beautifully composed pieces of instrumental music I have heard in the past thirty years! Soul caressing in it's presentation and delivery, this track is a truly magnificent example of one of the finest forward thinking progressive compositions you're ever likely to find. The Caledonian pipes, percussion, and drum work are intricate and very entertaining and the little vocal inserts are both intriguing and well produced. Like Scirroco, it's another anthem for it's genre and accomplishment and it also firmly establishes the composer as a true innovator of contemporary progressive rock. The north shore of heaven meanwhile, takes the listener to the other half of the sky in an instant and without the need for a transporter operated by a funnily clothed guy with a Scottish or Irish accent! I love what happens in this superb piece of audio wonderment.. you have all the essential ingredients of a classy composition with classy production. At something over five or so minutes in length, this beautiful piece of lyrically adorned music is actually quite spiritually uplifting. Complete with Vengelisian sweeps and pads and other keyboard born meanderings, the vocals pull you gently towards that part of your listening experience that makes you feel truly grateful that you chose the right pair of headphones and/or speakers to round off the experience!

The sixth track on this amazing album is entitled Gridspace.. it's a monolith of audio enlightenment and studio wizardry that you'd have a very hard time trying to find on any other CD in existence. What makes the track particularly eventful is the originality in the composition and arrangement coupled with the very clever choice of sound components that Zenpool is obviously renowned for. Keep your eye on the way Carl messes with those oscillators and peaks... it's the stuff of audiophilic delight! Immediately following Gridspace is the global audience widening Come the time.. now get that volume up for this one! The track and it's completely ear nourishing production was always part of your destiny and your destiny is to be even more discerning with the progressive rock genre now that you have benefited from this particular listening experience. Vocal additions to this track are magnificently arranged and delivered as is the exclusively painted percussion... it's simply a true masterpiece!

Hashish sounds like it was born in Morroco or Tunisia... it has that kind of North African vibe in there but with some Westernization sprinkled into the mix in all of the right but necessarily unpredictable places. I really like the percussion in this track but then the percussion treatments throughout this album have been very tight and thought provoking. Following on from Hashish, we have the short but much needed heart and soul massaging My happy place. For those of you who aspire to this kind of standard you're gonna need one huge album collection of the world's finest artists to draw inspiration from! This lonely corner however, is the one that you wish you'd written and composed in the twilight realm of your personalized imaginings. With it's brightly lit tempo and dimly lit vocal treatment, you get the feeling that you're being captivated a little more than you expected to be. Watch out for the way the music captures your attention immediately after the SOS statement in the lyrics!

The final track on this album is the magnificent Earthbound. This is where the composer, whether he realizes it or not, shares the same pedestal as all of those guys who work in the same meadow of audio enlightenment. Guys like Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Rick Wakeman, Chris Franke, and Edgar Froese. If this album was a visual experience, it would be visually stunning and globally eye widening. Now it's not difficult surely to imagine this incredible epitaph as the final piece in a three hour long live show... the one that has everybody mentally drooling! That's just what happens with excellence in independent music these days... and I can positively state that Zenpool is no stranger to that indisputable reality because, quite simply, Zenpool transcends excellence in independent music!

 

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