Band : The Sean Baker Orchestra
Album title : Baker’s Dozen
Label : Lion Music
Distribution: Bertus
Release Date : 19/06/2009
Release : CD

Let me admit it.  I’m not a big fan of fully instrumental albums.  I once was lured into buying the first Satriani cd, and, although song for song I didn’t find it a bad album, I never was able to listen to it from start to finish.

Years have passed, we’ve grown a bit older, and our hair has been thinned, but nevertheless I still have the same opinion.

So when I first put this CD in the player, it was without very high expectations.  After 3 songs I got bored, but then the 4th track started, and I was immediately alert again.  This is a modern version of classical music.  Something Rainbow or Joe Satriani could have written.  Track 5 is a quiet, soft, almost murmuring song played on classic guitar.  Then we go on to track 6, which again is too much.  Too much, by which I mean, these guys can play for sure, but they’re overdoing it.
The real highlight of the album for me is the version of Highway Star from Deep Purple.  When I heard this my neck muscles began to twitch, and had I not been sitting at my desk I might well have started playing air guitar.
Song 10 is also an ace song, featuring some Mexican guitar riffs.  Song 13 on the album, 2 Part Invention In C major is very very short and could easily be described as an almost medieval song.

So all in all, the second half of the album is, to me, better than the first half.  For fans of purely instrumental music, this might be an album to look out for.

69/100

Erik Morren.