NIGHT

The band, named after Marillion's song of the same name, first came to prominence at the Marillion conventions. Jan Henrik put in a memorable performance singing as the front man for Marillion for one song, coming back the next convention with his own band. Since then they have been taken truly under the Marillion wing, supporting Marillion on tour and then this release under Marillion's Racket Records.

This is an extraordinary disc. Here I am writing this with nine months of 2007 gone and I have yet to see anything come close to knocking this off my album of the year.

The music flows from one track to the next. Compared to previous Gazpacho albums the tracks are longer with a different feel to them.

Dream of Stone is a great example of this - split into two parts by the wonderful, eastern European sounding violin break at around 12 minutes, it a 17 minutes long. Whilst the first part of the track is centred around Jan Henrik's vocals, the second part has excellent guitar work from Jon-Arne Vilbo.

The transition to Chequered Light Buildings is gentle, but the track is anything but. Full of drama with heavy organ sounds. This is my favourite track (even the track name is evocative).

That track ends with another gentle transition to Upside Down, another track starting with vocals/piano. Jon-Arne's guitar work though is what stands out again. The section from 3:45 to 4:30 shows Steve Rothery influence, and is beautifully executed. Kristian Olav Torp's bass work also comes through well in several places. The track effectively ends after 8 minutes leading to what sounds like a celtic-inspired piece consisting of pipes, fiddle and organ.

Valerie's Friend is the only track that comes close to the style of the tracks on other Gazpacho albums. More great guitar work followed by an ambient ending.

And the album rounds off with Massive Illusion. A brief nod to Marillion song "The Collection" with the comments about things being "all in my collection". The section that starts around 5:15 with a simple guitar strum is fabulous, and builds nicely. The main song ends about 8:45 through running into what must be one of the longest ever outros lasting almost 4 minutes - another eastern European violin/piano piece which could be a completely separate track - followed by the same windy sounds that opened the album.

I adore Mikael Krømer's violin work on the album and full marks to Thomas Andersen's keyboards and pianos. Overall the band works well together. Whilst not overly complex, the music is of sufficient depth to sit back and really demands to be heard - light the fire, turn down the lights, close your eyes and enjoy!

A final mention should go to the art work on this CD - simple, atmospheric but very effective, complementing the music wonderfully.

So, there you have it. Given the quality of this release and the weaknesses in Marillion's 2007 offering there are lessons to be learned - the pupils have surpassed their master. Get hold of a copy and listen! 5 out of 5.