VISIONS

I think Gandalf had lots of focus on this release. Its a concept album and its much more of the east meets west style of music the Germans were making in the 1970s like Popul Vuh for instance but much more melodic and with the addition of synths and early drum machines. What I enjoyed most about Visions is that the synth playing is not only melodic but extremely tastefull i.e. he's playing solos but not for 5 minutes straight like ELP. The real live tabla playing reminds me of Deuter only much more interesting and minus the recorders! I also enjoyed Gandalfs lively crafted guitar solos. BTW he does use the vocoder and electronic keyboard with a mike to sing some melodies and its real well executed. I must admit the cd does have a more mellow edge but it is NOT IMHO a new age cd nor is it really prog rock but rather the music draws from those genres maturely and tastefully. Analog synth afficionados will love the use of Moogs(I think hes using them), string synths and a tad of mellotron. The recording quality is also very good and not muddied up like many albums from this era.