Burnt Belief [Colin Edwin + Jon Durant] – 'Mutual Isolation' (2021) – Something Else!

With a sonic character that’s easily distinctive but defying pigeonholing, Burnt Belief has been the perfect distillation of the talents of guitarist Jon Durant and former Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin. Is it prog rock? New Age? Ambient? Miminalism? Or how about fusion jazz? It’s all of these and more, but not wholly any of them. Yet, Durant and Edwin make that elusiveness the core of their music’s appeal; this mystical quality that pervades everything they do entices the listener. Mutual Isolation is Burnt Belief’s first offering since 2016’s Emergent, and a few things have changed for this go around. For one, Edwin goes entirely unplugged and plays double bass all throughout. That’s a big leap into the abyss for a project known for its electronically-enhanced textures. Durant, for his part, still employs his signature ‘cloud guitar’ approach but this time, the initial ideas he applies toward the songs aren’t tweaked any further, placing his work much closer to spontaneity, another high-risk, high-reward measure that almost always rewards the highly creative. What hasn’t changed from before is that drummer Vinny Sabatino is retained, which seems to be the right move given how Sabatino has worked well within Edwin’s and Durant’s…
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