Pat Metheny - Orchestrion (2010)Pat Metheny's 2010 release, "Orchestrion" marks the beginning of a new era of Pat Metheny's music. Orchestrion is an album played by Pat's orchestrionics which was created by many different people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestrion_(album) and is an 'instrument' that he has been using on most of his albums ever since.
The "Orchestrion" includes pianos, marimba, vibraphone, orchestra bells, basses, GuitarBots, percussion, cymbals and drums, blown bottles and other custom mechanical instruments. This is truly something different for Pat, as he is the only human player on the album. Musically, this feels like a proper follow-up to The Way Up, it is the spiritual successor to the later Pat Metheny Group albums, as by this point, the band had pretty much dissolved and broken up. There are many moments on this album that make me think of that band.
The music is also more in the prog-jazz vein as those later PMG albums. Opening with the nearly 16 minute title track, the album kicks off with a bang and never lets up. Moods change, and there is a great payoff towards the end. The piece really shows off the capabilities of mechanics of what Pat is doing (which I'm not even sure what it is, as he somehow controls all the instruments on the album.) Expansion is another title, this one is a really fun tune, and great guitar from Pat here. Some may feel the music sounds 'robotic' to them. While I understand that, and that can be the case on occasion, I like the compositions enough to overlook the fact that it is mostly mechanical instruments performing this music backing up Pat's guitar. There are some great melodies here. Some say since The Way Up, if not since anything released after 1993, Pat's music became a bit cold, clinical sounding and, with exception, was lacking the pop sensibilities that made albums from the 70s, 80s, and early 90s so successful. I don't agree with that 100% but I get it to an extent, as Pat has evolved and is constantly re-inventing himself. I think his most recent output of the last couple of years has been very strong, however, so I'm along for the ride whatever he does. Orchestrion is a good one, maybe not his best album, but a good addition to the canon.