THE BELL

Overloaded with eclectic ideas and better-than-ever melodies, iamthemorning's 'The Bell' marks the most substantial leap that acclaimed Russian chamber duo ever did in their career at this point.

Two mini-epics at the start and at the end of this album (namely Freak Show and Salute) make a sort of circular journey out of 'The Bell' while also reaching almost a Secret Chiefs 3 level of eclectic complexity with jazz, IDM, Russian folk and heavy rock bits scattered all around them, and this comes out as really unexpected move. Both epics never meander and 'Freak Show' delivers us arguably the most beautiful example of iamthemorning songwriting (and yes, I am taliking about a band which had released such songwriting masterpeces as 'Reprise of Light/No Light' and 'Gerda'). As Marjana Semkina's voice floats like a spring stream into 'They're not the only ones/There are hundreds of likes of theme around' lines on the opening track, iamthemorning creates their most otherwordly beautiful harmony to date.

Shorter tracks are unsurprisingly good and well-crafted. While 'Blue Sea' might sound a bit like 'Lighthouse' outtake (and it's the only part of this album that slightly bothers me), 'Black And Blue' incorporates some unexpected Tangerine Dream-like synths and 'Lilies' showcases some incredibly bright and nuanced staccato piano from Gleb Kolyadin. On 'Six Feet' iamthemorning once again reach their melodic peak and 'Sleeping Beauty' piano outro is nothing short of majestic.

After this album came out I had to admit that it completely overshadowed band's previous effort, 'Lighthouse'. Being rid of Marcel van Limbeek's absurdly bad production, iamthemorning's studio sound shines again like it never did since '~'.

I hope iamthemorning will overthrow several financial problems they faced in recent years, which had unfortunately restrained this band's touring possibilities. iamthemorning's ability of creating music of the highest quality never fails to impress me, and that's why we need this entity to go on with their creative flux. There's more than a mere possibility for iamthemorning to become one of the grandest bands in the whole progressive rock's immense and uncertain-of-its-borders genre.