PERILOUS JOURNEY

The elegant, instrumental sound of ''Visionary'' was good enough to become pretty succesful, forcing Giltrap to form the Gordon Giltrap Band, opening a new chapter in his career.Bassist John G. Perry, drummer Simon Phillips and keyboardist Rob Edwards were of course the stable members, accompanied by a strong wind section.''Perilous journey'' was the next album in the row for Giltrap, recorded at Redan Recorders and released in 1977 on The Electric Record Company. Stan Sultzman joins on sax and Martin Drover on trumpet among the usual participants, Jeff Daly on baritone sax, Tony Carr on percussion, Pat Halling on strings, Chris Pyne on trombone and Henry Lowther on second trumpet.

The early, rural vibes become less and less apparent with each Giltrap release and the sound on ''Perilous journey'' obtains a smooth electric atmosphere with orchestral and symphonic overtones, akin to SKY or even STEVE HACKETT.The music is pretty gentle and elaborate with nice use of electric guitars, injections of classical guitar and plenty of piano and keyboard lines in the process, resulting to dreamy and well-crafted arrangements.The presence of trumpet, trombone, sax and strings do offer this lush, orchestral feeling, similar to MIKE OLDFIELD's works, but Giltrap had now his own, genuine way to blend symphonic moves, light acoustic soundscapes and rhythmic twists into a charming, progressive amalgam with an obvious touch of 70's Prog Rock.Despite the overall delicate style, certain tracks become quite grandiose with full-blown keyboards, emphatic orchestral backgrounds and Giltrap's quirky guitar plays, both in electric and acoustic form.Rob Edwards provides some fantastic keyboard themes and solos on organ and Moog synthesizer and the album ends up to be pretty rich in sounds and sights with the everchanging tempos and climates.

Second attempt of Giltrap along the lines of progressive music.Intense, ethereal instrumental, quasi-Symphonic Rock with some advanced arrangements.Great stuff, strongly recommended.