Providing listeners with a musical slice of everyday life, Soel’s Memento is an amazing disc to sit down to while you’re looking for creativity or attempting to be expressive. Or perhaps it is the perfect disc for sitting down, doing nothing and watching the world pass by. Think chill music for a relaxing spring break on the beach.

Soel is an alias for Ludovic Navarre, who is respected for the popular Tourist release on Blue Note he produced in 2000 as St. Germain. Tourist was especially known for its near-perfect fusion of jazz with house that resonated as a completely original composition. While not an earth-shattering movement because of its use in many early Chicago house and Detroit vinyl releases, those producers used samplers and drum machines to create distinct effects.

Navarre arguably turned this electronic music composition philosophy on its head through composing tracks with a symphony of instruments allowing for an unparalleled richness of sound. In fact, the richness has been considered appropriately nauseating, pushing the boundaries of the ear.

The first track, “Le Vicomte,” begins with a slow-tempo groove with the combination of a bass, bass guitar and a light cowbell. Though it appears to sound like the beginning of the 1958 movie “Touch of Evil” by Orson Welles, Navarre spins the track to bring it up to 2004 standards by adding a dash of flute jamming, some keyboards, and unexpected vocals with a sound reminiscent of a struggle.

Comparing tracks on the release to the album cover, a real connection can be made to the streets of inner-city areas, as the jazz tracks in Memento are a musical release, a subtle exploration of what Navarre has seen in the urban jungle.

Cities like New York, Detroit, Philadelphia and Chicago spring to mind and illustrate hardships through lyrics. In the track “My Singing Soul,” street scenes are illustrated musically while undercut with the interjection of guitar sounds from 1970: “I once saw a mother cry / I once held a brother while he die / I look to god and ask him why / my soul wants to sing.”

The thought of overcoming these troublesome parts of the country with a memory of the past is quite riveting within the context Navarre has placed before us. Navarre incorporates a harp into the sound, symbolizing the transition in and out of this daydream track.

While instruments were utilized in the St. Germain Tourist release, Memento is completely instrument-based with very few samples of beats. It uses purposeful background noise in the form of a turntable playing a vinyl record covered in enough dust to muddy the sound. All samples, except three, were created by Navarre specifically for this release.

The combination of retro jazz grooves and purposeful restraint of electronic music instruments in Memento proves Mr. Navarre’s growth as an artist through simplifying his sound while personifying it in tandem.

If you’re traveling somewhere other than a sunny place, this disc will satisfy. In fact, it is quite versatile, easily played when you’re sleeping on an airplane or sitting at coffee shop in Amsterdam. Memento is a wonderful escape that will transport you elsewhere or allow you to take in the scenery wherever you travel.

Wherever you listen to it, this release is seriously recommended for the insightful combination of jazz and broken beats. With Memento, Soel is a modern-day writer who has surpassed the title of composer and rebuffs any argument why he should not be referred to as a virtuoso.

Grade: AB