A GIFT FOR YOUR DREAMS

The Greek Mythology is going on for sure ...

The Wikipedia definition for WILL-O-THE-WISP is 'a mysterious light associated with spirits, found in various folklore tales'. This suits fine collated with their music which is delivering a special psych folk atmosphere. The newest album 'A Gift For Your Dreams' from 2007 is another matured one without a doubt. Awesome song writing - musically skillfull with haunting vocals - and the songs are in a more psychedelic mood compared to the forerunner 'Ceremony of Innocence'. This also reminds me of PAVLOV'S DOG or BO HANSSON sometimes. Eight lovely songs full of melancholy which you normally only might expect from a nordish band. So therefore I'm really delighted!

This is something for relaxing hours - sitting in front of the chimney with a glass of wine in your hand. Now the exception first: the second track Serpent's kiss is lacking of a ballad character when the band is hurrying up into some heavier psych minutes. One representative song which I want to point out is Flying with witches which flows and drifts wonderful lead by guitar and later the violin. Gentle drums are always the background for the songs. Angelos Gerakitis' vocals are delightful and free from any accent. And we have compelling hammond and flute with Fairer-than-a-fairy for example. Inward reflections even contains some spacey weird guitar contributions. But in the whole 'A Gift For Your Dreams' is really dreamy relaxed.

Nice one - a completely rounded album, less rocking but with feeling and sophistication anyhow.

These guys just continue to amaze me. For such a relatively unknown group (at least as far as my side of the pond is concerned), they have a remarkably mature and rich sound. The band seems to add another layer with every new release; in this case that means the addition of strings for the first time since their 1999 debut. But while that album featured a guest cellist, this time the range is expanded a bit with the richly expressive bow of violinist Tasos Papastamou. This simple addition pays great dividends on several tracks, most notably the chillingly beautiful instrumental “Flying with Witches”.

But before that the album delivers a quartet of solid tracks. The opening “Nature Boy” eases the listener into this fantasy-filled record with slow and eerie chords delivered by the band’s longtime guitarist Takis Barbagalas. While the music is principally delivered via guitar, piano and vocalist Angelos Gerakitis, the overall mood reminds me an awful lot of Porcupine Tree’s more somber works. That said, the uniform melancholy of this album is what one typically expects of Nordic progressive metal bands, which is all the more surprising since these guys are Greek. That’s not to say the music is morbid, it’s just that it calls to the imagination dark, still wintry nights on the plains in the same way that so many Norwegian and Finnish bands’ music does.

There seems to be an attempt throughout the album to highlight various instruments on each track. For “Serpent's Kiss” the instrument of choice is the bass, accompanied by both acoustic and wonderful electric guitar rhythm. For “The Night Twined the Hours” the mood slows to nearly a crawl with softly- crooned vocals that build up along with the piano until both the flautist and violinist embellish the ending with melodic woodwind and strident chord sounds. This is one of my favorite tracks on any of the band’s albums that I’ve heard to-date.

Jazznovation keyboardist adds a series of soft organ notes that segue into a repetitive progression to accompany (once again) the flute on another instrumental, “Fairer-Than-A-Fairy”. This song would make a great soundtrack tune for a fantasy film, or just to enjoy while watching the clouds drift by on a cool autumn afternoon.

The longest and most languid tune is the nearly nine-minute “Inward Reflections”, starting off with more piano and acoustic guitar but eventually accelerating to an extended soft-fuzz guitar and violin sequence that recalls the band’s more psychedelic debut album of 1999. Once again the organ provides a late blast of sound to bring the whole thing to a safe landing. The introspective mood here makes the title of the song seem all too appropriate.

Once again the band dips into their early sound with the mellow psych “Sliding Down at the Shades of Mind”, a tune not unlike some of the tracks on Green Carnation’s ‘Acoustic Verses’. If you’ve heard that album you’ll have a sense of the mood on this one.

Finally the band offers an interesting an unusual twist with another rendition of “Nature Boy”, but this time the vocalist is a female (guest Markela Dounezaki), who I can’t find any information about anywhere but whose youthful and mildly accented singing lends a lighter and more playful nuance to this song.

Overall this is easily my favorite Will-o-the Wisp album. I’ve been playing it constantly for several weeks now, with no sign of becoming bored with it. Each listen brings new appreciation for the subtle shifts between instruments and for the seamless way the production manages to blend all the songs together into a solidly cohesive body of work. I’m really surprised these guys aren’t more well-known, although they certainly could be in their part of the world for all I know. No matter, this is an outstanding and creative group of musicians who have once again scored a hit in my book with this, their latest offering. I’m actually tempted to give this five stars, and may come back in time and do so. But for now I’ll settle with a very high four stars and the hope that continued listening doesn’t dim its luster. Highly recommended to just about any progressive music fan of any genre.

peace

I sampled Will-O-the Wisp's self-titled debut and I absolutely loved it. It is still one of my favorite albums from this decade: a charming yet deceptively simplistic piece of modern psychedelia. If you were to read my review of that first album, you would find that two things really struck me, those being the vocals and dominating keyboards.

Well, my second sample of Will-O-The-Wisp is A Gift For Your Dreams, and both of those strengths have been diluted. The music is far more guitar driven now. Indeed, when I finally got around to checking the album credits, I found that WOTW was now relying on a GUEST keyboardist instead of having one onboard. How dissappointing! Sure the keys on this release are ok, but Nassi created something special on the first release.

The other change for the worse is in the vocals. Don't get me wrong. Gerakitis is still giving us those eclectic and eccentric performances that sometimes overpower and sometimes fade into the music. But I miss Sofia Rapti. Those few tracks that she sang on the debut, where her lines and Gerakitis's lines twisted around each other, were brilliant. We get a female vocalist on a version of Nature Boy on the last track, but it's just not the same.

Ok, I've mentioned a few negative things (at least relative to their first album) so let me mention one very positive and welcome element on this album. Amalia Kountouri plays one mean flute! On the tracks where she is featured, her understated talent definitely makes itself felt.

One more difference from the debut is that the band has a few instrumental tracks on the album. That isn't really either a positive or a negative, but sure is a difference.

Anyhow, this gets three stars. It's good, but the things that made WOTW compelling for me have largely evaporated.

This took a long time to grow on me as I was expecting (hoping) it to sound like the debut from 8 years earlier. It doesn't. They have put out two albums in between these two but they are very hard to find, so I haven't heard them. The biggest difference from this and the debut is that the Hammond organ has been reduced greatly. It was that sound that really made the debut special and had me comparing it to "Volume 7" from VIOLETA DE OUTONO. Not this one. One of the resons for the lack of organ might be the fact that the original keyboard player is no longer with the band, and so we have a guest playing piano and organ on this one.

"Nature Boy" opens with guitar, organ and light drums.This goes on until the vocals and piano take over 1 1/2 minutes in.The contrast continues. The vocals really remind me of Vincent Cavanagh from ANATHEMA. Flute before 4 minutes. "Serpent's Kiss" is an instrumental and I like the melancholic guitar intro. Bass and light drums join in around 2 minutes then the tempo starts to pick up. Organ 3 1/2 minutes in. Great track ! "The Night Twined the Hours" opens with gentle guitar as reserved vocals and piano join in. Organ and more passionate vocals follow. A relaxing soundscape follows then flute joins in.Themes are repeated. "Fairer-Than-A-Fairy" has a beautiful intro and the organ 1 1/2 minutes in is wondrous. Flute 2 minutes in with some prominant bass.

"Flying With Witches" has a heavier sound to it with drums and guitar leading the way. Flute 1 1/2 minutes in as it becomes more laid back. Violin before 4 minutes. "Inward Reflections" opens with acoustic guitar and what sounds like harpsichord. Organ then vocals follow. It's building 2 1/2 minutes in then it calms right down with some deep bass lines as drums and piano join in. The guitar sounds awesome after 3 1/2 minutes then violin comes in followed by vocals after 5 minutes. It's pretty intense 6 minutes in then it calms down one last time to end it. "Sliding Down At The Shades Of Mind" opens aggressively before it settles into a dark mood with bass. It kicks back in then vocals arrive before 2 minutes as it settles again. The vocals become passionate. This is such an emotional section and it returns again after 5 minutes thankfully. Gorgeous. "Nature Boy (Female Vocals)" ends the album with a guest female vocalsist (surprise !). The best part is the guitar solo after 2 minutes that goes on and on.

Very cool looking band by the way (picture in liner notes). So yeah this is different than the debut, but for me it's almost as good now that it's clicked with me. If you can find anything by this excellent Greek band i'd highly recommend you to snap it up. By the way, this album is dedicated to Nikos Chalikias who was the flute player in the band for their first three albums. He sadly passed away in 2005.

Interesting psychedelic/space rock band from Greece. I happen to find this CD by pure chance and I had it for a long time before I discovered this band was in this site. The music is dreamy, with very good guitar solos, a nice rhythm section and some special guests: there are great flute, organ and violin passages. On the other side I didn´t like the vocals. Angelos Gerakitis has a good voice, but something is missing in that department. The last track has a woman singing lead and it clearly shows a better perfomance.

The band has a sound that clearly shows a influence by those bands from the late 60´s and early 70´s, but it of course much better recorded and produced. Nothing too exciting or new, they could have been a little bolder and more adventurous, but still it´s all very well done. There are no real ´jams´, just some alongated solos and they are all quite tasteful. The CD is a bit short for my taste (a little over 40 minutes). If you like this kind of music you should check it out.

Rating: somewhere between 3 and 3,5 stars. Good, but not essential.