Search - Camiel :: Sunset (Dig)

Solid CD that comes dangerously close to...

bordersj2 | Boston | 04/05/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"... 'light jazz'. Camiel's an artist out of the Netherlands and this is his first album from back in 2002. It actually took a bit of time for it to come up in Amazon, but... here it is! I got into some of his music when checking out various compilations, like Cafe Samba and Jazz Lounge. Since I liked both songs, the next step was to check out the artist.



And this isn't a bad release. "Sunset" starts off rather positively. It actually reminded me a bit of Troubleman's cd, only it's far less electronically twinged. That's followed up with "I'm Ready", where you hear him on guitar, adding a little bit of funk to the sound wihtout the tune being overbearing. But... there wasn't a great deal of adventure in the track. "Follow Her" came afterwards and the music was actually pretty nice, although it was admittedly a bit of a cheesy tune with vocals. That can be a dangerous approach but then again, sometimes that's what made the old Italian bossa soundtracks fun for today (like when you hear the woman say... "You're so groovy"). Other tracks that stood out were "Sintra", "El Alba" and "Eighty Eight". The mood of the cd in general is pretty easy going and low-key. Actually... to be honest... this album reminds me of something that more... *mature*... fans would listen to when they're driving home from work/listening to the 'soft-jazz' radio stations that play a healthy dosage of David Sanborn. Nothing wrong with that at all, mind you... [yeah, I did a bad job sugarcoating it, didn't I? (edited as they sensored my review...)] :)



That's it in a nutshell. While this album didn't necessarily grab me, I would still recommend this to anyone that's a fan of light jazz. I think if you're a fan of Praful, you'll be interested in this and if you haven't heard Praful but love this, you might like Praful even more. You may also like a little known guitarist named Lars Bartkuhn. Sometimes I spin his stuff (Treasure Everything), the sound on it may get dated eventually but there's an energy to his music."

Camiel, the next thing in chill jazz

T. Ziebarth | 04/06/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Another artist I have heard on my local smooth jazz station, I am fond of Camiel's neo-Brazilian tune "El Alba". The rest of the tracks have electronic effects to liven up the tunes, but it is Camiel's guitar works that interests me."