Reviewed by Eric Saeger
This jazz setup, led up by Munich-born violinist Natalia Brunke, could have been conducive to some exquisite creativity. Could have been. The major fail here is singer Marina Trost, whose workaday voice is as interchangeable as a muffler in a 1998 Buick, a warning from the get-go that there will be nothing more eventful here than some hilariously average lounge sounds. Brunke telegraphs her tedious motives as well, from “let’s see what this weirdy-beardy violin-gimmick will sound like on tape” (at the beginning of the title track) to “modal experiment! I’ll do a modal experiment!” (on torch ballad ‘Love Is All There Is’). The angular ‘Desperation’ exhibits signs of life, but overall, damn, I just smell a vanity release from overeducated also-rans, fit for the most uninviting wine bistro you’ve ever visited.
Grade: C-
