SIX - PIECES FOR ORCHESTRA

Well Tony Banks has finally outdone himself, with his finest solo album to date, doing what he dles best, creating beautiful and engaging instrumental music. The opening piece, 'Siren' is the only one that may be repetitous, with some haunting melodies, but perhaps repeated a time or two too many. But the following piece, 'Still Waters' is pure magic. Very subtle, with the type of intrigue Tony brought to early Genesis albums. 'Blade' and 'City of Gold' are among the two best compositions he has ever done, the former highly emotional and with the insertion of one chord at the 7:13 to 7:14 mark, takes the piece from 'great' to 'rapturous', and the latter powerfully provocative. Compositionally there is some commonality with Delius and possibly a bit of Vaughan-Williams. One hears some similarity to his 2004 release 'Seven', but 'Six' is a fairly significant improvement, and will be a favorite of mine for many years to come.