• Image of SECRETS & SPACE: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK OF TRANSITION (CD)
  • Image of SECRETS & SPACE: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK OF TRANSITION (CD)
  • Image of SECRETS & SPACE: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK OF TRANSITION (CD)

CD w/12 page booklet includes lyrics and photos by photographer Bill Schwab

THE DETROIT DISC

"Soul and spirit have been our city's strengths," say the liner notes to this collaboration by three of Detroit's most creative modern musicians, and the same could be said of the music on what is accurately billed as an "original soundtrack of transition."

Conceived as an early 300th birthday present to the city where their tastes and talents were formed, "Secrets & Space" has vocalist-songwriter Carolyn Striho, once of art rockers the Cubes, saxophonist David McMurray and his former partner in Was (Not Was), keyboardist Luis Resto, on a 12-track, thematic tour of the spot where R&B, art rock, free jazz and funk intersect. If there were a guided tour of a city rising from the ashes, this is what they'd play on the bus.

The original songs by all involved are atmospheric and impressionistic. Resto's mysterious, masculine "Bravo" is followed by Striho's insinuating and evocative "Necklace." Both are beautifully complemented by McMurray's fire-and-ice instrumental "Vision/Vision." Producer Freddie Brooks deserves co-pilot credit for merging all of this into a seamless soundscape of city traffic.-- Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press