STRANGE ATTRACTORS

The roots of this Dutch band can be found in mid-80's, when Ed van Haagen and Leo Koperdraat played in a band influenced by the likes of Twelfth Night, Pendragon, Marillion and, surprisingly, Canadians Terraced Garden.With lack of success and life moving on they found themselves playing more contemporary material with Pop and Alternative Rock vibes.Founding American drummer Frank Urbaniak via Facebook was the initial moments of Fractal Mirror.The two musicians begun writing music at their home studio and the drums for an upcoming album were recorded in a studio in New Jersey.The mixing took place in Trondheim, Norway by Rhys Marsh and the debut of Fractal Mirror came out in November 2013, titled ''Strange attractors''.

This would be another good yet ordinary Art Pop/Rock album, if the members didn't let their past influences come on surface, so ''Strange attractors'' revisits some of the vintage prog fundamentals and the Netherlands-based band combined them with atmospheric, melancholic and upbeat tunes in a well-crafted album, which sounds in the end like COLDPLAY and RADIOHEAD meet with GENESIS and late-60's KING CRIMSON.The tracks are quite short and the focus in on solid songwriting, romantic lyrics and voices and elaborate melodies, but the keyboard parts in particular have nothing to do with Pop Rock.Loads of impressive Mellotron in almost in every track and soaring synth deliveries from the later GENESIS/early MARILLION days add the appropriate progressive vibes and the retro color of old-school Prog in the process.The music is mostly atmospheric and dreamy with laid-back arrangements and a deep lyricism with the guitar work having an almost Post Rock feel, the addition of nostalgic keyboard flashes is great and the material ends up to be trully memorable and well-executed.Not an extended album, about 40 minutes long, but this is an excellent choice for non-disturbing, artistic Rock music with a dash of Classic Prog references.

An album, which can be regarded as the bridge between the old and new generation of Prog listeners.The mightly Mellotron stands next to the accesible and atmospheric modern stylings and the result is efficient to say the least.Recommended.