NICKY SKOPELITIS/RAOUL BJORKENHEIM

REVELATOR

  1/  Sacrament                                  (Skopelitis,Bjorkenheim)      15.16
  2/  Epiphany                                   (Skopelitis,Bjorkenheim)      15.01
  3/  Fresh Meat and Roses                       (Skopelitis,Bjorkenheim)      11.41
  4/  Right As Rain                              (Skopelitis,Bjorkenheim)      15.09

          Created at Greenpoint Studio, Brooklyn, New York
          Engineering: Oz Fritz
          Assistant: Diabel Faye
          Realization: Bill Laswell
          Post Production (Douglas): Guy M. Manganiello
          Material, Inc.: John Brown
          Axiom: Bill Murphy
          Innerhythmic: Steven Saporta
          NYC: Steve Dalmer
          UK: Ian Blackaby
          Germany: Robert Soares
          Boston: L & M Urso
          Invasion: Peter Casperson
Nicky Skopelitis: electric guitars, acoustic guitars, baglama, electric sitar; Raoul Bjorkenheim: electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bowed guitar, percussion; Bill Buchen: tablas, water drum, log drum; Bill Laswell: sounds.

          1998 - Douglas Music (USA), ADC12 (CD)
          2001 - Innerhythmic (USA), INR009 (CD)
Note: The Douglas pressing was never officially distributed, though some copies were sold to stores apparently by Raoul Bjorkenheim, but in Finland...

REVIEWS :

Those familiar with guitarist Raoul Bjorkenheim from his work with the harder-edged Krakatau and with guitarist Nicky Skopelitis from his work with the very soft-edged CyberOctave label may be surprised by what they hear on this duo album. Featuring the percussion talents of Bill Buchen and the spiritual oversight of bassist Bill Laswell (credited here with "sounds"), Revelator delivers mainly lush, exotic grooves that are consistently both easy on the ear and sonically challenging. It would be easy to let these ambient soundscapes fade into the background, but then you'd miss the complexities -- the way Bjorkeheim's bowed guitar snakes around until Buchen's tabla enters to clear the way for Skopelitis' Delta blues figures on "Epiphany", or the gorgeously polytonal "Fresh Meat and Roses". Those who enjoyed Laswell's Hear No Evil will find a lot to like here, as will fans of the first Robert Fripp and Andy Summers collaboration. Recommended.

Rick Anderson (courtesy of the All Music Guide, via the Get Music website)