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██▌ Artist...: Marco Bernard & Kimmo P÷rsti ░▐██▌
░▐██ Album....: Gulliver ░██▌░
▓▐██ Year.....: 2020 ▓▐██▓
▓▐██ Rel.Date.: 2020-08-15 ░▐██▓
▐██ Genre....: Progressive Rock ██▌░
░ ██▌ Label....: Seacrest Oy ██▌
▐██ Source...: CD ▐██
░▐██▌ Type.....: Album ▐██▌░
▓▄████ Quality..: VBR, 44.1kHz, Joint Stereo ████▌░
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1. Overture XI 7:42
2. Lilliput Suite 17:53
3. The Giants 8:42
4. The Land of the Fools 14:30
5. Gulliver's Fourth Travel 10:18
6. Finale 3:11
------
62:16
Marco Bernard and Kimmo P÷rsti are, respectively, bass player and
drummer of The Samurai of Prog, a band formed by Italian-born Marco in
Finland as part of a musical project creating prog tribute box sets.
Joined by American multi-instrumentalist Steve Unruh, they have released
seven albums of æold schoolÆ symphonic prog and, despite Marco and Kimmo
taking top billing, you can pretty much regard this as TSOP number
eight.
The trio usually surround themselves with an army of helpers, and
Gulliver is no exception. There are about twenty additional musicians
and all the tracks are written not by the band but by visiting keyboard
players. Despite that, they manage to maintain a cohesive musical style.
ItÆs a concept album, folks, based on the 18th Century satire by
Jonathan Swift in which the titular hero, Lemuel Gulliver, discovers the
perils of sizeism. There are six tracks chronicling all four of
GulliverÆs travels: To Lilliput, where everyone is teeny-weeny; then
Brobdingnag, where the grass is as tall as trees and the locals equally
humongous; to Laputa, where the people waste their time in preposterous
schemes, rather like the current Tory government; and, finally, the Land
of the Houyhnhnms where he finds a race of talking horses and demented
human creatures called Yahoos.
Returning home, Gulliver becomes a recluse, spending his time talking to
his horses, but all they do is shake their heads and say ôNeighàö
Anyway, how to chronicle all these adventures in a scant 62 minutes? The
two Samurai go back in time for inspiration û not to the 18th Century
but to their 1970s prog heroes. So the album is full of influences from
the likes of Genesis, Focus, Camel and ELP, some more blatant than
others. The faded-in military drums and fife on opener Overture XI will
make you jump out of your seat and yell ôThe Battle of Epping Forest!ö,
while the first few seconds of The Land of the Fools bear an uncanny
resemblance to Wind and WutheringÆs àIn That Quiet Earth. Add the
occasional vocals channelling Peter Gabriel and you realise Gulliver
wears its old school prog influences on its sleeve.
Thankfully, Marco and Kimmo are capable of more than lazy musical
mimicry. At their best they can produce some dramatic and melodic
instrumentals, welding earthy vintage keyboards with restrained,
evocative guitar phrases, spicing them up with occasional jazzy sax and
Tull-ish flute. Overature XI is a classic example that opens with some
Bach-like harpsichord musings, inserts the æEpping ForestÆ moment,
introduces a dramatic keyboard and guitar duel before settling down into
a stately, bluesy instrumental that could have come with FocusÆs
Eruption suite.
The Giants begins by taking a gentler, more wistful approach, gradually
increasing in intensity and darkness until Marek ArnoldÆs nimble soprano
sax leads the band into jazz fusion territory. At the five minute mark,
it suddenly speeds up to showcase Mimmo FerriÆs keyboard flourishes,
driven by MarcoÆs bass and KimmoÆs powerful drumming, before ending with
dramatic major key chords under Carmine CapassoÆs soaring lead guitar.
ItÆs an entertaining, cinematic piece of music that you will want to
hear again and again.
The albumÆs centrepiece is the 18-minute Lilliput Suite, telling in some
detail the story of GulliverÆs first voyage to the land of the
littleÆuns and discovering their fondness for bondage. Split into six
distinct parts, it shows the bandÆs strengths and weaknesses û strengths
in the complex but catchy instrumental sections, weaknesses in Marco
VinciniÆs vocals that bear a remarkable resemblance to Peter Gabriel,
with a bit of a Roger Chapman warble thrown in, but fail to find
sufficiently distinctive and memorable musical phrases.
ThereÆs a lot of exposition to get through here, from GulliverÆs arrival
in The Voyage of the ôAntelopeö to his escape in The Departure, and at
times the music seems to take second place to the storytelling. But the
final few minutes of The Theft of the Blefuscudian Fleet are superb,
featuring an emotional guitar solo over climbing chords, followed by a
fast, tight keyboard and guitar section, and The Departure gallops along
nicely to the end.
The Land of the Fools` works a bit better û at nearly 15 minutes long it
feels a bit more cohesive. This time Daniel Faldt supplies the vocals
but, again, he doesnÆt seem to find many melodic phrases that lodge in
your brain. I was more impressed by Alessandro di BenedettiÆs nimble
keyboard work and Marco and KimmoÆs tight rhythm section.
Third Samurai Steve Unruh appears on GulliverÆs Fourth Travel, providing
violin and lead vocals in the English section, while Italian lyrics are
sung by Stefano Galifi in typically dramatic, operatic style. Again,
thereÆs a lot of storytelling here and not enough melody, although Unruh
is a fine violinist who provides some fast and furious phrases.
This leaves us with a short but entertaining three-minute Finale û a
sort of triumphant fanfare driven by stabbing organ chords, wailing lead
guitar and KimmoÆs busy drums.
To sum up, Gulliver is an album that requires repeated listens to unlock
its treasures, and even then you may be hard-pushed to hum anything from
the Lilliput Suite. But it attacks its material with confidence and
musical dexterity, offering some excellent keyboard and guitar work that
matches the dramatic intensity of its source material.
Full marks also to the CD designers û itÆs quite a lavishly-produced
item with a 20-page booklet and a cover that opens out to show Gulliver
lying on the rock shore being tied up by his captors, something you
usually have to visit specialised websites to see. Ahemà
Marco Bernard û Bass Guitars
Kimmo P÷rsti û Drums & Percussion
~ With:
Andrea Povoni û Keyboards (track 1)
Kari Riihimaki û Guitars (track 1)
Marek Arnold û Saxophone (tracks 1 & 2)
Oliviero Lacagnina û Keyboards (track 2)
Marco Vincini û Vocals (track 2)
Ruben Alvarez û Electric Guitar (track 2)
Rafael Pacha û Acoustic, Classical & Electric Guitars, Recorders,
Whistles (track 2)
Marc Papeghin û French Horn, Trumpet (track 2)
Olli Jaakola û Flute, Piccolo (track 2)
Tsuboy Akihisa û Violin (track 2)
Mimmo Ferri û Keyboards (track 3)
Carmine Capasso û Acoustic & Electric Guitars (track 3), Guitars (track
6)
Alessandro di Benedetti û Keyboards, Backing Vocals (track 4)
Daniel Deldt û Lead Vocals (track 4)
Massimo Sposaro û Guitars (track 4)
Luca Scherani û Keyboards (track 5)
Stefano Galifi û Italian Vocals (track 5)
Steve Unruh û English Vocals, Violin (track 5)
Marcella Arganese û Guitars (track 5)
Alessandro Lamuraglia û Keyboards (track 6)
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