INNER VOYAGES BETWEEN OUR SHADOWS

In its existence from the mid-90s until sometime in the early 21st century the Brazilian band Aether has made only two albums: "Visions" in 1999 and the "Inner Voyages Between Our Shadows" from 2002. Both CD's show beautiful Camel-inspired symfo, music that regularly also contains a jazz rock feel. Aether comes up with material that doesn't make you sit back sleepy, but the fact that you're still sitting in your chair after listening to it also is worth something.

The band consists of four talented musicians who know what they are doing. There is guitarist Vinicius Brazil who has woven his melodic playing through everything. Often he sounds relaxed in an Andy Latimer-like way, but he also has that piercing like Mike Holmes (IQ). His tones thrive on the warm keyboard sounds with which Alberto Curi has dressed up the music. Only occasionally there is a solo by his hand or a thematic figure sounds as in the piece with the church organ sounds of the instrumental The Gate or during the synthesizer parts in Scenes Of Wondering Beyond. In general, his game is therefore quite woolly and elongated.

Curi also is responsible for all lead vocals on the album. His voice sounds nice and laid back like in Camel, while the accent he sings with will certainly add up to that. This is well reflected in, for example, opener Prayer For A New Meeting and the poignant Forgiveness. Both songs exemplify the epic setup of the album.

For example, we only hear six songs for 73 minutes and on top of that, each song is in turn divided into a large number of subtitles. You will not encounter any really shocking mood changes. Who has not lost any sleep over this is bassist Fernando Carvalho who stoically goes through the songs with his virtuosity. He is a pleasure to listen to this bassing Brazilian. He and drummer Mario Leme bring the jazz rock harmonies of his companions to life in a very nice way. The album immediately jumps into that mode with the Al Di Meola-like intro of Prayer For A New Meeting.

Of the six songs that populate the album, five are of their own making. In concrete, this means that the closing track is a cover of Night On Bald Mountain by the Russian classical composer Modest Mussorgsky. Not only does the workpiece get a typical Aether arrangement, two vocal parts have also been added. It is a tasteful composition with strong keyboard playing.

Unanimously, this album is labeled as being better than its predecessor. A search for "Inner Voyages Between Our Shadows" will not be that difficult, in 2006 Musea re-released the album.

Orginally posted on www.progenrock.com