INFINITE SYMPHONY

Interesting project led by french pianist Cyrille Verdeaux. I heard a lot about his work until I finally got a hand at this CD via Henk (Progrules). I was quite surprised: what was supposed to be a combination of classical music and rock turned out to be a tapestry of difference influences and not much classical music. In fact, most of the time what I hear here is an mostly instrumental record that sounds more jazz rock than prog rock.

Sure there are beautiful moments all over this CD, but not a cohesive feel: some pieces seem completely out of place when put side by side with the others. Sometimes you have a purely orchestrated part that sounded too much like a soundtrack of a Hollywood 40´s movie (movement V) or a Broadway musical. Here and there you can find even some folk, celtic passages. Movement III has some interesting rock moments with a singer that sounds a lot like Gabriel. But the sax solos do spoil any Genesis feeling on it.

The production is excellent as are all the players here. But overall I was not very impressed by it. I grew up listening to classical music all my life and Infinite Symphony does not have much of it. Nice parts that don´t really make up a cohesive whole. My rating: 2,5 stars that I will round up to 3 because of the great musicianship of all involved.