Soniq Theater - Life Seeker

This 2008 release was Alfred’s eighth album, and as with the vast majority of his releases he was the only person involved in it’s making. I presume that means that he provided the vocals on the opening title cut as well, and I really wish that he hadn’t, as for me it really detracts from what follows. While Alfred is a great keyboard player, composer and arranger: he isn’t a singer, and I just couldn’t see the point. But, moving away from that, this is yet again a very solid album and again I found myself wishing that Alfred would get a proper band around him so that we could hear these compositions with the correct instruments instead of synthesized versions. Having played a great many of his albums recently, his unique style has definitely become more apparent to me. Although there are obvious elements of Jean Michel Jarre, Emerson and (to a lesser extent) Wakeman, he has a certain turn of phasing and style that is very much his own. The songs are solid, and don’t fall into meandering meaningless entities that some solo artists are guilty of.