Breathing the Storm

Album Review

After a lengthy hiatus of almost ten years, Jon Field put together a new version of Jade Warrior and recorded Breathing the Storm. It was released in 1994 on the European label Red Hot and was deleted shortly afterward. In 2001 Blueprint reissued a remastered version with new artwork. Breathing the Storm marks a departure from earlier material. The death of founding member Tony Duhig prior to the recording sessions led remaining founder Jon Field to drop the exotic percussion side of Jade Warrior. Some light drum programming was used, but otherwise very little percussion is involved, a change fans will notice immediately. The music on this album was inspired by chaos theory, which states that the smallest disturbance can cause much bigger effects. Synthetic and airborne, it glides softly. The instrumentation includes mainly keyboards, Field's flutes and EWI, Colin Henson's MIDI guitar, and Dave Sturt's fretless bass. Some bird and wind recordings add to the already existing new age colors. If Jade Warrior was once a progressive rock outfit, Breathing the Storm has very little to do with the genre, except for its polished arty quality. All tracks segue and there are no disrupting moments. It's a well-produced album full of soothing melodies, but no surprises. It will please fans of Gandalf. Prog fans will find something more substantial on the band's subsequent release Different Echoes. ~ François Couture, Rovi