GABRIELUS

There are many reasons why "Gabrielus" is a hard album to review without being unfair with a band like ER. J. ORCHESTRA that is formed by such talented musicians and presents an impeccable production, but if we have to be absolutely honest, the material is bland and boring in comparison with the very good "The Unicorn".

It's was evident from the start that being "Gabrielus" their first effort, most probably would not be in the level of later and more developed releases, if we add the fact that they play with 9 musicians instead of 21 plus a complete chorus as in "The Unicorn", we can't expect a grandiose sound, but I insist, the major problem is in the compositional area because the music is very close to Muzak.

"Gabrielus" is opened by "The Tea Ceremony Kiev-Paris" a pompous name for a soft jazzy track based in synth, bayan (Russian accordeon) Sax and a couple extra instruments, reminds me a lot of Kenny G, but of course with better arrangements and musicianship, the central melody is the same along the song, so after a couple of minutes it begins to bore, not a bad song if you want to relax after a hard day at the work but nothing more.

The second song is "Gabrielus", which starts with an interesting cacophony of percussion, violin and flute that makes us think this time they will try something more challenging, sadly the first impression starts to fade when suddenly turns into an almost oriental folksy track with marimba and that boring Kenny G styled Saxophone, despite the song ends being a long and soft Sax track with no surprises, the presence of the domra (four stringed Ukrainian mandolin) and some brilliant violin solos make this tedious song barely worth to listen.

"A Letter to Jana" started, is a slight improvement, the arrangements are much better, we can listen a bit of percussion and a couple of changes plus a very nice chorus, Viktor Krisko in the violin is outstanding, despite that elevator music atmosphere "A Letter to Jana" is by far the best song of the album at this point.

"The Bamboo Forest Temple" is even better than the previous, much more rhythmic and with a nice folk oriental flavor that reminds a bit of some Spacey tracks of the late 60's but without the strength, still it's also worth to listen, around the middle a jazzy piano section by Alexei Alexandrov is simply delightful, the song ends with a bongo and violin tandem, very solid track.

"Chanson d'Automne" is a weird track with several changes but the interesting experimentation done by ER. J. OPRCHESTRA is killed by the soft Jazz sections and the boring chorus, the idea is good but they never succeeded.

The album ends with "Syringa" a sort of soft Jean-Luc Ponty soft Fusion track, as usual no surprises but the performance is outstanding, the only thing that really turns me is the horrendous marimba that makes us feel inside an elevator or at the dentist office, despite this bad choice of instrument, some good moments and vocals a la Focus and outstanding piano performance.

Some people may ask why I added this band if I was going to be so hard with my review, the truth is that if "Gabrielus" was their only release I would never had added ER. J. ORCHESTRA to Prog Archives but "On the Hill Again" and specially "The Unicorn" are a great improvement and despite it's not their finest moment, I believe it's has some interesting Prog moments that make it worth a try if you don't need to be challenged.

I would give 2.5 stars to "Gabrielus" but being that this is not an option in Prog Archives and its isn't remotely in the level of "The Unicorn" (Which I already rated with 3), I can't go with more than two stars.

If you like music for relaxation or you are a fan of the band and want to complete your collection then get it, but if you haven't heard ER. J. ORCHESTRA before, avoid it and go with any of the two later albums.