ARNAUD QUEVEDO & FRIENDS – 2ND LIFE (2023)

Arnaud Quevedo is the multi-instrumentalist and music teacher (guitar, bass, keys, drums and sax) behind this ambitious project, with albums entitled “Hommage à Magma”, “Gong” (2015) and “Zappa” (2017).

“2nd Life” is a genre-defying album, with varying time signatures, rhythms and a strong melodic core. Descriptions of “loops”, “riffs” and “grooves” is a fair one, with elements of progressive metal and some KING CRIMSON influence, and a strong jazz core, with horns and strings. Featuring a breathy lead singer, Eloïse Baleynaud, the core of the album is a 4-part title track spread over 39 minutes interspersed with four earlier reworked Quevedo tracks. The concept that runs through the album involves four ‘phases of life’: awakening, journey, inner demons and hindsights.

‘Any 2.0’, with its funky jazz vibe, progresses through acoustic guitar, violin, flute, sax before Quevedo unleashes a fine guitar break; some fine bass playing underpins the music. ‘2nd Life Part 2’ is 12 minutes of fusion music gold with a synth solo (the room for expression by the other musicians is a strong point of the album). It can be heard on Bandcamp and is also self-released on CD.

A full review can be read in the forthcoming edition of ACID DRAGON.