THE SNOW GOOSE

After "Mirage", guitarist Andy Latimer and keyboardist Peter Bardens were talking about releasing a concept album. It was bassist Doug Fergunson who suggested the album to be based on Paul Gallico's novella "The Snow Goose". My girlfriend always tells me that listening to Camel is like reading fairy-tales and probably the idea to base the music on such a story is the best they could do. A funny thing about it is that Paul Gallico was a complete 'anti-smoker' and connecting the bands name with the famous brand made him want to take legal action. The album was finally titled "Music Inspired By The Snow Goose" solving all the problems.

Latimer has stated that they had never played the whole material before getting into the studio and thus they had no idea of the final result. Listening to the album is almost impossible to believe it. The songs are great as individuals but they stand together amazingly well. This album, unlike the first two Camel albums, is completely instrumental. It's like a fairy-tale being narrated with music. The music is truly beautiful. Yep. beautiful, that's the word. It could be an amazing album to support a theatrical performance too. The high quality base provided by the solid rhythmic section, gives the freedom to Latimer and Bardens to drive us into a dream world. Brilliant compositions, solos and ideas and beautiful and memorable melodies are what pretty much sum up the album.

The album was released in 1975 and is their second release with Decca Records which seeing the success of the album, released the first Camel single. With this album, Camel showed they are an important band of the 70's British scene. A must for every prog fan!