ALONE TOGETHER

At about 18 months ago I witnessed a gig from this Polish formation during a progrock festival in Paris (with thanks to Alucard), they were supported by Eclat and Sensitive To Light. I was impressed by their modern and pleasant sound (between melodic rock and neo-prog) and the warm presentation of the singer. Listening to this new album I conclude that this is their most mature and balanced effort since Quidam made their debut halfway the Nineties!

Remarkably in the first two sings are the longing vocals, tasteful keyboards and fiery guitar work. Then we can enjoy the long and alternating Depicting Colours Of Emotions, from a slow rhythm with warm vocals and flute to swinging with propulsive guitar play and sensational solos on organ and guitar, very exciting! The other five tracks also contain that pleasant, often warm climate with a tasteful colouring of the instruments like a break with flute and percussion in Of Illusions, a strongly build-up guitar solo and a powerful saxophone solo in We Lost, the distinctive Fender Rhodes piano in One Day We Find and swirling Hammond organ, fluent synthesizer flights, a sparkling flute solo and in the end a fiery guitar solo in the swinging ... But Strong Together.

My conlcusion: after all those years Quidam is still alive and proggin' and they have treated their fans on an outstanding new album!

This album caught me by surprise, oh yeah. Since their former singer, the magnificent Emila Derkowska, left the band I thought Quidam was through and their first album with the new singer only enhanced this feeling. Even thought I liked their DVD with this line up (see my review for further details) it did not really changed my opinion. I wouldn´t had bothered to listen to this new CD if a friend of mine hadn´t insistied on borrowing it to me. He told me I would like it and later I found out he was right.

Alone Together represents in many ways the band heading back to their prog roots, but in a different way. Forget their previous CDs, all of them. And listen to a new Quidam (I think they should have changed the name, but...). The music is pleasant and inspired. Sometimes their sound ressemble a bit of their polish coleagues, the lengendary Collage. Or Satellite. Some jazz rock leanings here and ther also. But the sound is pretty much original, melodic prog at its best, with great guitar, keyboards and flute interplay. New singer Bartek Kossowicz handles his duties with confidence, passion and precision. Not one of the most technical vocalists around but his voice has a freshness and a vulnerability that is quite compelling.

As a whole new band, this CD is very good. As long as you don´t compare it with their earlier stuff, you´ll probably enjoy it a lot, specially if you´re into neo prog, but not only. A nice surprise by a band I had lost all hopes about. I´m glad I was wrong.

I wasn't expecting a big deal from this album. "Quidam" released an excellent debut album which was a great mix of symphonic and neo-prog, but the quality of their production was a little behind with their next releases. The bottom was being reached with "SurREvival" which corresponded to the change of lead vocalist.

From a rich and passionate female one (Emila Derkowska), the band switched to a monotone male singer (Bartek Kossowicz). This was a major difference and not for the best.

There are hopes with the opening track which seemed to mean a good return to a more symphonic approach, but unfortunately it won't last for long. They will just revert quickly to an easy and predictable neo-prog ("Depicting Colours Of Emotions").

My feeling is that we are listening to a sub-par "IQ" or alike. But I prefer the original.

As usual there are some interesting guitar solos ("We Lost") and flute is an excellent add-on; but all this is ruined with their lead singer who is trying hard to sound as Gabriel ("Of Illusions" but not only).

There are hardly any song that is fully enjoyable; only bits of. Like in the heavy and uninspired "One Day We Find " during which a fine flute solo is available. The oppressive "We Are Alone Together..." might well be the one and only good song, and to confirm this ...But Strong Together closes the album in a decent manner.

Two stars are as high as I can go for this album. Gone is the great inspiration of their early days, unfortunately.

I have known the band quite a longtime ago through some progressive rock compilation CD as well as my prog friend's CDs. But only recently I paid a closer attention about the music they have made. This Polish band has a good talents in music especially in the vein of neo-progressive rock. The music is heavily influenced by Pallas, IQ, Pendragon and the legendary 70s bands Pink Floyd, Camel and Genesis. The name of the band, as the website quotes, originates from the Latin word quidam meaning someone, some human being and refers to the poem Quidam by Cyprian Kamil Norwid, perhaps the most intriguing of Polish romantic poets. The title hero of that poem is a man looking for his place in life, searching for goodness and truth. From this philosophy, I learn that this band was created to produce music and lyrics with deep meaning in the quest of value in life. What a nice philosophy.

This album was made after the tour where they made a DVD The Fifth Season - Live In Concert released in January 2006 where the album was intended as talks about different kinds of loneliness and estrangement, about being alone together in various sorts of relationships, and features the best of what the band has to offer. The result is a solid album with excellent musicianship, song-based composition which has been enriched with many progressive elements, good melody. Having considered this, it's an album that can satisfy many different ears, and in fact those who like pop music would enjoy this album.

From the opening track "Different" (3:16) you can feel the taste of music these guys are going to deliver. It's a nice opener with clean and transparent voice of Bartek (new vocalist) backed beautifully with piano, flute and electric guitar in howling effects fashion. The flute part makes dark nuance and a sense of traditional setting, especially as it is made at silent mode to set the tone of the overall music in this opening. The guitar solo is stunning and it reminds me to a mix of Steve Rothery with the soul of David Gilmour. It's a nice opening, really.

"Kinds Of Solitude At Night" (6:00) confirms the neo-progressive nature of the band's music especially thorough the relatively slow moving music demonstrating mostly on ambience and deep vocal work. The music that accompanies is a good combination of deep basslines and drum beats as main rhythm section while the solo part is demonstrated through piano as well as guitar. The male vocal line is backed with female vocal line. The ending part that shows a combination of piano (as rhythm section) and guitar (as solo) is a nice part.

"Depicting Colours Of Emotions" (10:18) is a thought-provoking title - how can you express the colour of any emotion? Well, logically you can .. at least you can relate anger with red, for example. But the music is truly excellent especially with its ambient opening using soft and long sustain flute work wrapped with great vocal work. It's a peaceful song with relaxed singing style, deep basslines and whispering sounds of flute (that makes this band different from any other neo progressive bands). You will find segments that remind you to the old Genesis music. The guitar solo, intertwined with flute work, in the middle of the track is nice. What follows is the music moves in higher tone with more energy and dynamics. Those who like early Marillion would love this section.

"They Are There To Remind Us" (7:49) starts nicely in keyboard part followed with soft riffs of guitar that brings the music in crescendo. Again the relaxed singing enters the music backed with deep bass lines. It reminds me to Pink Floyd. The music is tuning up at approximately minute 1:31. "What goes up..must go down" is what the lyrics says. The combined drums and keyboard work is nice. At approx minute 4:22 the music enters into interlude part with soft piano solo followed brilliantly with stunning flute work. Oh man .. this is really great!

"Of Illusions" (8:04) is an energetic song that starts with drum solo followed with music that flows using a combination of guitar and flute. But it then moves to vocal line where the deep basslines serve as main rhythm section combined with drums. The guitar solo that comes after lyrical verses are excellent. The kind of music is similar with Pallas. One thing interesting to notice is the music interlude that starts at 4:44 where the music breaks with the work on percussion (like world music) with inventive flute / oboe work. This is unexpected insert that makes this song much appreciated.

"We Lost" (8:26) starts with soft guitar fills from two guitars. This sound really great, performed in good ambient. Drum work enters and brings the music into medium tempo with great basslines and guitar fills. Flute still as main instrument that enriches the song while the song moves forward with its vocal line. Guitar (acoustic and electric) also provides excellent fills throughout the song. Keyboard serves as background string section. The electric guitar at the end part of the song reminds me to bands like Jadis, Camel or Pallas. The ending part is fabulous, i.e. when the music moves in fast tempo with guitar and keyboard as solo instruments followed with alto sax solo while the bass and drums play their inventive works.

"One Day We Find" (6:46) starts with soft keyboard work and cymbals followed with medium tempo music with soft guitar riffs and keyboard solo that ends when the vocal enters the music. It's a joy listening to this album until this part because since track one this album has offered excellent music. The guitar solo and ambient flutework make this song enjoyable from start to end, and people would love the chorus, I believe.

"We Are Alone Together..." (8:20) is indeed a correct statement that we will experience or has been experiencing loneliness. The intro with soft piano and melodic vocal remind us to the situation of loneliness. Bartek's vocal this time reminds me to the voice of Neal Morse even though his is a bit softer. The song also features something traditional nuance of the music.

"But Strong Together" (4:25) serves as the closing remark of this album with excellent quality, musically, as its previous tracks. The organ work reminds me to old days where people adored Hammond organ. The insertion of flute work in the middle of the track confirms that this band has made flute as main instrument in any of their composition.

This is different kind of neo progressive music with excellent composition. Even though you may refer to any neo prog band, but this band has something different to offer: the existence of flute as main instrument as it occurs in every single song in this album. I consider this as an excellent, four-star rating, album. Peace on earth and mercy mild. Keep on proggin' .!

The prevailing themes on this album are releationships and loneliness. A fairly melancholic record overall.

"Different" opens with reserved vocals and piano before we get some guest xaphoon. I've never heard of that instrument either. Sounds like a flute of some sort. The song picks up a minute in with strummed guitar. A full sound as drums come in before 2 minutes along with electric guitar. Probably my favourite song on the album. Emotional in every sense of the word. "Kinds Of Solitude At Night" features some guest zither from the same guy who played the xaphoon. By the way he's married to QUIDAM's former singer Emila who adds her backup vocals to this song. Cool. Some good contrasts in his one. Tasteful guitar before 5 minutes, organ joins in too. Another excellent track. "Depicting Colours Of Emotions" is pastoral as flute comes in then reserved vocals. It becomes fuller after 3 minutes. Love the guitar before 9 minutes that eventually wails.

"They Are There To Remind Us" is led by drums and vocals eventually. Not a fan of this one although the guitar, piano and drums sound great 5 1/2 minutes in. "Of Illusions" is uptempo to open but settles when the vocals arrive. The tempo continues to shift. I like the guitar 6 1/2 minutes in as the bass throbs. Not really a fan of this one though. "We Lost" is a top three track along with the first two songs. This one is mellow and atmospheric but it kicks in after a minute and i'm reminded of CAMEL. The vocals remind me of RIVERSIDE's Mr.Duda. Mellotron and flute in this one as well. Outstanding tune. "One Day We Find" is fairly powerful at times. I'm reminded of FLOYD 3 1/2 minutes in when it settles. "We Are Alone Together" and "Strong Together" end the album. I like the former but not the latter. The former is beautiful with fragile vocals and piano for the first 2 1/2 minutes then it turns atmospheric the rest of the way. Nice.

Half of this album is pretty amazing but not enough here for me to give it 4 stars.

Quidam's new studio album "Saiko" comes out in a few days, so it's a good time to look back at the incredible Alone Together. Whilst prog purists tore their hair out at Marillion's wide-ranging musical wanderings from Seasons End onwards, it appears Quidam have been taking copious notes, because Alone Together is a reasonably (but not world-conqueringly) successful attempt at a rather similar musical evolution, though one which I think will appeal more to the purists than Marillion's has.

On the whole, the album manages to hit a balance between the classic neo-prog sound of previous Quidam albums on the one hand and delving into lush, rich soundscapes of the sort Marillion have been toying with on the other, the end result being a compelling, fascinating, and very original album which takes Quidam's sound in a whole new direction, though one which to my ears feels like a little bit of a calculated move.

Polish NeoProgger's fifth studio album release and first without the full-time participation of lead singer Emila Derkowska (now Nazaruk).

1. "Different" (3:16) okay start, great end. (8.5/10)

2. "Kinds Of Solitude At Night" (6:00) great melodic hooks, solid, mature construct and palette. A great song--a top three for me. Nice to hear founding vocalist Emila Derkowska's beautiful voice again, if only in background support. (9.25/10)

3. "Depicting Colours Of Emotions" (10:18) nice mellow song with many instances reminiscent of fellow Polish proggers, Collage. A near-perfect song. (19/20)

4. "They Are There To Remind Us" (7:49) trying to go heavier, the sound is decent, it just does work for me. These musicians are too talented to have to murk things up with power chords and heavy distortion. It's good when the acoustic instruments are allowed to shine--and when the electric guitar is let loose. (12.5/15)

5. "Of Illusions" (8:04) fast-moving and extremely tight throughout, just not the most interesting song; nothing stands out or grabs me. (12.25/15)

6. "We Lost" (8:26) a song that feels based on some MARILLION-like traditional folk sounds, melodies, structures. Once the vocal starts I'm reminded of the first couple LUNATIC SOUL albums (which are yet to arrive on the Prog scene). Nice jazziness develops as it progresses--becomes especialy noticeable with the chorus. Great instrumental passage follows the first chorus--with awesome drum and lead guitar work--in the middle of which the band doubles the tempo. Wow! It's off to the races we go! How these guys can stay so tight! It's amazing! (17.5/20)

7. "One Day We Find" (6:46) solid music to support a rather straightforward vocal performance. The guitar, flute, and keyboard contributions in the instrumental section are stellar. The chorus does eventually get into your head. (12.5/15)

8. "We Are Alone Together..." (8:20) piano intro, quickly joined by Bartek singing sensitively. Very nice melodies and chords. Other instruments join in for the second verse, but they do not disturb, change, or disrupt, merely add dimension to the existing piano weave. Beautiful! Exquisite ambient textures--even from the drums! Atmospheric prog perfection. (19.5/20)

9. "... But Strong Together" (4:25) launching straight into a power drive, then turning to a Rasta rhythm and Hammond solo, the vocal section is dull, but the bridges and instrumental support passages are impressive. (I especially love the flute play.) Certainly an upbeat way to end an album. (8.25/10)

Total time 63:24

This is an album that, more than anything, showcases the virtuosity of these musicians--the seemless unity and cohesion they display in all collaborative performances of some not-so simple compositions. Kudos to these veterans: Masters of their craft(s). And band leader Bartek Kossowicz does a great job stepping into the BIG shoes voided by newlywed Emila Nazaruk.

B+/four stars; a solid prog album from some very seasoned veterans. Definitely an album that is worthy of addition to any prog lover's music collection.