Moraine - a quintet consisting of leader/founder Dennis Rea on electric guitar, Alicia Allen on violin, Ruth Davidson on cello, Kevin Millard on electric bass, and Jay Jaskot on drums - provides instrumental music that is passionate and emotional but complex, challenging, and abstract. Manifest Destiny is not an easy album to absorb, but the more that one is able to absorb Moraine's music, the more he/she is able to enjoy all the nuances. Moraine's appreciation of world music is definitely one of their strong points; during the course of this 54-minute CD, they incorporate elements of everything from Asian music to Middle Eastern/Arabic music to East European gypsy music - and those world music influences only add to Manifest Destiny's richness…