PIKTORS VERWANDLUNGEN

Took me longer to get into than their first two, (which I greatly enjoy) but once I got into it, I liked it almost as much as "Adonis" and more than "Anyone's Daughter". Some very beautiful compelling music here. The tracks bind together similarly to the tracks on Camel's "The Snow Goose", with tracks flowing into each other to varying degrees but only highly minimal recurrent themes (are there any?). The album is structured slightly differently than the latter, as there are a few tracks with basic focus given to (German) spoken word lyrics-- I'd imagine recitations of Herman Hesse--, which are less musically involved (though the level does vary) and generally atmospheric. The music here is more progressive than on "Anyone's Daughter", almost as though the band had gone back to 1979 and taken a different course in following "Adonis". Aside from the spoken word vocals in 4 songs, the rest is entirely instrumental. Great album recommended highly, especially to fans of bands like Genesis, Asia Minor, Eloy, Camel etc..

Best track: Sehnsucht

4.25 stars