POLAND - THE WARSAW CONCERT*

To my surprise I noticed that "Poland" wasn't reviewed yet on this wonderful site. So I will give it a try. This live album was recorded in 1983 in Poland in arctic conditions. The story goes that te roof of the concert hall almost collapsed of heavy snowfall, and that the temperature was so low, the guys (Froese, Franke, Schmoelling) had bowls of warm water to defrost their hands and fingers now and then. Also powerfailure was a major problem. This knowing, you can say that they did a remarkable job. The music is powerful and emotional, not cold or static. The first track is "Poland". It starts with the kind of sound we heard on the magnificent album "Hyperborea" of the same year, particularly the track "Sphinx Lightning". "Poland" builds up to a climax with great soloing to slow down into an ambient bridge. Then returning with a great melody and climaxing again after 20+ minutes. Second track is "Tangent". This one can be devided in three parts: the first part develops from a simple melody to an ambient structure with repeating rythms. Then they play two parts that could easily be put on "Logos" Nice but for me not very suitable on this album. Then te third one. This is my favourite track: "Barbakane" . Starting slowly, with a nice lead synth, Chris Franke shows his capabilities on the rhythmic side of the tracks. Well done!!! The last part is "Horizon". Again starting slowly, with similarities to Logos part 2, the melody and rhythms come in. The piece ends with a great sequencerpart. When you like TD in the 80's, this album is one of the highlights of that era. It was also their first album for a new record company (Jive Electro) after a 10 years deal with Virgin Records.