This CD is a perfect example of innovation on many fronts. It has variety and freshness in musical approach and arrangement, a great diversity of talent, everything from sequencing to keyboards, guitar and vocal skill, as well as that special ingredient: soul. And to think it was all put together from various locations around the world is the final proof of its special character. Thumbs up to Ian Rushton and his team of collaborators. This CD is excellent.

Incredible. A Kiwi keyboardist/songwriter/producer teams up with several musician/songwriter/co-writers from around the world...and they never meet! They all send their tracks from their home countries via email. The result is an exciting, varied set of easy listening, contemporary, melodic pop rock, with and obvious international flavour. Ian Rushton is "New Zealand's answer to Richard Clayderman" - a UK-born, self-taught pianist and guitarist. "The Cybase Project" is his third album since 2002. Rushton never gets in the way of the international soloists; instead preferring to colour the tracks with celestial light. German Wolfgang Menzel is the vocalist/collaborator on most of the album, and he brings an almost Axl Rose quality to the tracks. Contributions come from countries as varied as USA, Canada, Sweden and China! Technology has come so far that you can create an international album without leaving your bedroom.

Despite the inclusion of Virginia Parslow's lyrics and the vocals of Nina Yu, this album is solidly a 'guys' album. It will especially appeal to anyone who has been around for long enough to have racked up enough triumphs and disapointments in life to appreciate the manifold themes. These songs have been written from experiences and not the whimsical poppy video-oriented patter so common these days. After his last solo instrumental album Ian Rushton has progressed to a more mainstream rock album collaborating widely to draw together a collection of stories from different walks of life. Some of these collaborations have obviously been synergistic giving us some very powerful numbers - those of Wolfgang Menzel in particular. Overall I have given the album 4 stars overall however a few of the tracks certainly deserve 5. I'll leave it to the listener to recognise these for themselves while I continue wondering why stuff of this quality is out there yet the radio gives us err... something else.