Guitarist Rez Abassi has put together an expansive catalog over the years, but his release may be his most ambitious. He puts music to a silent film, the 1929 silver screener A Throw Of Dice and breaks the music into nineteen small units with a team of Pawan Benjamin/woodwinds, Jennifer Vincent/b-cel, Rohan Khrishnamuthy/perc and Jake Goldbas/dr while he himself plays guitars and sitars both acoustic and electric.
The various tunes range from a concise 90 second to over six minutes, melding sounds from Central Asian percussion on “Love Prevails” to sitars on “Facing Truth” and “Morning of the Wedding.” Gorgeous flute and acoustic guitar dance on “Duplicity” and “Hopeful Impressions” with exotic sounds and tenor saxist coaxing out “Amulet And Dagger.” You know that this guy is on to something when the music makes you want to see the movie. Who’s got the popcorn?