One Man's Party: Boundaries are abolished

It's been many years since rock music was still important and extremely relevant. Artists were not pop bunnies who sang with computer voices, but stars with guitars, poets, explainers of the world.

World Party was the name of the band, which was actually just one man. "Bang" is now considered his masterpiece.

With this record, Karl Wallinger, World Party's mastermind, delivered his masterpiece. The beginning is rather casual, charming and relaxed, folky. As if Wallinger wanted to prove: what Bob Geldof can do, I've been able to do for a long time! But then the musicians move further and further away from the traditional folk that also played a major role in the Waterboys, Wallinger's former home.

World Party - this name seems to be both an obligation and a task for the inventor of the project. Wallinger - the songwriter, singer and guitarist - celebrates a lavish party, and the whole world swings along. National and cultural boundaries are abolished. What's more: this music sounds as if it had been recorded in a state of weightlessness.

Wallinger's childhood loves are clearly evident: the Merseybeat from Liverpool and the soul music of the Motown era. Add to that voluptuous West Coast sounds and Brit-Pop from the once swinging London. The sound cosmos is completed by rave rhythms, a fragment of an aria, psychedelia and funky Prince references. And even hip hop, house and techno elements are not left out of this world party.

A few weeks ago, Karl Wallinger, the man who thought up and played this music, died at the age of just 66.