A NIGHT AT LORELEY

I was initially skeptical about this release given the fact that the track listing consists of the entire of Gazpacho's last two albums played back to back, and given the studio polish of those two releases. The point about a live album is that it has to be sufficiently different from the studio versions to warrant release, but without discarding what makes the original version so good. Loreley achieves this in spades in the way that, say Pink Floyd's official live releases fail the former, or Miles Davis fusion stuff the latter.

As such A Night at Loreley is a perfect companion to both Night and Tick Tock. The three tracks that come from the earlier albums When Earth Lets Go and Bravo, are very much in the style of the later albums in any case and work well here. In short this is a worthy release and comes recommended.

At the moment this is only available from the band directly and in in 2CD / 1DVD format. Lets hope it gets a wider release soon.

Gazpacho have been making a name for themselves in the last few years, with 2007's Night and 2009's Tick Tock receiving generally good reviews and being well liked by many, so it was as good a time as any to record their first live album/DVD.

The good news here is that this DVD presents Gazpacho as a really strong live act, and the only thing that could perhaps be considered a downside to some is that the music seems to be played to backing tracks (mostly containing sound effects, but the ticking sound from tick-tock, which is a pretty integral part of the song, is also presented in this manner). This is not an inherently bad thing, especially when trying to recreate a very layered studio experience, but it does put the band in a position of needing to stay very tightly in time with these backdrops, meaning less room for spontaneity.

Not that Gazpacho are a band who really focus on that type of energy, instead the music here is (as on their albums) finely crafted multi-layered music with a ton of texture and emotion to it. The music is fairly close to the studio album, but varies enough to stay fresh. Not enough to recommend this as being a wholly unnique experience however. And, in my mind, the studio recordings are still superior.

The album contains the majority of both Tick Tock and Night, although from Night they skipped both the end of Massive Illusion (the cello part) and Valerie's Friend (which is a shame, because both of those were among my favorite parts of that album). They also include a few tracks from earlier albums, probably as a taster for those who (like me) know them from their better known new stuff. I must admit that I quite enjoyed them.

The video quality is really quite good and while the band doesn't have the most interesting stage presence (expect no men walking around in flower suits, for example), they certainly put on a good show and play good music, very well. The camera angles are very good and usually focus on the most interesting thing happening musically.

This could even be considered a good entry point for one curious about Gazpacho, because as I said, it doesn't include almost the entirety of their last two albums.

A Night at Loreley acts as a nice summary of how far this band has come....Gazpacho continue the fine tradition than Norweigan music acts have for stretching the boundries of genres; whether it be Jazz, post-rock or anything else. their 1st live album, once again ethereal and beautiful. This is an imaginative band, with a myriad of influences filtered and distilled to create a unique musical form of their own. We have a warm, emotive vocalist together with talented muscians who are capable of weaving a unique sonic tapestry. No doubt, those of you who have listened will here a myriad of influences and/or comparisons with other bands past and present..... I hear some similarities with other artists on the K-Scope 'Post-progresive' label ...and hear hints of many other contemporary acts too - listen for yourself - many peoples seem to pick out unusual comparisons when listening to this unusual scandinavian act .... who manage to still maintain ordinary lives with full-time jobs alongside producing some wonderful music