The Sea Duration: Love Goes On Golden Thread Love Is All Pine Face Of Yesterday Past Orbits Of Dust All The Fallen Angels Prayer For Light Walking Away Duration: Prologue Kiev Sounds of the Sea Spare Some Love Bound for Infinity Rajah Khan Duration: Can You Understand?
Let It Grow On the Frontier Carpet of the Sun At the Harbour Ashes Are Burning Duration: Running Hard I Think of You Things I Don't Understand Black Flame Cold Is Being Mother Russia Duration: Trip To The Fair The Vultures Fly High Ocean Gypsy Song Of Scheherazade Duration: Can You Hear Me Sisters Midas Man Captive Heart Opening Out The Day Of The Dreamer Closer Than Yesterday Kindness At The End Back Home Once Again She Is Love Northern Lights Jekyll and Hyde The Winter Tree Only Angels Have Wings Golden Key Forever Changing Secret Mission Kalynda a magical isle The Discovery Friends The Flood at Lyons Duration: Camera Camera Remember Haslam manages to produce a more dynamic interpretation than his standards.
The song's only flaw is its brevity. Rated 7. Wonderful start with acoustic guitar arpeggio, keyboard and Haslam's angelic voice to outline a very catchy melancholy melody which then goes into a major key, with a wonderful progression.
We are at some truly remarkable melodic peaks. After the epic instrumental interlude, with a grandiose orchestral crescendo Tony Cox with solemn choirs, comes the third verse, to perfectly complete this masterpiece. Haslam's voice, arcane and beautifully British ie folk gives the whole piece a very refined accent. Many prog groups produce virtuosity or whimsical refined compositions but they are not able throughout their career to churn out a simple melodic song as beautiful as this one.
Rated 9. Side B 4. The suite, which traces a famous Persian parable, after a fiatistic Intro comes alive with a galloping instrumental piece where the strings and the drums of Terence Sullivan emerge. In the third section, more relaxed and exotic, the choirs arrive and then the singing of Jon Camp, soloist or accompanied by Annie Haslam.
Overall, the first movement is divided into three short, rather rhythmic sections where you can hear the grandeur of the orchestra. The music is always beautiful but does not reach the peaks of the first side.
The second movement opens with a classic piano piece by John Tout, perhaps the musician who most characterizes the sound of this album, to which the orchestra is added, mainly the strings. In the second section we finally hear the folk voice of Annie Haslam singing the love between the prince and the princess.
This relaxed atmosphere lit by her singing is reminiscent of Ocean Gypsy and in fact the quality of the music has risen. The sung piece could continue but is sacrificed in favor of the composition, which provides an evocative instrumental interlude with an oriental flavor worthy of a Tchaikovsky ballet, then the music changes completely and, guided by Tout's piano, it seems to become a jazz opera in Gershwin's style, with an excellent crescendo. The work of integration between folk instruments and the London Symphony Orchestra is remarkable.
In the end the evocative atmosphere returns, guided by a wind instrument that I cannot identify. This instrumental section is perhaps the highlight of the suite.
The second movement is great. The third movement begins with another instrumental section worthy of cultured music, this time it reminds me of Dvorak's symphony From the New World.
Then Annie Haslam's voice returns to elaborate the final part of the narration, which then increases in the last section. It seems incredible but the defect of this suite seems to me mainly the fact that the music does not have enough time to expand as in the two long tracks of side A leaving Annie Haslam's singing little space to give the best of her.
In this suite there is a narrative need to produce many sections with different moods: the compositional work is refined but moving from one section to another in relatively short time removes some pathos. Rated 8,5. Song of Sheherazade: Rated 8. On the first side, the Renaissance churn out two mini-suites based on enchanting melodies. In the second, a suite of almost 25 minutes where they demonstrate a high-class compositional and arranging ability. Haslame's voice and Tout's piano together with the strings create a unique sound, the rhythm section keeps pace and Camp performs virtuosity on the bass.
Dunford stands on the sidelines but is the real genius being the author of much of the composition. Absolute masterpiece. Five Stars. If you're wondering what this album sounds like: Dark Ages Genesis. One Star.
This was my gateaway to this band, if you have heard it already you'll probably know how i feel. This song feels older than it is, but also very innocent, i like the story that's being told and the sense of movement that the piano playing gives.
This song has a very interesting solo that goes more into soft jazz territory, and i really dig it as it is, ofcourse the bass is superb here, if there's something that this song gave me as a first impression is that this band has all the bases covered. I'll sadly rest 2 points, because of weird voice inflection on "trip to the faaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiir" and repetition, this is still one of my favorites, but i think that this could've been a little better. This has a faster tempo and its very energetic, i enjoy every moment that it repeats too, but if that wasn't enough, this track has an small solo, and its beautyful, i live for stuff like that I think that the only downside is that this small idea wasn't developed further, i can't imagine how I wasn't sold at first, if the song was just the chorus, but the way that the chorus ends "turn to gold" has a chord that i love.
Although it may seem simple, as it is a ballad, the song keeps adding more to do for the instruments, so this is on another level. This piece also features a beautyful piano solo, that adds what this song needed to be one of my favorites, and the ending, that's very sad, but its perfect. There's something missing, but that is featured on the Scherezade song, every time i listen to the solo i expect a certain section that its actually not here.
The introduction to this has a pretty serious attitude to it with those chords, but then it goes into full on adventure mode, the bass really does a fine job here, its like the begin of a movie.
As the piece progresses i feel like we're getting introduced to a heroic character and then the rythm becomes tame, now we're introducing royalty with our first lyrics. For this section i'll shoutout the chorus, i find it mesmerizing, everything is perfect but the many voices seal the deal I just love the transition from orchesta to a lonely keyboard, and what the keyboard plays here its so beautyful, it made me tear up a little, somehow the piece becomes even more beautyful after this, if you weren't convinced at this point that this song is special then i don't know what will, probably the voice of an angel This entire section is beautyful, but the ending is perfect, i sometimes listen to this song until this point "He will learn to love her for the rest of his life", i wish to marry some day, and to feel that everyday.
Then there's a lovely eastern night ambience that leads to the re-telling I love the participation of every instrument and sound in this section, even the smallest contributions, i ofcourse saw the "la la la la" part coming a mile away, i really didn't want it to happen, but it was inevitable, yet after that, the song goes different ways and surpasses my expectatives like twice.
The piece gets chill, like a peaceful night, but then those very low chords appear, its time for another increasing scale, and a reprise of everything i have loved so far, but with a twist, this is were the prog rock kicks in hard, with some intrincate time changes, i love Annie's inflections here, mostly when she is not doing those weird time signature parts This is such a remarkable song, i have listened to it every day for more than two weeks now since i discovered it, this cemented my love for this band, i feel like i arrived too late for this, but at the same time, i feel as if i've listened to this my whole life.
In conclusion, this band is one of my mains now, and this album a must, this completely deserves the 5 stars, without a doubt. Go listen to it right now! First of all the scene is splendorous, almost like a high budget Broadway set but absolutely real. The stage is backed by such magnificence that it almost gives the impression of open air, which is highly unlikely in the UK in April! As to the band, none being members during the group's time in the spotlight, they nonetheless do the legacy proud.
Rave Tesar plays the parts that had belonged to John Tout, mostly piano, always a signature of the group's sound, while Tom Brislin operates the rest of the keyboards, mostly fitted to approximate the orchestra. Acoustic guitarist Mark Lambert is as critical for his vocal counterpoints to Annie as he is to propelling the classic amp-less arrangements.
Frank Pagano and Leo Traversa buttress the rock aspect of the group, and perhaps what is missing most is Jon Camp's chunky bass as far as I can tell. No Renaissance story would be worth telling if it didn't also jump forwards as well, and at the time of writing they have since performed with a chamber orchestra on several tours in the US Northeast and released one DVD of the first tour, with a high def DVD of a subsequent tour in the can and imminent.
I say this because, as enjoyable as is "Live at the Union Chapel", the group improves upon the setlist for the orchestral tours. Annie and company seem to genuinely enjoy varying the material, and, knowing now how magical it was to hear "Island" from the Mach 1 period, and the long forgotten gem "Kalynda", "Trip to the Fair" and epics from "Song for all Seasons" with orchestra in and , makes me feel something is missing here, fair or not. Of course we are still treated to wonderful versions of standbys like "Prologue", "Carpet of the Sun", "Mother Russia" and the absolute live classic "Ashes are Burning", where the twin keyboardists in particular cut loose.
Just watching Tesar's with his studious perfectionism contrasted with Brislin's relatively wild eyed visual and sonic expressions makes my lips curl no matter how many times I see and hear it. Because "Northern Lights" was a hit in the UK, they perform it here and it's enjoyable but diminished somewhat by the guitar parts that, as inferred by rogerthat, probably would have been better served by mimicking Dunford's approach more closely. While the 3 tracks from the reunion album fit in just fine, "Grandine il Vento" and "Mystic and the Muse" especially, they suffer, through no fault of their own, from their placid sedimentary origins rather than the forged magma of an "Ashes".
As a teenager being absolutely numbed by the grandiosity of "A Song for All Seasons" so long ago, I could never have imagined that Renaissance, in any form, would be not only performing their classics but reinvigorating them almost a half century later, to be appreciated by live audiences and people in their living rooms.
Wasn't pop music supposed to be ephemeral. Wait what? This is such an un-hatable album, an incredible listen everytime, 5 stars without a shadow of a doubt. Review by VianaProghead Prog Reviewer.
It's a compilation album that comprises tracks from six studio albums of Renaissance Mk. So, "Heritage" covers all the best albums released by Renaissance Mk.
Thus, "Heritage" is a compilation very well representative, really. It's a mini epic well performed especially by John Tout's piano and Michael Dunford's acoustic guitar. The beautiful voice of Annie Haslam is perfect. The arrangements, mostly instrumental parts, are superb, and the addition of the orchestral arrangements is perfect too.
It's a simple beautiful song perfectly orchestrated. It's a melodic piece where Annie Haslam offers her great vocal talents, bridging to it a nice and peaceful ambient. Due to its structure, it's a song with a commercial sound. It's a nice song but is one of the weakest songs on that album. So, we couldn't rank it among their finest works. It's a romantic and melancholic ballad that fits well with Annie Haslam's voice.
It has a great piano work, nice guitar acoustic performance, wonderful vocal performance and a great choral work. It has an excellent melody and an emotional atmosphere.
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