MASK

Can we say or at least write that the time for revenge has come for those banished from KNIGHT AREA? Without knowing all the ins and outs, this promising first album from THE FOUNDATION seems to be the ideal crucible to discover or rediscover the singer Mark SMIT and his long-time sidekick the bassist and keyboardist Gijs KOOPMAN.

"Mask" is a concept album based on an autobiographical story, a chronological representation of life that begins when we are born (The names of the titles are indicative of "Before the Dawn" to "Future"). As Ron LAMMERS explains, we We are born to love and we learn to hate......The mask is above all that of Love.

Without being wildly original, we are in the presence of an excellent work of symphonic neo-progressive as was the first KNIGHT AREA (we'll come back to it!) in its time, from the already distant year 2004. It goes without saying that the smooth vocal range (silky would be more appropriate) of Mark SMIT has a lot to do with the full success of this record. As it is a concept album, we are not going to separate one title or the other, you take all or you take nothing.......

What have I learned from several careful listenings of this opus? The orchestral opening of "Before the Dawn" coupled with the lyrical phrasing of Jens VAN DER VALK's six-string for seven instrumental minutes that we do not see pass in the sequence with "Birth" where it is Rinie HUIGEN (CLIFFHANGER) which takes over with a more incisive, more biting guitar. "Climbing Mountains" a little repetitive in an AOR register turns out to be a tone below, nevertheless airy by the flute of Judith VAN DER VALK and the violin of Sjoerd BEARDA.The nervous and swirling keyboard layers of Ron LAMMERS and the rhythmic pair Gijs KOOPMAN/Jan GRIJPSTRA transport us far into a maelstrom of very organic entanglements for "Blind to Reality" and especially "Despair".

The eponymous piece "Mask" arrives and its twelve magnificent minutes, the symphonic progressive at its peak, nothing more, a heady main melody, punctuated by the velvet voice of Mark SMIT, "masterpiece" you said "chef work"? The violin that runs through "Reneawal" saves it from all comers and "Unconditional" is very easy to listen to, very radio-friendly, a piece composed by Ron LAMMERS for his wife Betty......The final piece "Future " takes us back several floors with heady and enterprising keyboards (Gijs KOOPMAN on the Taurus pedal) and where vocalist Mark SMIT once again takes the spotlight, the second essential track of the work.

A very nice surprise that this foundation straddles between the first and second half of 2023, looking forward to a sequel......as brilliant.