HOPE OF DREAM

I don't remember when I have downloaded this album and why. I have surely found the link on PA but what is sure is that I have totally forgotten to have done it. Only recently, while trying to put some order in my reviews todo list, I have found this album.

It has been a great surprise. This Charles Roman has given birth to an incredible album. The tracks are slow and atmospheric. The long instrumental parts are sad and his whispered vocals fit perfectly in the music. The main influence, especially in the guitar parts, is clearly PINK FLOYD, but the acoustic "About Today" makes me think to the PORCUPINE TREE of "Feel So Low".

There's a bit of sadness inside, but it's also a good album to relax. The production is not perfect but the overall quality is not bad and the compositions are so good that I don't care too much if the sound is not perfectly clean. Sometimes I prefer it in this way.

My fault is that I haven't given much attention to the lyrics yet. There's surely a concept behind but without the lyrics written in fron of me I need an extra effort to catch the meaning and in this case I prefer spending my neurons on the music.

Even without checking the lyrics, I don't have problems in rating this album with 4 stars. The originality is not its strength, but it's not a clone. It's surely going to finish to my mp3 reader.

Cosmos Dream is yet another one-man project, this time set up by French singer and multi-instrumentalist Charles Roman.Charles is not just another musician in line, he happens to be the son of keyboardist Jacques Roman, a founding member of the legendary 70's French group Pulsar.While busy with his own group Ellips, Roman decided to put an effort on his own, composing his first work ''Hope of dream''.It started as a work thematically based on Georges Orwell's ''1984'', ending up as a soundscape of questions by Roman around this world's consistency and future.Upon finishing its recording, Charles made this album freely available via Jamendo.

It would be just impossible the music of Cosmos Dream not to have some sort of influence by Jacques Roman's PULSAR and basically ''Hope of dream'' is an Ambient/Space Rock release with tons of FLOYD-ian moves and atmospheric soundscapes, characterized by the soft guitar touches, the New-Age keyboard lines and Charles' sensitive vocals.However the two biggest flaws of this effort are the way-too-accented vocals of Roman and the mass of minutes flowing in a very hypnotic, ambiental mood with little variations and the Lounge, relaxed aesthetics being the main focus.The album lacks dynamics and energy, relying way too much on ethereal keyboards and soft piano lines, while the guitars are performed with extreme security, offering breezy yet rather impaired solos.On the other hand the discreet choirs, the attempt of Charles' on pre-recorded multi-vocals and some of his melodies do show some great potential, despite the very strong PINK FLOYD resemblances.Especially the two longest pieces ''Be there'' and '' Candlelight'' are fine Space Rock cuts with atmospheric synthesizers, elaborate electric solos and good vocal arrangements, yet always suffering by the strong French accent.''About today'' is another decent tune with airy keyboards, distorted vocals and maybe the more sufficient work by Roman on guitars with a pronounced electrified mood after the middle.

This album is available for free, so anyone can explore Cosmos Dream's music at no cost.It's not something extraordinary and occasionally very soft musically speaking, but I can see plenty of PINK FLOYD/PULSAR fans appreciating it...2.5 stars.