ARANIS

A bewitching blend between traditional central European folklore, structured with contemporary and old school classical music, tainted here and there with Piazzolla's like accordion riffs and a pinch of the Kronos Quartet's keen sense of string arrangements, topped with a perfect understanding of these musical roots in its music composition, as to transform them and propose a unique musical language which is fresh, daring and perfectly executed by ARANIS a Flemish acoustic septet, first 2005 release, named the same.

As their PA bio advises> "At times sounding like a mixture of Yann Tiersen and Clint Mansell. Think of "Amelie" meets "Requiem For A Dream".

Inevitable references if you are familiar with these soundtracks, but although helpful and exact, ARANIS creative range in this album goes beyond sounding just like that most of the time.

Setting this septet in PA's RiO/AV sub-genre seems the best choice considering its non-prog music songwriting and making it easier to explain to followers of these realms. So, I will add some genre related bands to explain in general the feeling of this release, therefore imagine a kind of a more serious Samla Mammas Manna crossed with Univers Zero's less obscure and more playful recent works.

***3.9 "Highly promising first release" PA stars.