GRANDINE IL VENTO [AKA: SYMPHONY OF LIGHT]

Renaissance returns to form with this lovely effort, 'Grandine il Vento' (retitled 'Symphony of Light' in 2014 with the other 2 tracks from 'The Mystic and Muse' ep, and a beautiful new track written by Rave Tesar and Annie Haslam for the late Michael Dunford, appropriately titled 'Renaissance Man')

The album starts with my favorite track, Symphony of Light, which returns to the sound of earlier albums, most notably 'Novella', to my ears. Slow paced, mellow, and emotional in traditional Renaissance fashion, this contains a nice instrumental bit as well (there are too few of them on the album) even if it does borrow a line from 'Dancing With The Moonlit Knight'. This 'borrowing' was undoubtably intended, as there is no way all the progheads involved could possibly have missed the reference. It is a cool section, maybe my favorite on the album.

'Waterfall', the next track, is another favorite for me, reminding me a bit of 'Bound For Infinity', from 'Prologue', albeit not quite as beautiful.

Each of the rest of the tracks are quiet and pretty, with the exception of 'The Mystic and The Muse', which seems to be the lone dynamic (relatively) track. Having said that, all of the songs are quite good, although none of them blow me away, the closest being the aforementioned opening song, and the new closer (of the 'symphony of light' version of the album), 'Renaissance Man', which is a VERY beautiful little song, and a beautiful dedication to Mr. Dunford, who was an irreplacable musical force, and as I understand, a very kind and thoughtful gentleman. The one good thing being that he was able to see a resurgence in interest in his music before he passed away. 3 and a half stars for me, rounding up.

Where he could have gone from here, no one will ever know...