BARREN DREAM

Barren Dream is the debut album from Japanese progressive rock band Mr. Sirius. They are catagorized here as Canterbury scene which is totally wrong IMO. This is symphonic prog rock with a few ( very few) moments of fusion jazz rock. What shouldn´t be desputed is the quality of the music though because this is excellent and very original prog rock. Mr. Sirius is a three piece which consists of Chihiro Fujioka on drums, Hiroka Nagai on lead female vocals and composer Kazuhiro Miyatake on flute, keyboards, Mellotron, bass, accordion. There are a few guest appearences on guitar on some of the songs on the album.

The music is cleverly composed and very classically influenced. It´s very dynamic and there are both quiet and more bombastic symphonic parts. It´s very pleasant music with lots of flute, vintage keyboards and female soprano vocals. Some of the songs have pretty complex structures like All the fallen people or Eternal jealousy, but all songs are pleasant and beautiful. I like the subtle quiet parts a lot. The few fusion jazz rock moments occur in Sweet revenge and Eternal Jealousy and those moments are great for the diversity even though they are not a dominant part of the album.

The musicianship is excellent and I have to give a special mention to Kazuhiro Miyatake for his outstanding composing skills. He must be classically trained. The female vocals from Hiroka Nagai are also very good. One time I was reminded of Kate Bush but generally Hiroka Nagai has her own style.

The production is very good but I do have a small problem with the voice production which is a bit hollow at times.

Barren Dream is a very enjoyable symphonic prog album and it certainly deserves 4 stars both for the performances and the outstanding compositions. Forget about the Canterbury Scene tag though as it´s very misleading. Anyone who loves symphonic/ orchestral music should be able to enjoy this. This is a highly recommendable album.