New Taylor's Universe album

[Fifth Element]

Taylor's Universe from Denmark will release their 12th album, Worn Out, in January 2013. This time with a line-up featuring Jakob Mygind and Karsten Vogel (saxophones), Hugh Steinmetz (trumpets), Jon Hemmersam (synth. guitar), Robin Taylor (guitars, keyboards, basses, percussion etc.), Klaus Thrane (drums) and Louise Nipper (voices).

All material composed, arranged and produced by Robin Taylor. Mastering carried out by Udi Koomran.

Label: Marvel of Beauty.

Website (needing some update): www.progressor.net/robin-taylor

[Jon]

I really enjoy Kind Of Red, so I'm looking forward to this a lot.

[Fifth Element]

It has just been reported, that The Rocktologist site has chosen Kind of Red to be among the 12 best progressive rock albums in 2012!

[Fifth Element]

Official release date will be January 25.

[Fifth Element]

https://soundcloud.com/udi-koomran/taylors-universe-munich

Two more excerpts on Soundcloud...

[100423]

I really enjoyed Munich, I'll definitely pick this up in a few weeks.

[Fifth Element]

Worn Out was finally released today and will soon be available from:

www.waysidemusic.com
www.synphonic.8m.com
www.musearecords.com
www.recordheaven.net
www.cdbaby.com

[zleebo]

Always esciting to know a new recording by Robin Taylor ( any version of his bands or solos ). Lots of anticipation by me, but will try and hold back my guessing how it will all sound. *s*

[Fifth Element]

Worn Out will also be available at www.justforkicks.de (Germany).

[Fifth Element]

http://www.therocktologist.com/interview-with-robin-taylor-of-taylors-universe.html

[NogbadTheBad]

Plan to pick this up at some stage.

[Reginod]

Waiting for the reviews section to become active in PE v.3. In the meantime, I'll post in-forum my take on Robin & Co's. new one:




I hope the title of the latest album from Taylor's Universe isn't an indication of the state of the group: Worn Out is the moniker given to this collection of six tracks, but the music therein doesn't indicate ennui or torpor or any such end-of-the-road state of being. Indeed, Taylor's Universe once again seems to be firing on all cylinders!

Actually, Taylor's Universe has been on something of a roll, over the course of their last several albums. Both Artificial Joy from 2009 and Kind Of Red from 2012 were extremely well-conceived and executed recordings, yet they only scratch the surface of the deep reservoir of music that has flowed from the mind and hands of Danish musician, bandleader, composer, and arranger Robin Taylor. Since at least 1990, at the approximate rate of at least one release per year, Mr. Taylor's efforts have been spread across a multitude of projects, including Taylor's Universe, Taylor's Free Universe, Art Cinema, and Communio Musica, as well as his own solo material. During that time, Taylor's Universe in particular has developed a certain knack for bringing his musical ideas to life.

Most of the people involved in the making of Worn Out have been working with Taylor for some time. Recording and mixing engineer (and occasional voice-provider) Louise Nipper has been Taylor's partner-in-art over the course of several years, and drummer Klaus Thrane is also a Taylor's Universe veteran. Saxophonist Jakob Mygind has graced several TU albums, and trumpet/flugelhorn player Hugh Steinmetz contributed to Kind Of Red. Guitar soloist Jon Hemmersam appeared on Oyster's Apprentice back in 2005, and veteran Secret Oyster sax-man Karsten Vogel (something of a progressive rock and fusion legend in his own right) has appeared on and off, on various Taylor projects over the years.

Another more recent contributor to Taylor's work has been Udi Koomran; he has mastered several of Taylor's projects over the last several years, and as a result the clarity of the recordings is rendered in a manner most immaculate! No instrument or sound is buried, even when the soloists are at the fore, yet there is some measure of subtlety to entice the listener. Quite well done.

Each track on Worn Out follows a certain trend: Taylor provides the compositions, and plays the bedrock parts, while giving each soloist a chance to provide some of his own personality to the music. The title of the opening track "Floating Rats" belies the sun-is-rising beauty of Steinmetz' trumpet intro; soon takes a more ominous turn, with Taylor's signature multi-instrumental riffing providing solo soil for Hemmersam's shredding and Steinmetz' easy, back-down-to-earth melodies.

"Munich" starts out featuring a sequenced keyboard figure that I could compare to Tangerine Dream's more notable work, but the composition goes into deeper territory, this time with the saxophones of Mygind and Vogel providing two starkly different solo voices over Taylor's shifting chord figures. At well over 10 minutes, it is the album's longest and perhaps most fully fleshed-out piece, in terms of arranging.

"Imaginary Church" and "Cruelty in Words" both feature a copious amount of Hemmersam's flying-apart-at-the-seams fretboard shredding. Taylor himself is no slouch with the guitar, but giving Hemmersam the solo spotlights helps give Worn Out a slightly different flavor than other Taylor's Universe albums.

The traditional melody-turned-chaotic "Jens In Afghanistan" and the slightly tongue-in-cheek closing track "Sergeant Pepperoni" go a bit farther into the avant-garde end of Taylor's Universe. "Sergeant Pepperoni" in particular goes through several interesting changes over the course of eight and a half minutes, before everybody gets a chance to "fly apart" at the end.

One more good aspect of Worn Out is the length; with an LP-like total time of about 43 minutes, a listener can digest the album without getting burned out. One might find the that the plentiful riffing and chord figures have a good chance of getting stuck in the brain, earworm-style. And it only gets better with repeated listens.

If I wanted to try to be fancy, I would further opine that Worn Out is a collision at the intersection of avant-garde experimentation and brooding beauty, or a study in the juxtaposition of euphonious and cacophonous ideas. Perhaps it would be better-served by just calling it very good music. Taylor's Universe is always a joy to hear, and I wholeheartedly recommend this and any of their albums to anyone with a curious ear for great progressive music.

[Sunhillow]

It's now featured in full at Progstreaming: http://www.progstreaming.com/_wb/pages/play-album.php?activeAlbum=00386 - Iamthemorning - ~

Could use a few Facebook-likes, but I guess that won't happen, since Taylor's Universe isn't even present at Facebook. Ah well.