HÖSTBRIS

In 1979 the time had eventually come for Autumn Breeze's only known official album from the 70's.The line-up of the group at the time was Birgitta Nilsson on vocals, Gert Nilsson on guitar, Kenneth Halvarsson on bass, clarinet and sax, Gert Magnusson on flute, Lennart Olsson on drums and student Jan-Anders Warnquist on keyboards.''Hostbris'' was recorded in just a week at the CMC Studio in Autumn Breeze's hometown Arvika and released on the Orecords label.

To my ears this works sounds exactly how an album should sound saying farewell to the Classic Prog era and opening the doors of a more conventional style, marking it as a nice example of late-70's Prog Rock.Basically ''Hostbris'' is much more symphonic than any of Autumn Breeze's previous outakes withot loosing the certain psychedelic depth of the early recordings.It is just a more melodic, tightly structured and more focused work with short tracks, retaining the true spirit of Progressive Rock and leaving the genre's most creative period for an upcoming contemporary age.They sound often like the Swedish CAMEL due to the strong use of flute with a definite Scandinavian taste on vocals and atmosphere but also a fair amount of synths and electrified guitars next to the discreet organ and the scarce Mellotron echoes.They remind me also of some mellow bands from the Teutonic Symphonic Rock scene, a bit of ANTARES, a bit of REBEKKA and even a bit of ANYONE'S DAUGHTER stylings.While all tracks are rather short, the music is very nice with beautiful flute themes and decent keyboard arrangements with changing synths and analog instrumentation, mostly perfomed in a somber mood and offering lots of instrumental room for some symphonic textures.Compatriots ISILDURS BANE could be another good reference point.Nice, melodious soundscapes with downtempo music, occasionally flavored by slightly psychedelic nuances and an overall extremely balanced sound with fine female vocals.The production is unfortunately pretty mediocre.

As the album's fame is constantly rising over the years, no proper CD offering has appeared in the horizon, the only one known being the bootleg Tachika reissue.Pretty good example of late-70's Prog Rock with a strong symphonic/melodic content, which deserves a more fair treatment.Warmly recommended.