SPRINGSONG

This is an excellent symphonic release from one of Fabio Zuffanti's many projects. An all-instrumental album (it's my understanding that earlier Hostsonaten albums had vocals), it strongly resembles later Camel works, albeit with the addition of lots of beautiful string parts. If you like violin in your prog, this CD is for you. Complexity is not the order of the day here, as each piece is melodic and soft- even the crescendos are muted, although there is a good amount of fiery lead guitar playing, particularly on the album closer "Toward the Sea". You'd never know this was an Italian group, since the compositions have a definite Celtic bent to them, reminding me strongly of Camel's "Harbour of Tears" or Colin Bass's "Outcast of the Islands". If you like those albums, you'll love this one. A very nice album for a weekend afternoon at the start of spring.