OPUS II - IMPRESSIONS

Upon the release of ''Opus I: Dimensions'' and SETI's second album ''Discoveries'' Claudio Momberg sat down to complete a second work of his Taurus sideproject.Not even a couple of months had passed from his first album and in December 2010 he entered the Discovery Studios to record ''Opus II: Impressions''.Two months were enough for the whole process and in March 2011 the album was released on Mylodon Records.

But it appears that this time Momberg set things in a hurry.Not that he is far from great composer, his Classical training and influences are again on full display in this album.But he seems to have lost the balance between Electronic soundscapes and Symphonic Rock with this effort, which heavily relies on his work on keyboards, piano and samplers, usually forgetting the extra touch provided by the electric guitars, which made Taurus' debut sound pretty charming in the first place.The synthetic beats and orchestrations sound very pale and fake, really a pitty, because the man happens to be an accomplished sound engineer as well.His new work now reminds me of the more symphonic side of ELOY FRITSCH and VANGELIS with vibes of his work with SETI during the floating synth moves and the discreet use of organ.So, the main components in here are electronic- and keyboard-based interludes and textures with a Classical and cinematic edge, occasionally offering some Neo Prog tunes, but a deeper and more efficient sound is to be desired.''Weights'' and ''Phoenix II'' are the two single tracks to offer some guitar moves and these happen to be the strongest pieces in here as well, a nice combination of soaring synthesizers, sentimental solos and retro-styled organs.The rest of the material is rather soft and cosmic with some breaks into grandiose symphonic music, not very convincing and elaborate compared to Taurus' debut.

Electronic/Symphonic music with a certain composing quality, lacking the depth of more balanced efforts of the style and suffering a bit from the thin orchestrations.Anyway, this could be a decent listening for fans of Film Scores and cinematic arrangements...2.5 stars.