Mark Duncan - guitars, guitar synth, vox Chris Kennedy - drums Daniel Marks - bass Jeff Pflaumbaum - vox, keyboards

The approach to this MaJe project is can best be described by the opening line of ‘Red Brother’ which begins, “Two worlds colliding”. That sentiment is nothing short of the truth. Mark Duncan (guitars/vocals) is an improv player with years and a wide variety of stage experience. Jeff Pflaumbaum (keys/vocals), on the other hand, is a writer/arranger with a less objective approach to music. “Imagine this,” Jeff said, “you have a black and white picture. I color inside the lines and Mark colors outside the lines. Collectively, that’s MaJe. And now with Chris (Kennedy/Drums) and Daniel (Marks/Bass) they are the solid lines.”

The album, MaJestic Vacation, is basically an album that peeks into the mind of a young adult. It’s sort of a one-man-soap opera. The themes are drawn from a wide spectrum of crisis’ a guy in his twenties might go through. You know, he feels like one guy roaming the earth getting hit with one emotional bullet after the next. But he really has nothing to complain about. All the wounds lie in his mind. He may be sitting in a chair sipping a rum and coke but inside his head it looks like Iwo Jima. So that in itself is a little unsettling … because there is no outward visible distress. So after these continuous bouts with various events he withdraws from society for a ‘vacation’.

Musically, the album sounds like what you might expect from polar-opposite musicians. On one hand there is a stress on arrangement but on the other hand there are loose edges that equally illustrate the thematic paradox the album explores. Stylistically, the music comes from the classic rock family of the 70’s. The influences are quite diverse and range from Zappa and Kansas to Seals & Crofts and Pink Floyd. But this album is really a guitar album and the guitar distinctly paints the musical picture of what this album is about. Some of Duncan’s playing functions like various string sections of an orchestra while at other times he could be mistaken as the 5th member of Phish. The album can seem progressive at times, but the ‘progressive’ sections take on a roll of mini pop songs as much as they do instrumental tie-ins.

BACK To DISCOGRAPHY