ESCAPE

Album Review

Escape finds Steve Joliffe blending leading-edge digital technology with the amber resonances of traditional acoustics. The album starts out with a snakey, waltz-like number displaying rich melodies intertwined with exuberant rhythms. The music at times is wild and eclectic in its progressive expression, escaping into soothing and somber tones, distant and ancient. His musical sketches reveal an underlying complexity, imbued with classical overtones and beauty, drawn from his 15 years of recording since touring with Tangerine Dream and playing with the innovative German group on their Cyclone release in 1978. Atmospheric and stretched out yet concise, Joliffe's music pays proper homage to Tangerine Dream, with artistic nods to Patrick O'Hearn and Mark Isham, to Norwegian synthesists Oystein Sevag and Erik Wollo and to French countrymen Bernard Xolotl and Jean Michel Jarre. The digital-orchestra sound and Teutonic touches, coupled with spacey sequential phrasing even bring to mind the Erdenklang label. With broad exposure on Musical Starstreams, the U.S. audience is about to discover this accomplished musician in a big way. ~ Backroads Music/Heartbeats, All Music Guide