ALONE

This is an excellent neo progressive record: it shows that progressive music can be VERY enjoyable with very simple compositions. The rich & bombastic floating keyboards consist in very dense and colorful streams of varied & modern sustained notes. There are also lush & ear candy melodic keyboards that easily make you stargaze. The VERY melodic omnipresent electric guitar solos are very good, and it is all the time played in the high notes, a bit like the expressive neo prog bands use to play in their songs, such like Jadis, IQ and Violet District. When the electric guitar is rhythmic, it is not distorted too much, so that it just brings a slightly bold & pleasant rhythmic contribution. There are also many discrete distortion-free electric guitar notes a la Jadis, which is a strong point of the album. Compared to the neo-prog band Jadis, Clepsydra here have more elaborated and participating keyboards, and their guitar solos are less bombastic and less hard rock; the drums here are less complex, although they do a very good job. The bass is quite loud and bottom, and it is not very fast although it does not fall into a dull minimalism. The excellent male lead vocals are really unique: the singer has a VERY expressive voice, very highly pitched and insisting, with a strong foreign accent. Unlike neo-prog band Collage, the music here is not complex, but the memorable atmospheres and the simple & efficient melodies involved will bring you pleasant emotions. ALL the tracks are not more & not less than excellent: that's why, AMAZINGLY, I give 4.5 stars to EVERY track! This is an album to listen with your heart, not your mind: it should be an excellent album for sensitive women too!

Rating: 4.5 stars