Restoration Ruin

Restoration Ruin is an album by Keith Jarrett on which he performs vocals, guitar, harmonica, soprano saxophone, recorder, piano, organ, electric bass, drums, tambourine and sistra, recorded and released on the Vortex label in 1968. The album and its folk rock attitude remain unique in his whole catalogue - though, it can be seen as the first part of his experimental circle which is neither jazz nor classical music. Here Jarrett overdubs himself on various instruments, similar to the tribal Spirits (1985) or especially the free funk No End (2013, recorded in 1986).

Reception

The Allmusic review by Richie Unterberger awarded the album 2½ stars and states "Restoration Ruin is a real oddity in the Jarrett catalog: a vocal album on which he plays all the instruments. And not a jazz vocal album, either, but a folk-rock one in which he alternates – quite literally, track to track – between sub-Dylan outings and more folk-Baroque ones that echo the late-'60s work of artists like Love and Tim Buckley".