DAVE DAVIES: Mystical Journey (documentary). Review.

Music and spirituality have been major influences throughout his life. For most people, they may seem far from each other. For Dave, however, there's no distance and never has been. Born into a big family and a home with many elder sisters who were all into the spiritual and intuitive sides of life, Dave was always interested in unusual things as a kid.

One such unusual experience was when he had a telepathic experience with his brother, Ray Davies (lead singer and composer of The Kinks) when he was hospitalised. Dave believes this bond could be the reason for the magic moments created by the band in its heyday.

We meet Dave the rebel walking through the city – a parallel to his youth, his physical history and life in rock 'n' roll. At the same time, we meet Dave the sensitive man in the great wide landscape as a parallel to his spiritual inner world. It seems that the two worlds never merged; it's more of an ongoing task for holistic Dave to unite music, sound and spirituality into one great energy behind all things.

Mixed with archive footage and Dave's new music, this is an important documentary for those with an interest in rock history. Mystical Journey is an honest portrait of an extremely sensitive, gifted and funny musician who played an important role in rock history. One could argue that the film is too long; namedropping of spiritual mentors gets tiring; and you certainly need to be open to spiritual/religious subjects.

If you are open to this, there's a lot to gain here: A first-hand witness and contributor to rock history guides you through his life and times, with new information about The Kinks and the relationship between Ray and Dave. Dave's heroic and stubborn effort to communicate the link between music and spirituality is inspiring and when all is said and done, his music lingers on.

- Rune H. Jensen, rhj@dali.dk.