4 Strings aka Carlo Resoort, the producer who has given us Take Me Away and Diving to name a couple puts forth his debut artist album; released on Ultra Records.

The debut album from Carlo Resoort aka 4 Strings is here, out on Ultra Records this week, it's a fine collection of trance pieces from the producer previously associated with Rank 1, including previous hits such as Take Me Away, Diving, and Day Time

Tracklist:

1. Intro
2. Take Me Away (Into The Night)
3. Revelation
4. Fly Away
5. Let It Rain (Interlude)
6. Let It Rain
7. Diving
8. Summer Sun
9. Besides Us
10. Interlude
11. Waterfall
12. Day Time
13. High On Life
14. Eastern Vibe
15. Forever Young
16. Summer Sun (Ibiza Mix)
17. Believe
18. Outro

Intro is exactly what is says it is, an accapella of Take Me Away plays for the 1 minute duration of this before imploding into the track which made the trance scene kick up just over a year ago Take Me Away (Into the Night).

Take Me Away needs no introduction really, except to say that this has been one of Carlo's strongest productions in my opinion of the years.

Revelation is a track which has been labeled "4 Strings vs Carlo Resoort - Revelation" on recent DJ sets. And as you may already know, 4 Strings is yet another Carlo Resoort guise. This track (and in fact, the entire album) is a vocal trancescape featuring the talents of dutch singer Vanessa van Hemert, who has one of the most suited trance vocals in the industry at the moment. What I would say about this track is that perhaps the energy from the vocals don't quite match the energy produced by the production itself, and causes a bit of discrepancy as to where the track is meant to sit at.

Next comes Fly Away, a piano laiden track reminiscent of the trance pre-2001 days with the big euro style coming through.

Let It Rain comes up next with, starting with a 50 second accapella before taking off in a very Blank & Jones-esque production, complete with euro-riffs, breakbeat samples and a strong bassline. I am personally a fan of vocal tracks so I might have some bias towards the vocals in this album, but I know that many of you find vocal trance to be too commercial. Nonetheless, moving on; we have yet another track which we all know of...

Diving. Released on Nebula / Virgin last summer, this is evidently the full on vocal club mix, and is very similar to Take Me Away in terms of production, perhaps with an even stronger Euro dance influence.. Not much to listen for here.. so I move on.

There seems to be a number of tracks which have the same title as other tracks recently out over the past few years, with Summer Sun being one (think POS, Afterburn, etc). Full on Ibiza style, and getting ready for the 6am sunshine at Amnesia or Cream this summer, this to me is one of the track which stands out and given the right remix, this could take off this summer on a label such as Xtravaganza.

Besides Us is a more dubbed up, almost Marco V style production through to the first 3 minutes of the track. No vocals here, and I can definitely see this to be big with Armin, Marco V, and DJ Tiesto et al, with its riffs and pads.. This brings in the sound of trance in 2003 and would definitely suit the more in depth listener.

What is an album without some downtempo chillout music? Waterfall is definitely that.. typical of the european trance productions which get a ambient makeover, this is complete with an almost latin feel making this one of the more refreshing tracks from the album, with minor vocals throughout which don't spoil the production.

This was one of my top tracks when it first came out in 2000.. Day Time.. which featured a number of remixes on a number of labels back on its initial release, this was a true euphoric masterpiece, but I'm not quite sure what happened to it this time round. The energy has somewhat disappeared, but fortunately the Rank 1 style break was still present and I found myself digging through my collection to find the single and reflect upon the original works.

High On Life tends towards the German trance section of things today, with those Alphazone like bassline sequences, and stabs of vocals which we have seen so much of from the big German producers of late. This shows that Carlo is willing to experiment and is not afraid to try out the different aspects of trance out there at the moment.

Eastern Vibe comes in as something unique in the album. Being darker than most of the other productions, completely void of any vocals, this makes up for some of the more commercial clubby tracks we've heard so far. The mid-eastern, almost tibetan chimes throughout the track make this production live up to its title and I can see this being popular with some of the dutch jocks at the moment.

More breakbeat chillout here in Forever Young (Think Fire & Ice).. This is actually a nice track and at the moment we're seeing more of these chillout breakbeat type productions out there which actually range on pop, but is refreshing and relaxing for the times when you're working or not doing much except chilling out....

We get a remix from Carlo of one of his earlier tracks Summer Sun in the shape of an Ibiza Mix. At first sight, I thought this would be an even more chilled out version of track 8, but in fact it is actually a bubbling progressive trance number which actually reminds me too much of Take Me Away. One of the longest tracks of the album, some would say that this is one of the stronger tracks of the album, but the similarity so far is a bit undaunting.

Believe is the penultimate track and acts as a well defined track, bringing the album to a close with a collection of strings, melodies and vocals moulded together to balance the collection of tracks. Although on the short side, as with most trance album tracks, the track builds to a decent potential, but in my opinion, if it got a treatment and extended to the usual 6-7 minutes, this would make one of the top tracks of the album...

Finishing off is an ambient outro of Take Me Away, making it a well deserved finale..

Conclusion:
Throughout my first listen, the album did not strike me as being diverse, unique or very trancey for that matter; Definitely not what I expected from Carlo Resoort.

There was too much vocals throughout the album, making this almost a euro-dance album of the Alice Deejay era and although there are a few tracks within which make good listening, there are some which I merely glanced over and went along.

For those who like the vocals a lot, you will definitely like this, but for the remaining community, you might decide that this is not for you.