SECOND MOVEMENT

Hansi Cross along with Benny Hadders opened a new studio, the Progress Studio, to work on Cross' albums.For their second work ''Second movement'' Christian Andre received a full-time membership on keyboards and Jonas Olson returned to help on bass.While all tracks were more or less finished, Cross and Hadders met Tai, a singer who played in the past with Andre, and he was given the chance to sing about half of the written material.The recordings were finished with Idde Schultz on backing voices and Egba's Ulf Adåker guesting on sax.Another private CD by the group, which was released in 1990.

During the first half of the album the main weakness of Cross' early days is again apparent.Despite their love for Prog music, the group insisted on delivering Hard Rock/AOR-oriented material with minor progressive values, fronted by the raw vocals of new singer Tai, the either melancholic guitar lines or the dynamic riffing and the cinematic keyboards.Typical sound of the time, often with an Arena/Glam Rock attitude and characterized by full energy, compact songwriting but no evident signs of personality.Very standard material for fans of the style.Towards the end the album will be saved from falling into total cheesiness.''Fanfare song'' is all instrumental, featuring a great combination of symphonic and orchestral synthesizers with a couple of nice guitar solos and the long ''Fire'' eventually sees Cross trying to come up with a real Prog Rock composition.The general atmosphere recalls ENCHANT or Belgians NOW, a nice piece of Neo Prog and FLOYD-ian textures, passing through very melodic soundscapes, catchy grooves, surprising breaks and light symphonic orientations in the keyboard/piano lines, featuring also some good singing and flashy keyboards, although the production is far from great, as during the whole release.The closing ''Yearning'' comes as closest as it gets to PINK FLOYD, a cinematic instrumental outro with DAVID GILMOUR-like interrupting guitar soloing and spacey effects.

Decent material, but not exactly that good to be warmly appreciated.Cross seem to reach the right path at the end of the album, but there is still some distance to go.Recommended to fans of AOR-friendly Prog...2.5 stars.