C
Lanzbom
Meditations
New age,
easy listening, acoustic instrumental guitar whatever name you give the
latest relaxing work by C, it also has to be called elegant. As ‘We Can
Begin’ illustrates, a guitar in the hands of a gentle, unassuming soul
has to be worth its weight in television. For it entertains the mind much
more subtly, clearly, it falls upon the ears without crude commercialism
and harsh, jarring chords that make up so much of life. These Meditations
take us out of ourselves, to that quiet patch of country everyone looks
for sometime before they die. A place to stretch and think and drift
between this world and the next.
Lanzbom is
the lead guitarist from Soulfarm, which has opened for Bruce Hornsby,
Mickey Hart, and even played some Bill Graham festivals and gigged around
the world. If you’re anywhere near Manhattan, you’ve probably heard of
them already.
However,
even without a Soulfarm to call home, C’s spiritual mood of guitar
compositions defines his Israel background a bit. He went there to
challenge his mind and sound fingers, and what he brought back to his
music is something richly, worldly singular, as ‘Hinei Yamim’ and the
nimble ‘Ode Yishoma’ demonstrate so playfully.
I’ve not
heard Lanzbom’s two previous solo cds, From This Day On (1998) and
Beyond This World (1996), but if they’re anything like the hard work
that went into this one, they are well worth having. Ask the 30k people
who’ve bought them. He must be doing something right. One decision that
makes sense is using a couple of his ol’ Soulfarm cronies on this
release (Darren Soloman on acoustic and electric bass, and the occasional
violin of Miri Ben-Ari).
But it’s
all in the fingers. The fingers of Lanzbom. They make every moment
special, every track like the memorizing ‘Mizmor L’David’ a beauty
to behold and own and appreciate, again and again.