Ever
heard of this Argentine band ? It’s not easy to find some interesting
information on the internet. So it seems as if this is a brand new band…a
band ? The booklet says : ‘Hyacintus is a personal project created by
Jacinto M. Corral’. Ever heard of Mr. Corral ? I certainly did not, but let
us first take a closer look at his project. ‘Elydian’
is based on a medieval story by Theo Sperzeld. Like many other similar
stories, it’s full of drama and romanticism. Corral rewrote it in order to
provide it with the proper musical score. As a result of this treatment,
Corral offers us his version of ‘Elydian’ by means of thirteen acts (none
of them exceeds the 6-minutes limit). From
a musical point of view, Corral owes a great deal to ‘classical’ composers
as Beethoven and Vivaldi and more contemporary musicians as Rick Wakeman.
According to his record company, Corral’s Hyacintus will also appeal to fans
of Mike Oldfield or XII Alfonso. Fans
of classical/instrumental symphonic (rock)music will undoubtedly love this
record. Corral certainly knows how to blend classical themes and progressive
rock, flavoured with a latin touch. This strong music demands
a full orchestra so maybe one day in the future, we will be honoured
with a large scale performance of ‘Elydian’. Corral ‘s guitar playing is
excellent. In fact, he proves to be a very versatile musician, as he also
plays keyboards, bass, cello, viola and percussion. Well, it’s personal
project, isn’t it ? A
lot of credit goes to the technical staff too. I’m very fond of
Southamerican progressive bands, but they often seem to pay little attention
to the sound quality of their output. I’m happy to learn that ‘Elydian’
does not get along with that tradition. |
