Andy Summers & Ben Verdery - First You Build A Cloud

Hybrid album from disparate guitar stylists

Before being lured back to the stadiums for The Police’s money-spinning renuion, Summers kept himself busy (and presumably happy) with less high-profile projects, such as this exercise in improvisation with classical guitarist Verdery. For the most part, the duo entered the studio with nothing planned and just followed where the spontaneity took them. The opening title track is ethereal and new agey, the discipline of Verdery’s work being fleshed out by the jazz and rock sensibilities of the more famous of the pair, while Fez dabbles in blues motifs that aren’t too far removed from Peter Green’s work with Fleetwood Mac. The one track that appears to have been pre-planned is a cover of The Police’s Bring On The Night, where Summers lets rip on what amounts to a five-minute solo, which Sting undoubtedly nipped in the bud on the original recording. Unlikely to garner as much attention as Sting’s lute album of last year, it’s still fairly representative of what’s been occupying Summers’ mind for the last two decades, the latest in a series of idiosyncratic experiments that the untold wealth of his pop star days have enabled him to pursue with gusto and without having to worry about the gas bill.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

Rare | RAR 1001

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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