Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports

Albumbeschreibung

As a part of Pink Floyd, Mason always behaved impeccably. At once expert and inventive, regardless of the composition, he was always respectful of his colleagues, hence the fact that he now has the honour of being the only musician to feature on all the group's albums. And that is how his lesser-known career outside the group went. Although it carries his name, this album isn't a truly solo effort: he leads from the front, backed up by the formidable Carla Bley and the excellent Robert Wyatt. Recorded as a war of egos raged within the group, Fictitious Sports is, while neither really austere or abstruse, is surely as far as it's possible to get from Pink Floyd's output, except for the magnificent Hot River, with Chris Spedding giving a perfect imitation of David Gilmour's slide guitar.

On the rest of the record, we sail through Bley's experimental jazz and high-flying prog in the vein of Soft Machine, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Adrian Belew and Eno… This album is the product of a fruitful collaboration with the trumpet player and regular partner of Bley, Michael Mantler. The careful work that they bring to this re-release does justice to an album which was unfairly ignored when it came out thirty-seven years ago. Here, Mason gives further proof that like so many of history's great drummers, he is first and foremost a great musician, and he has been able to spread his wings and wander very far from Floyd. © Jean-Pierre Sabouret/Qobuz