Robert Jürjendal featuring Andrus Lillepea - Simple Past

I can’t believe that this album passed right through me. For me, when it comes to new artists and bands, I’ve always wanted to discover more of their catalog. One of them is guitarist and composer from Estonia named, Robert Jürjendal.  He has released two solo albums from 2013 to 2015. Robert creates these effects that makes you open the doors of landscapes and ambient vibrations by creating his styles of Frippertronics.

Since I’ve mentioned Fripp, he is also a craftie in which he was a part Robert Fripp’s Guitar Craft from 1992 to 1997 which he would learn to play loop music that included craftie alumni's Trey Gunn, The California Guitar Trio, and Markus Reuter. He also worked with artists such as Toyah Wilcox with This Fragile Moment. Now for me, I'm new to Jürjendal's music, but the moment I listened to his music, I was blown away by his textures of using the touch guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, and percussion. Last year, he released his third solo album entitled Lihtminevik in which translates to Simple Past. It is a concept album that is based on the temporality notion of the human world.

And how we have to realize no matter how much hard work and the job that is at times complicated, our lives will one day sooner or later disappear into the endless world of emptiness. What Richard has done, as he brings Lotte on water drop samples, Six on breathing, and drummer Andrus Lillepea, is bring the concept to cavernous, darker, and landscaping textures that lead into unexpected moments throughout the ten compositions.

There are at times Robert not only channels the styles of Fripp, but Heldon’s Richard Pinhas and at times between Agitation Free, Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream and Vangelis. It’s ambient, classical, and jazz at the same time. Everything on Simple Past, is here. When at times I mention an album, it the movie inside your head, that’s is what the album is closing your eyes and imagining the film in your mind to see where Jurjendal will go to next.

The sounds on here are great. Bob and Andrus on the first 8 tracks are spectacular and work well together between the two of them. I wish I could name some of my favorite compositions on here, but it’s all of the above for what Robert brought into the dining room table to bring the all the music and the story together. And I hope to hear more of Robert’s and Andrus' music in the near future or this year to see what I was missing.