BETWEEN FLESH AND DIVINE

Three turkish men went to France to make very british music, diversity before it was mainstream I suppose. In reality Setrak Bakirel and Eril Tekeli were international students back in the seventies and settled in Paris where they formed a band aptly titeled Asia Minor together with fellow turk Lionel Beltrami. Recording at a time when progressive rock was long out of fashion, they initially released two albums in 1979 and 1980 respectively.

For this, their second album, they were assisted by keyboardist and bass player Robert Kempler who makes his appearance very obvious with a dominant bass part on the opening 'Nightwind' before Beltrami's busy drumming join in, all in wonderful seven time. The rather rocking beginning then segues into a softer acoustic part, dominated by Tekeli's very asian sounding flute which he playes throughout the album. Bakirel does all the vocals with surprising little accent in a subdued manner not dissimilar to Andy Latimer. In fact if you want to make a comparison, Camel's very melodic style is an obvious influence although Asia Minor is more arabic and quite a bit more heavy in parts. 'Nightwinds' ends with a wonderful guitar part supplemented by Kemper's mellotron (you can hear in in the video).

'Northern Lights' is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. It starts with slow melodic keys and electric guitar underlined by atmospheric synths and a fragile flute all in 15/8. Then Beltrami takes lead again with some extraordinaire drumming that leads the mellow song into a dynamic interlude, further highlighted by a great guitar sound. The song then returns to its beginning before Bakirel starts to sing over a very majestic melody that carries the song to a beautiful end. The best song the band ever recorded, if you ask me. This highlights a very small problem I have with the album as I find it to be rather frontloaded with its two best songs right at the start overshadowing the still excellent second side a bit.

~ first published at 'audio.philip' on Instagram ~