Drummer Richard Poole is not just a drummer, but he is a pianist in his own right. A few years after the Opposite Voyage sessions were recorded, he went into the same studio to record a 21-song album with nothing but solo piano. Terrain (Music Artists Co.) is exactly that, a musician carving out a place for himself and making a statement by saying "this is my place, this is what I'm about". The 9-minute title track is an exhausting and exciting vacation into his "Terrain", and from that point on, each song flow into each other one after the other. Not seamlessly, but there's a steady flow of consciousness that gives the album some continuity. Some of the pieces are very jazzy and one could imagine hearing them in a huge concert hall. Or as is the case with his cover of Duke Ellington's "Do Nothin' Til You Hear From Me", you could easily picture yourself in a bar with a pocket full of smokes, waiting anxiously for that special someone to walk in and take you into her spell for the night. It can be bluesy, while other songs seem to have slight classical touches. It's not always straight-forward playing, he allows himself to play in time and with time, which is not unlike some of his drumming in the trio CD. Here, he is in full control of his music, without having to worry about the structure of the song. Poole is creating his own structure and boundaries, like some of the jazz piano greats.
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