A FAERIE SYMPHONY II

Tom Newman will forever be linked with one artist and album in particular, namely Mike Oldfield and 'Tubular Bells', which he co-produced. But he was heavily involved with the early days of Virgin Records and worked with many of their acts including Henry Fool and Gong, as well as putting out material of his own. It was his second album, 1977's "Faerie Symphony', which has gained him most fans, with Steven Wilson notably including it in his list of "Top 10 Concept Albums you may have missed'. It took him more than 20 years to produce a follow-up, and in a similar timeframe we now have his fourth release. Tom provides guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, bodhrán, keyboards, and the guests include the likes of Rob Reed (Magenta) and Jon Field (Jade Warrior).

This mostly instrumental album meanders along gently, and that is both its beauty and its curse as while it works as background music in that regard, there are times when the listener just asks, "what is the point?". It is a mix of modern classical and crossover progressive rock in many ways yet does not work well within either genre. There are times when there is some deliberate dissonance and splitting of melodies, which can make it hard to follow the logical musical path, but in many ways the path is lost, and one is just blundering through the forest hoping that at some point there will be light on the other side. There is some wonderful musicianship on here, but give that Rob Reed is heavily involved I would expect nothing less, but in terms of listening to this for enjoyment that is something else altogether. I am sure this will be of interest to the millions of diehard Oldfield fans out there, just because it is by Tom, and this is not something to which I will often return.