Particularly with guitarists, the questions always seems to be “Who is the “next big thing?”. Well, my vote goes to Dewa Budjana, who is slowly building up an impressive and creative catalogue. Obviously, today’s artists are in agreement, as the crème de la crème is in supporting roles here, including Ben Williams/b, Simon Phillips-Dave Weckl/dr, Gary Husband/p-key, Jimmy Joehonson/b, Paul McCandless/ss and Carlitos Del Puerto/b.
The five originals are all clever, complex and magisterial, with Weckl driving in overtime during a duet with Budjana in the middle of the soulful strut of “Sarna Jingga”, with the leader ranging from wacka wooka rhythms to sinewy solos. McCandless’s soft work on the intelligent “Sabana Shanti” includes accosting and electric strings in gentility, caressed by Weckl’s brushes, while Phillips takes Budjana’s acoustic opening to “Kmalasana” and slowly builds up the butanes for a dramatic conclusion. Williams and Phillips coalesce with Husband for a deep groove in which Budjana rides the curl on “Blue Mansion”, while the title track features dark palpable textures and layers of kaleidoscopic sounds, Budjana playing guitars like Monet dabbling on a canvas. Is he ever going to come to LA?