Identity Crisis is the well-chosen title of London Based Iambic Dream Project’s first album. Well chosen because it highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of this rich and eclectic album.

While we’re at it, the brainchild of producers Wael K. & Raz Kennedy, The Iambic Dream Project is itself well titled, as the common elements uniting all the songs on offer here are poetics and vision. This is highly crafted, top of the range mood music – it’s not going to get you dancing on a Saturday night, but it may well get your imagination in gear on Sunday morning!

Identity Crisis because there are over 50 perfroming artists on the album, and songs range from the big-band jazz of Flying Solo through to the gentle asian lilting percussion of Trails of Nepal (part 1) (winner of a Music Aid songwriting and production award). It’s a bold and brave choice, given that most albums feature at most two/three vocalists – and one that, on the whole works. It may be the timbre of the production, or shared themes (identity, creativity, loss), but there’s a common thread that holds the most disparate parts together – or maybe it’s just that there’s consistently good music on offer here, to the point that the ‘identity’ isn’t an issue.

That’s the optimistic take on the album – the marketing people will probably have a different view, though, given the amount of styles and voices on offer. There is the danger, slight though it is, of overwhelming the listener with the panorama on offer.

That’s for the marketing people to worry about, though. This listener is more than happy to take the trip (in all senses of the word) with the Iambic Dream Project!