Small Pond Recordings and Art As Catharsis release The Last Three Seconds, the new album from Leeds-based Progressive Metal and Jazz Experimentation band Voronoi. They are an off-shoot of Contemporary Jazz outfit Zeitgeist. Keyboardist Aleks Podraza states that the single 'Gamma Signals' is about his fascination with cosmology, and that the theme of Science Fiction runs pretty much through the whole album. By their own admission, they have become heavier with this release, utilising the power and rhythmic complexity of heavier Prog Rock, whilst maintaining their traditional roots of Jazz and Classical music. Collectively, the band members have performed or recorded with The Cinematic Orchestra, KOYO, Jenova Collective, The Often Herd, and Wandering Monster. They have attracted the attention of the Reading and Leeds Festival, the Download Festival, and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club.

The track listing is: 'Interstellar Something'; 'Gamma Signals'; 'The Nauseator'; 'Roberts as Pathos – Roberts as Menace'; 'Darker the Night'; 'The Last Three Seconds'; 'The Outsider and the Priest'; and 'Home Could Be Light Years Away'.

I changed my mind twice about how to interpret this offering. I don’t like much Prog Rock music and I don’t profess to understand Jazz. The latter genre incorporates impromptu, mainly brass sounds – in other words, made-up on-the-hoof; the former possesses a multitude of meandering and stop-start pretentious cleverness. They have certain forms and styles in common so, on the face of it, it would make complete sense to combine the two. I was also intrigued as to how the Electronica would fit in (not well!).

With foreknowledge of the track titles and central subject theme, I involuntarily found myself appreciating the content in a new light. I treated these instrumentals as a movie soundtrack. It seemed to be working until the same tricks began to be played-out again and again. Having taught myself to appreciate this music on a new level, I suddenly found myself bored with the whole thing. Perhaps a shorter E.P. would have been more palatable for my discerning ears. But don’t let me put you off. If these are your music genres of choice, give it a go.

4

Ty Power