TALES FROM THE FOUR SEASONS

Flood is just a pseudonym of a London-based multi-instrumentalist, who somehow managed to be signed by a Canadian label such as Unicorn Digital.He started composing his four-part suite back in early 2000's in Dorset, each part of which was dedicated to a season and reflected on changes in life.The album was titled ''Tales from the four seasons'' and was released in 2009 after three years of hard work.

With all tracks spanning from 16 to 25 minutes long, here we have a total amount of 80 minutes of gentle, dreamy and pastoral music close to the likes of ANTHONY PHILLIPS, GANDALF and MIKE OLDFIELD, wrapped up in extended, mellow orchestrations with a decent sound and production and lots of references to Symphonic and Folk Rock.The album has a strong New Age feel throughout, which means it's extremely calm and relaxing, based mostly on acoustic guitars, orchestral keyboards and some programmed wind instruments and string arrangements with several sound effects thrown in, each time different and related to the season passed.That's also the biggest disadvantage of the album, which otherwise is sweet and delicate.The music never actually takes off and works better as a background than a proper prog listening.It also lacks the deep inspiration of some of GANDALF's or ANTHONY PHILLIPS' similar efforts with their flawless approach on dreamy Folk and orchestral instrumentals.Some more pronounced electric moments and a richer style could have been a positive factor as well.But ''Tales from the four seasons'' is strongly grounded in the New Age fundamentals, avoiding any breaks into more emphatic instrumentation or arrangements and serving the needs of a listener to experience a very soft listening enviroment.

For fans of easy-listening, orchestral music with New Age and symphonic credentials.Too smooth and calm for my own taste I am afraid, but anyone having followed GANDALF or ANTHONY PHILLIPS throughout their careers should give this a spin.