Customer Reviews

One Thousand Years

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album, the first official release of part-time King Crimson member, is truely a magnificent piece of art. The songs range from being beautifully ambient to intriguingly dark and mysterious. I have heard this and his second album, Third Star, and i must say that this exceeds the beauty in that album by far. I have heard a lot of music, but this album remains one of my favorites of all time. If you can find it, buy it immediately!

"One Thousand Years" is the debut solo release from former King Crimson member Trey Gunn. This album coincided with him joining Crimson and was released around the same time as the band's 1994 comeback EP "Vrooom".
With the exception of the drums, percussion and vocals, every sound on the "One Thousand Years" album is produced with a unique instrument known as the Chapman Stick. The instrument (invented by one Emmett Chapman) is similar to a guitar but utilizes a two-handed tapping technique for playing as opposed to plucking or strumming the strings.
Musically, the album is very similar to King Crimson (circa 1981-84) and features highly rhythmic pieces such as "Killing For London", "The Screen Door and The Flower Girl" and "Take This Wish". Gunn also provides an ambient atmosphere with "The Gift", "Into the Wood" and the title track which boast similarities to Robert Fripp's minimalist 'frippertronic' and 'soundscape' delay techniques. There is also a hint of Eastern/World music in the album's opening track "The Night Air" as well as "Real Life".
With that said, this is a hands-down fine debut from Trey Gunn. It's also a real treat to hear Trey Gunn actually sing on one of his albums as most of his other solo material is either completely instrumental or features other vocalists. It's rather unfortunate that this album has become somewhat difficult to get a hold of in recent years. "One Thousand Years" is definitely worth getting a hold of especially if you're a King Crimson fan or are in the mood for music that is different from the status quo.
A Highly Original and Unique Debut!!

Trey Gunn is without doubt one of the most gifted and creative musicians in the progressive rock scene. Most know him because of his decade-long stint with Robert Fripp and King Crimson, one of the greatest prog rock bands ever. Gunn is both a schooled artist and one who has learned a lot through relentless touring with artists that include Brian Eno, Tool, Tony Levin, and Azam Ali to name a few.

But besides the hundred-plus albums he has played on, he also has a solo career which he started in 1994 with One Thousand Years, an album he put together shortly after his trio with Robert Fripp and David Sylvian. Undoubtedly influenced by Fripp's keen sense of eclectism, particularly in the guitar work, Trey Gunn also marries unconventional song elements, which are predominantly based on eastern soundscapes with a vast array of percussion and drum work.

Known for his mastery of the Chapman Stick, an odd guitar-meets-bass-like electric instrument, Trey Gunn also does some vocals on this disc, which is vastly absent on his successive solo material. This, in a way, makes One Thousand Years a more unique listening experience, as it deftly mixes Persian and Indian-like female vocals with Gunn's elabore drone experiments and various ethnic percussion. Gunn shares the vocals with Serpentine on "The Night Air", in which he assumes a spoken part in the background as well as a melodically driven harmony towards the end.

Gunn's singing varies greatly from that of a typical singer-songwriter artist, as the vocal pieces seem more like a stream of consciousness than vocal-based cuts. "The Screen Door and the Flower Girl", for instance, establishes an atmospheric core, utilising lots of stretched notes atop a groovy bass line and eerie percussion. Likewise, "Killing for London" is an ambient cut that contains a good amount of Eastern percussion thanks to Pat Masteletto, with whom Gunn would go on to join King Crimson and play on Azam Ali's exceptionally beautiful Elysium for the Brave album some fifteen years later. The blend of dissonant guitar voicings, white noise, and female vocals culminates in a very exciting ending.

A thick bass presence is woven into the complex "Real Life" in a pool of myriad soundscapes and lucid synth textures forming a mystical aura, while "Into the Wood" boasts a more open sound structure, highlighting lush acoustic guitars and wordless female harmonies. Gunn's electric solo here sends chills up and down the spine. The solo is sort of like Ron Jarzombek's work on the first Gordian Knot album except that Gunn's playing is a lot more introspective. It is one of the finest solos I've heard from him.

The totally peaceful "The Gift" is an endless journey on a vast sound field, with only shimmering notes and drone-like melodic growth. The title track is somewhat similar, erasing the lines between ambient music and post-rock. There are also little nuances carved out in Gunn's impeccable production work. The operatic female voice on "Take This Wish" was something I noticed only after the fifth or sixth spin on headphones.

Special mention goes to Gunn's long-time drummer Bob Muller, whose unique playing of tabla, percussion, drums, and hand drums lends the songs their own personality. It would be impossible to capture the same intensity with another drummer.

The following Trey Gunn albums see him joining forces with other musicians and creating unique instrumental pieces that are inspired bu neither jazz nor classical music. On the contrary, their love for non-western sounds comes through more heavily thanks to the more spacious production employed, so One Thousand Years has its own place in his enormous discography.

Many folks that are into Trey Gunn differ in what they think is his best work. One thing that you can say about him is that he is a fine musician in EVERYTHING he does. This is my second favorite as I do like "The Joy of Molybdenum" better. This is much sounder than his third CD and different than "The Big Star", which I also like. The thing about Trey is how much he is influenced by King Crimson and how large a part of that bands overall sound he influences. It is not a bad thing and often I would rather listen to one of his solo effort away from KC to really appreciate the music. This is a really great CD! You be the judge. Great spin!

This is truly an original piece of work. Listened to carefully on several planes of audibility, one can hear the dynamic textures working together that makes this album so special. It is smooth and tight as well as adventurous and often deceiving in that one loses focus of the primary movements to hear subtleties throughout. I am unsure if there is a better progressive rock/ambient/tribal rock recording in existence.

This is a little more ambient-oriented then other solo outings I've heard by Gunn but still retains his signature sounds of electronic guitar and presents introspective background textures to utilize how you wish.

I like 'Joy of Moly' better, probably because I find the lyrics on this album weak and distracting. But the guitar work, synthetic sounds and biting bass make the instrumentals come alive, and the lyricless vocals are interesting. The freewheeling melody lines - you never quite know which way the guitar line is going to weave, but it always makes perfect sense - make the album a keeper. I usually cut tracks 2 & 3 from the playlist.

I wish "Into the Wood" had been recorded in 5.1 sound - that could have been fascinating.

In this, his first solo album, Trey Gunn, master of the Warr guitar and the stick and full-time member of the eclectic band King Crimson lets his true self out. This is why it's my favorite album by him. His others albums are good as well, but the influence he's received from Robert Fripp becomes more evident, making his music harder to swallow at times, yet nowhere as minimalist as Fripp's. My favorites, "Into The Wood" and "The Gift."