BERNARD & PÖRSTI: ROBINSON CRUSOE

The Samurai have now chosen the story of the solitary but inventive castaway. Daniel Defoe's novel "The Life and Strange, Surprising Adventure of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner" (1719) immediately became world-famous and much imitated, as the introductory text points out.

Partly it's obviously because of the oversupply of releases from the same production team (which really can make the faithful listener feel pretty full at this point), but this time I frankly remain relatively unthrilled and uninterested by yet another new theme album from The Samurai Of Prog camp. [The absence of Steve Unruh explains the moniker Bernard & Pörsti on some albums, but they do belong to the same oeuvre, made with a similar recipe with an international -- and, by now, familiar -- cast of collaborators.] Of course these musicians & producers still are excellent at what they're doing, and Robinson Crusoe definitely isn't a weak album in its own right. It just won't be among my TSOP favourites, that much I can say for sure even with limited listening rounds. This has a lot to do with the narrow stylistic pallette of vocalists which is not much up to my personal taste.

The instrumental 'Overture' is composed by Octavio Stampalia (of JINETES NEGROS). The way the arrangement picks up in turns various instruments such as keys, flute, violin, trumpet and guitar is cool and dynamic, but overall the piece is a bit over-bombastic to me. 'Like an Endless Sea' is also bombastic and fully packed. Vocalist John Wilkinson is a plain Gabriel/Collins disciple. 'The Voyage Begins' is the expected and trusted David Myers solo piano piece.

'The Island of Despair' (by Alessandro Di Benedetti of MAD CRAYON and INNER PROSPEKT) features vocalist Bart Schwertmann, whose dramatic and hard singing style I'm not fond of. Musically there's a lot to enjoy, such as the gorgeous guitar solos by Steve Hackett. 'Friday', yet another fully packed ten-minute epic, features Marco Vincini's dramatic, Fish-reminding voice. 'The Rescue' features the legendary MUSEO ROSENBACH (and IL TEMPIO DELLE CLESSIDRE) vocalist Stefano Galifi, whose stuffy voice I've never personally enjoyed. So, you get my point? All the vocalists on this album represent the basically similar, drama oriented approach (influenced by Peter Gabriel, Fish and hard rock singers), ie. it's a much less varied selection of vocalists than on TSOP albums usually. Gracefully the finale 'New Life' is a great instrumental. John Hackett guests on flute.

My rating is only three stars (for my subjective liking but also for the sense of having more than enough by now), but if you dig the vocal style and bombastic dynamics, this album is strongly recommended. The arrangement has fantastic diversity and there are so much of fine details to be found.