On
Night to Night, a song meditation about the course of a day,
Geoffrey Oryema attempted a change: For the music, he relied heavily on his main collaborator Jean-Pierre Alarcen, contributing only four own compositions out of 14 songs. The other songs are mostly written together with Jean-Pierre Alarcen; other musical ideas are contributed by his band musician
Nicolas Fiszman and
Daniel Lanois. As a result, some of Alarcen's contributions like "Miracle Man," "Dancing Steps," and "Bye Bye Lady Dame" (basically just another version of "Dancing Steps") are nothing more than lightweight pop tunes, and
Daniel Lanois' composition "LPJ Christine," also played by him, sounds so unequivocally
Lanois as if it somehow ended up on this record and not on one of
Lanois' own solo releases.
The most substance is contained in
Oryema's own contributions, and songs like "Passage at Dusk," the two versions of "Sardinia Memories" or "Nàa Dream," and some of his collaborations with Jean-Pierre Alarcen still make this an enjoyable record. ~ Frank Eisenhuth