Camel - Rajaz
Updated: Oct 22
In October 1999, "Rajaz", the thirteenth studio album by "Camel", was released.
In the late 1990s, after nearly three decades of musical activity, which included tremendous artistic peaks alongside difficult personal and legal upheavals, guitarist, flutist, singer and composer Andrew Latimer found himself at a creative crossroads. During that decade, Latimer, along with his life and writing partner Susan Hoover, ran the independent label "Camel Productions" from their home in California, and released two ambitious, dramatic and emotionally charged concept albums, "Dust and Dreams" from 1991 and "Harbour of Tears" from 1996. However, after the end of the 1997 tour documented on the 1998 live album "Coming of Age", Latimer felt a deep exhaustion and a strong need to move away from rigid narrative structures in favor of free, organic and exposed work that would be based on the pure playing and refined emotion of the guitar.
The title came from a book Colin Bass gave Andrew Latimer, "World Music - A Rough Guide". In its section on Arabic music, Latimer read about rajaz, a form of musical poetry associated with the rhythm of camels’ footsteps. The idea of music helping weary travelers reach their destination struck a chord with him. Returning to guitar-led composition, he turned that image into a patient, spacious musical journey.
The recordings were made during 1999 at the intimate Little Barn Studios in California, with Andrew Latimer himself producing the music, with Latimer and Joe Sigretto responsible for the mixing and Ken Lee for the mastering. Around Latimer, a precise and sensitive ensemble of musicians formed that served the acoustic and symphonic vision of the work, the veteran and faithful bassist Colin Bass who accompanied the band since the late 1970s, the gifted Dutch keyboardist Ton Scherpenzeel who added rich layers of atmosphere, the drummer Dave Stewart who gave the album a lively and precise beat, and the guest cellist Barry Phillips who colored the arrangements with a chamber, warm and melancholic tone. In contrast to the busy digital productions of the 1980s, Latimer chose a warm and natural approach here that returned "Camel" to the classic spirit of the masterpiece albums "Camel" from 1973, "Mirage" from 1974, "The Snow Goose" from 1975, and "Moonmadness" from 1976.
The album opens with the enchanting instrumental piece "Three Wishes", which begins with Dave Stewart's fast and precise drumming and dreamy keyboard chords, before Andrew Latimer's electric guitar enters and pierces the air with a deep, weeping and moving sound that is reminiscent of David Gilmour from "Pink Floyd" at its peak. The piece slowly develops through elegant rhythm changes and asymmetrical scales, a combination of airy side flute and melodic guitar solo that defines the desert and mysterious atmosphere of the entire album from the first minutes.
Immediately following comes "Lost and Found", a song co-written by Andrew Latimer and Susan Hoover, in which Latimer's quiet, warm and sober voice leads a contemplative melody dealing with self-searching, loss and renewal, with Colin Bass' soft bass lines and Barry Phillips' cello in the background enveloping the vocals until a lyrical guitar solo that slowly climbs towards the climax. The third track, "The Final Encore", is one of the most moving and personal pieces on the album, a reflection on the life of a performer, whose lyrics weave together titles from the band’s own catalogue. The song is built on a slow and dramatic march rhythm and presents a chilling dialogue between Latimer's flute and guitar and Ton Scherpenzeel's keyboards, while describing the moment of leaving the stage after the lights go out and the audience disperses.
At the heart of the album is the title track "Rajaz", an eight-and-a-quarter minute masterpiece that perfectly combines East and West. The song opens with Barry Phillips' deep, mournful cello and a gentle acoustic guitar riff that simulates the movement of a caravan across endless sands under a scorching sun. Andrew Latimer's almost sensual vocals are combined with a magical flute and a long, mesmerizing electric guitar solo that manages to convey without words the sense of loneliness, longing and spiritual peace of the desert nomads.
The second half of the album opens with the refreshing acoustic interlude "Shout", a light, upbeat, and melodic ballad co-written with Susan Hoover featuring pleasant vocal harmonies alongside rich acoustic guitar work that recalls the pastoral moments of albums like "Rain Dances" and "Breathless." It is followed by "Straight to My Heart", an autobiographical and painful song born from the feeling of burnout and disappointment Latimer experienced during the 1997 tour, and ends with one of the longest and most moving bluesy guitar solos of his career, a solo in which every note sounds as if it were carved directly from the heart.
The musical journey delves back into the dunes with the breathtaking instrumental piece "Sahara", which opens with a quiet, mystical and almost weightless atmosphere, before gradually erupting into a virtuoso display of symphonic progressive rock, where Latimer's guitar soars above dynamic and shifting rhythms. The album reaches its monumental climax in the epic closing piece "Lawrence", a nearly eleven-minute progressive rock oratorio inspired by the historical and tragic figure of Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia. The song depicts with cinematic precision the image of the British stranger swallowed up in the sands and the legend he created around him, and develops from an intimate and melancholic song into a massive instrumental ending, in which Latimer's heavenly guitar solo continues to echo for long minutes, recalling the emotional peaks of the 1979 classic "Ice."
The cover extends the journey visually, showing the silhouettes of a camel caravan against a desert landscape in yellow and gold. Upon its release, "Rajaz" received widespread praise from music critics and the global prog community, who immediately crowned it a magnificent comeback and one of the best and most complete albums by "Camel" since the golden age of the seventies. In the test of time, "Rajaz" remains a rare musical diamond in its beauty, a mature, noble and unaffected work that proves that one honest and true guitar sound has the power to cross entire deserts of time and reach straight to the soul.
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