SAINT​-​EXUP​É​RY ÁLMA

Four years after their successful 3rd album Senki madara here's the highly anticipated new one. I've been looking forward listening to this. With all the Facebook blogging we were on a trip with the band, following each moment, recording session with photos and videos.

The album is a kind of origin story of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, here introduced in the light of the Libyan Desert plane crash on December 30, 1935. Nice theme for a concept album and Yesterdays were planning this for more than a decade now.

74 minutes in total with a few really long songs, this album clearly follows the path of YES and GENESIS with a very vintage instrumentation and excellent compositional skills. It's nice to see that the band is finally back on the symphonic prog train, going in full speed.

Lyrics in Hungarian, not so surprising news, Yesterdays made a poll asking their fans about the language of the album and Hungarian was the chosen one. I am happy with this decision, Hungarian is a nice/musical sounding language especially on Stéphanie Semeniuc's beautiful voice.

I've read in a recent interview that while playing on many SAMURAI OF PROG albums, Ákos Bogáti-Bokor was frequently asked by Marco Bernard to play in the style of Steve HOWE. Now he took this to another level, but this time not only on the guitars. His bass playing is completely inspired by CHRIS SQUIRE's style and sound. This combo clearly gives the album a strong YES vibe. The flute is a Yesterdays trademark, so no surprise here, Gábor Kecskeméti brings his virtuoso flute playing. Drums of Zsigó László's playing (from the Hungarian band/project TABULA SMARAGDINA) gives the album a groovy, dynamic vibe along with percussion player Kósa Dávid.

Strong compositions, well crafted backing vocals, all the stylistic components I like in symphonic progressive rock and the very dynamic mixing/mastering job gave this album a high quality vibe. Eastern Europe still has fantastic bands and Yesterdays is one of the best ones from that area.

Favorite song: Engedj el. I haven't heard such a SONG like this since GENESIS' AFTERGLOW. Pure beauty.

If you liked their epic (SEVEN) from their 1st album (Holdfénykert) and the band's more progrocky songs, this album is a must have. Saint-Exupery álma still hits me after one week of constant listening, especially the 20 minutes long epical ESŐTÁNC. Four big shiny stars for this strong release. A true Eastern European masterpiece. Highly recommended.