DAWN

After the conceptual "Power and the Passion", and given the decision of its leader Frank Bornemann to deepen his musical exploration in the intricate progressive waters not at all shared by his then band mates, Eloy was reduced to just... one member... And it was in this uncertain context that, far from being discouraged, the surviving Bornemann and the record label (Harvest) redoubled the bet by reforming the band in its entirety to go ahead with the release of the also conceptual "Dawn" (1976), Eloy's fifth album, and the second part of the fictionalized dimensional love story of the couple Jamie and Jeanne, already in a spectral state, initiated in the preceding work.

An album brimming with spatial atmospheres created by the magic of the synthesizers of the recently incorporated keyboardist Detlev Schmidtchen and base on which Bornemann's guitar arpeggios and the orchestral brushstrokes conducted by Wolfgang Maus flow harmoniously to accompany the journey of the suffering character. From the opening with the stormy "Awakening" and its piercing violins, its continuation with the cosmic solemnity of "The Sun Song", or also with the persistent and vaporous melody of "The Dance in Dount", the ghostly aura is a constant in "Dawn", further deepened by the ritualistic duet "Lost" (excellent psychedelic harmonies dramatised by Bornemann's mournful singing reminiscent of Greg Lake's E,L&P tone, and by Schmidtchen's moogs and organs), and by the herculean "The Midnight-Fight / The Victory of Mental Force" which includes some chords with nods to the Genesian 'Musical Box' in its most demanding section and one of the very few guitar solos on the album.

The concluding section of "Dawn" places under the shadow of the melancholic astral melody "Gliding into Light and Knowledge" (very good work by ex-Scorpions percussionist Jürgen Rosenthal) the disconsolate Jamie who finds in the hypnotic and instrumental "Le réveil du soleil / The Dawn", driven by Klaus-Peter Matziol's persistent bass, a final haven of peace.

"Dawn" is a firm step forward in what is probably the German band's most creative and outstanding stage.

Very good.

4/4.5 stars