A Grand Tour Indeed

The Grand Tour is what you need to get away. Land Observations has made a career for himself as a sonic travel guide and The Grand Tour is exactly what you need to get “there.” When a musician is also a fine artist, these things tend to happen. Land Observations creates minimalistic music that not only warrants an emotional or imaginative response, it demands it.

The Grand Tour starts off with “On Leaving The Kingdom For The Well-Tempered Continent,” with bouncy, anticipation-filled guitar riffs. There is a bit of foreboding energy, but why shouldn’t there be? A trip like this deserves a bit of respect and apprehension. By the end of the opening track, your window is down, wind stinging your eyes, and you’re onto “Flatlands and Flemish Roads.”

The path The Grand Tour takes you down is not always an easy one. Things get lonely and even tumultuous as the journey progresses. “From The Heights Of Simplon Pass” has the ability to make you feel small in this big world. “Nice To Turin,” though, can make a person feel like it was all put there for them. From there, “Walking The Warm Colonnades” feels like there is a chance that this trip may take a sinister turn, that it isn’t going to end the way you want it to. Rhythmic, pounding bass lines consume guitar lines that don’t sound sure of themselves and make the listener feel uneasy about heading home.

The “Return To Ravenna,” though, is the welcome-back that the weary sound traveler is looking for. Familiar melodies and vibrations have a new twist; everything is always changing, and nothing stays the same. Land Observations will give you The Grand Tour, but be aware that things may not be the same when you return.