Progressive Savage

Featuring Patrick Rondat

Yeah, I known I’ve been too quiet for the past week. To make it up to you here’s a series of reviews of one of my favorite guitarists Patrick Rondat. Patrick is one of those few guitar players whose solo albums are really interesting for a rhythm section guy like me. The solo work of most guitarists I otherwise appreciate is, frankly, quite boring and can be summarized as a continuous trip up and down the fretboard at the highest speed possible with occasional melodic interlude. It proves nothing except that the person is capable of playing solos. Then there is a sparse group of really interesting guitarists composing complete albums not an album-length solo arrangements. That’s the group Patrick Rondat falls into.

Patrick is a French guitarist–quite often compared to Tony MacAlpine–that played in bands like Elegy and Consortium Project as well as with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai on G3 tour, but I think he’s most known of being the guitarist of Jean Michel Jarre. There’s a really nice write-up about him over at Guitar Lords of Heavy Metal Rock blog:

His guitar style is a great mix of melodic, progressive and neo-classical elements. Patrick Rondat is a French guitar hero who made several instrumental solo albums.
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Patrick Rondat has developed a playing technique that is natural and uninhibited - a skill factor and technicality attained by vision, passion and dedication to his art, he plays with grace, fluidity, power and intensity! His mastery of both electric and acoustic guitar is incomparable. His use of effects and enhancements is professional and unobtrusive as he combines different musical styles, intricate harmonies, subtle tempo variations, amazing themes and melodies into a sound that is radically distinctive and personal!

The first thing I’ve heard from Patrick Rondat was Duality from his 1999 album On the Edge played to me by my wanna-be-prog band drummer couple of years ago. I listened to it with shock and astonishment drawing on my face, wondering why I haven’t heard of him before. It was great.

Although it took me some time, I finally got my hands on all of Patrick’s CDs released so far–as of February 2009, though most probably I would keep collecting all of his recordings even if he’ll decide to play hip-hop. Surprisingly, getting in possession of his old albums was relatively easy, as opposed to being on the look-out for On the Edge for over half a year. I finally found a small shop here in Poland that not only managed to get me On the Edge but was also capable of importing An Ephemeral World which at the time was unavailable in Poland.

In following days I’ll submit to this blog four reviews of Patrick’s albums–skipping his 1989 Just for Fun intentionally–in chronological order:

• Rape of the Earth (1991)
• Amphibia (1996)
• On the Edge (1999)
• An Ephemeral World (2004)

Oh and while we’re at it, why don’t you check out Patrick’s official website or MySpace profile?

Stay tuned!