It’s been nearly ten years since I reviewed Mark Wingfield’s album Proof of Light on my blog site, Music from the Other Side of the Room. Mark has proven to be one of the most gifted and incredible guitarists to come out of the MoonJune label like a stroke of light, bursting through the candles and revealing its true powers.
After hearing Proof of Light, Wingfield himself has come a long way. From his collaborations between Kevin Kastning, Jane Chapman, Markus Reuter, Jeremy Stacey, Asaf Sirkis, and Yaron Stavi, Wingfield himself has kept the power of his instrument true to form when it comes to tackling these dark and haunting imagery he envisions.
His latest album The Gathering is a blend of compositions and intense improvisations. You can never tell whether he’s playing progressive rock, jazz rock, ambient music, or avant-rock. Mark is his own true self when it comes to playing.
And allowing to have artists such as Gary Husband, Asaf Sirkis, Tony Levin, and Brand X’s Percy Jones on this album, it’s a combination to bring all five of these incredible musicians to lend Mark a helping hand when it comes to The Gathering. There are times where it sounds like it was recorded during the heyday of the ECM label when Wingfield puts in his innovative touches to the album.
‘The Lost Room’ for example, pulls into flight with Rypdal’s spirit overseeing the landscape while Husband goes into this Mike Garson approach on his piano, channeling the final section of Bowie’s ‘Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?)’ before Levin’s bass lines take over the center point globe. Then, its Sirkis and Husband’s ambient keyboard work taking over the intensive patterns as the band come back in the final section of the composition to bring it all home.
When you hear a title like ‘Apparition in the Vaults’, it brings to mind the 1955 film-noir turned science-fiction film Kiss Me Deadly starring Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer. Wingfield pulls in some excellent fret work with Husband creating the alarming synths and clash of the titan drum work he puts in to the arrangements.
Percy Jones takes over on four tracks by giving Tony a break between his fingers as he takes charge between the hurricane scenarios on ‘A Fleeting Glance’ and ‘Stormlight’, followed by a joyful teamwork from ‘Together We Rise’ with Husband’s nod to the Headhunters-era from the mind of Herbie Hancock, and the closing piece ‘Cinnamon Bird’ with its spiritual themes.
Wingfield pulls in these touches of Steve Hackett’s textures when it comes to the ‘Journey Home’, soaring through the Wind & Wuthering-era from Genesis while the rhythm section returns to the Bebop and Brazilian atmospheres going into spiritual guidance’s by making it across to ‘The Spiritual Tree’ as it brings comfort and meditated scenarios easing through the difficult times we go through each day.
Stepping through those different parallel universe’s, Wingfield does it again. The Gathering still holds up with a one-two punch that hits you very, very hard. Adding in the ‘70s vibrations and of course nods to the ECM label, Wingfield’s handprints along with his fellow band mates are the proof that you need a lot of killer ideas to the kitchen table with a mixture of hot and spicy ingredients that’ll whet your appetite.
