THE GARDEN

Unitopia - this australian band formed around 2002 releasing so far 4 albums. The garden from 2008 issued at german InsideOut label is their best work for sure and without any doubts. This is a fantastic journey, in fact is a journey who last about almost 2 hours of music. Is a double album whwre each musicin shine, even the labum lacks in originality, is not a problem, the progressive rock offered as many qualities and many great memorable parts. First CD with the mosnter epic title track, clocking around 22 min, is a pure bliss for me, lots of tempo changes, moods, from mellow parts to more edgy , this is a fantastic pieces, spacey keyboards and guitars, furious solos all is here at the full capacity. From the excellent vocal arrangements of Mark Trueack through the sublime guitar and keyboard parts to the rhythmic section this album desearves attention from any prog listner, definetly one of the best albums of the last decade coming from Australia when talking about prog music.. Angeliqua is another highlit, is quite clear that Unitopia manage to be more intresting and captivating in lenghtier pieces, in the shorter one they are ok but not really impressive. On CD 2, the opener is another long tune Journey's Friend with almost 17 min of greatness, is quite at same level almost with The garden. THis life is another great tune, and the rest as on first CD are shorter and not quite on par with the rest, but not bad. So, all in all a great album that I like it, definetly is needed more then few spins to catch the over atmosphere, but in the end definetly worth it. Good eclectic prog with symphonic touches and ome jazz elenets added, the sax sounding quite intresting in many parts. 4 stars.