Whilst the band’s debut “Brainstorm of
Emptyness” was strongly rooted in the back garden of Camel, after a rather
long silence Cristiano Roversi has penned eight brandnew compositions which
he has spread over two CD’s. So expect 100 minutes worth of original pure
symphonic delight in which all of the genre’s highlights are bundled into
a new, powerful musical statement which holds the middle between vintage
progressive rock and contemporary pop. A thing which strikes me from the
very beginning is the perfect English from singer Luca Palleshi. In the past
some of the Italian progressive highlights sadly suffered from a weird
prononciation of the English language which had us reach for Italian
versions rather than the band trying their luck and fame on an international
level by means of an English version of their material. Another important
aspect of the Moongarden music is the inclusion of drummer Massimiliano
Sorrentini who approaches his drums in a similar way like England (remember
their album “Garden shed” ?) drummer Jode Leigh which means not using
the snare. The music on this double album is mainly of a very calm and
intimate nature as is illustrated by means of
‘5 years’ which sees the vocals blend with wonderful piano and
acoustic guitar resulting in a breathtaking song with international exposure
! The titletrack of the album introduces a lengthy
track of no less than 26’. It kicks off with an atmosphere which comes
close to that of Peter Gabriel around the period of his third
album (the rhythm in the intro makes me think of ‘Biko’ !). The
drums have a world music feel whilst there’s also some magnificent
fretless bass before the acoustic guitar takes us on a journey throughout a
rather mystical nature rubbing shoulders with ambient music. Once the drums
go silent the strings take over introducing almost a cosmic feel, going as
far back as the Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze school augmented with a
little Karda Estra. After a not so interesting middle section the rhythm
takes over again steering the music into a Genesis direction which we can
situate around the “Wind and wuthering” period. That world music feel is
slightly repeated in the rather short ‘Moonsong’ which introduces Indian
tabla but also the female narration of Pamela Brooks. The second CD begins with ‘Home sweet home’
again floating on a great drumsound, guitarloops and that splendid voice of
Luca which really is the greatest asset of the revamped Moongarden ! The way
he sings here could easily be associated with Ronnie James Dio when he used
to sing the ballads during his Rainbow days although not as high pitched.
There’s also a slight hint of Enchant singer Ted Leonard to be found. The
way guitar and mellotron melt together is like listening to White Willow and
Änglägard with a twist of AOR. This fifteen minute track also introduces
great synthsounds which together with the snareless drum and the fretless
bass make for some very interesting listening. Don’t be at all surprised
when, at the end of the song, you are treated to some flamenco type acoustic
guitar which switches towards Metheny like material. Although very few
people will actually understand what I’m talking about here but the intro
of the Moongarden song ‘Castles of sand’ comes damn close to ‘Hope,
faith and you’ from the band White Buffalo who used to open for Marillion
last year ! By means of some cosmic elements the song then goes on to live a
life of it’s own. ‘Stars and tears’ will please a lot of fans of
authentic vintage keyboards as there’s a lot of mellotron, organ and synth
up to par. As with disc 1, disc 2 closes with
‘Moonsong’ (here ‘the conclusion’), an uptempo song which could fit
in well during chill out parties. Again it uses some backward played
guitarloops to enhance the contemporary feel making it clear that Moongarden
is indeed progressive all the way without feeling it necessary to copy the
big names from the seventies. The result is some of the finest and most
interesting music to be released the last decade. One word of criticism
maybe which concerns the longer tracks. Some of these if not all include
certain sections which could have been left out in order to deliver a more
direct album and who knows maybe in that respect all of the material could
have fitted onto a single disc because believe it or not but for a lot of
people the name Moongarden will be totally new and buying two CD’s of an
unknown artist instead of one still is a gamble few musiclovers are willing
to take ! Reviewed
by : John ‘Bo Bo’ Bollenberg |
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