STILL DREAM

EDHELS enjoyed a surprising seven album run from 1985 to 2003. They were an all instrumental band from Monaco led by two guitarists who met while studying at the Monaco Academy. The main man is guitarist and composer Marc Cecotto. They were a four piece band with three of them being multi-instrumentalists. "Still Dream" is their second studio album, but first on the Musea label. Released in 1988 it was at least something half decent to listen to during the prog famine at the time. Still, those two album covers that they used for their first two albums deserve to be in the cover art hall of shame.

This is pretty good music with plenty of keys and guitars. It was probably smart not to have a vocalist I'm thinking based on some of their decisions they made, like their album covers. Or even having their best song "Heart Door" only on the cd release of this, not the vinyl issue. Sure lets leave off our best tune. That song was recorded separately from the rest of the album, and Musea would use that track on one of their compilation releases they released to pump the bands on their label.

Lots of melancholy here with the guitar soaring sadly much of the time. Besides "Heart Door" I liked "Annibal's Trip" with some organ featured for a change instead of the cheap 80's synths. Speaking of which, those cheesy synths lead on "Christie Feline Girl" but despite that there is some actual depth to the sound here. So a pretty enjoyable, all instrumental album that in hindsight is pretty weak, but it offered a little bit of light during those dark times. Have you seen the album cover for their debut? Or this one?