ELYDIAN

Hyacintus is the name chosen by Argentinian multi-instrumentalist and singer Jacinto Miguel Corral to fullfill his music dreams and ideas in a personal project.For his first ever release Corral composed all tracks on his own forces and these would be recorded between September 2001 and March 2002 at the Temporal Studios in Buenos Aires with the help by three session musicians on drums, percussion and choirs.This would be called ''Elydian'', a product of Viajero Inmovil Records.

Having a Classical education, Corral proposed an often grandiose, very atmospheric but not always flawless Symphonic Rock album in the vein of THE ENID, FOCUS, JAIME ROSAS or ANDREW ROUSSAK, sometimes with more emphasis on the symphonic than on the rocking side, which is split in 15 short acts.His ideas are quite interesting, some of them are even great, with the tracks having a solid rock instrumentation being undoubtfully the best ones.Corral provides some tasteful guitar chops, lovely acoustic textures, fast piano paces, grandiose synth-driven symphonicism and some trully great atmospheres in these acts, just prooving his talent.His switch from pounding rhythms to delicate melodies to well-crafted solos is very pleasant to say the least.The real flaws of this album though come from the pure symphonically arranged pieces, where the digital technology nothing but helps.While Corral's Classical approach in these specific acts is decent, the plastic sound of keys and the false sound of the string/wind arrangements seem very amateur to an experienced ear.Pitty these ideas are not transformed into a really bombastic musicisnship.

Hyacintus is a project to watch despite some black holes in this release, as most of the pieces sound really great.A nice discovery for all fans of Progressive Rock and especially those deep into Symphonic Rock.Recommended.