SARABANDES

Eclectic........ I did not expect an album like this from an Eclectic Prog band. Then again, Eclectic means Gentle Giant to me.

Then again, the debut album from Minimum Vital is not a typical album from this band too. The band was trying to find their style and they came in from the left, from the jazz/fusion field of music.

Fusion, it is. But not quite fusion. Take fusion and add a healthy dosage of Camel and some middle age baroque music with some monks into the mix + some Celtic folk music and you get this album.

Some parts of this album is really great. The opening track Le Chant du Monde for example. But the standard drops a bit in the middle and the album becomes a bit too one dimensional before the band rallies their resources for the great next to final track Danza Vital. But as a debut album, this is an excellent effort though. It also really makes me eager to discover the rest of their albums which has been gathering dust far too long in my office.

3.75 stars