THE GATE

Born in 1960 on Long Island and moving early-on to New Jersey, Eric Kampman started taking piano lessons at the age of 5.During school he moved to Colorado and there he met guitarist Gary Morrell, while attending the Boulder University.With Morrell they ran the Prog Rock act Now for a decade, before the group split up in 1993.Next move was to join the band Ten Ton Chicken, remeeting Morrell and Now's drummer Rich Dibennidetto along with Episode's Nick Peck.Not feeling comfortable with his role as a keyboard bass player, he left the band and produced his first work ''The well'' in 1999, followed by ''The gate'' in 2003 on John Reagan's Big Balloon Music.Kampman played keyboards, percussion and sung on the album, accompanied by Now's original drummer Barbara Crawford, Ten Ton Chicken's Jamison Smeltz on sax and his longtime buddy Gary Morell.

Between the two personal albums Kampman got into Buddhism and ''The gate'' appears to be a spiritual journey into his religious experiences, though musically it has much more in commong with his works with NOW than to say Eastern-Asian Music, except for the odd sounds on ''The gate is open''.You can call this a Symphonic Pop/Rock album, which sees Kampman revisiting his previous stylistical aspects with his main band.Although NOW were always a deeply melodic band, Kampman's ''The gate'' goes a bit further, adding a few poppy touches in the process and sounding like SPOCK'S BEARD's more instant pieces or the first albums by AJALON and GLASS HAMMER.The man has an excellent voice and his keyboard arrangements are close to fabulous, he is just not helped by the mass of sampled instruments appearing on the album like the questionable harsichord and the lack of a proper bassist.If you've ever listened to NOW, ''The gate'' sounds a lot like a missing piece in their discography, pretty much keyboard-centered, avoiding any needless fanfares and focusing on elaborate and polished vocal and instrumental moments.Especially the later part of the album with the long tracks is quite efficient, featuring symphonic overtones, poppy voices, Electronic touches and piano themes.

After the album Kampman fell in depression, following struggles with his daytime job.This would be reflected on his next work ''The night'', which unfortunately was never released.In 2012 he found his new heaven with his brand new group Luminous Newts, an eclectic Art/Pop/Prog combo based in Berkeley, California.

Melodic Prog Pop by Now's keyboardist.Emotional, sentimental, vocal-driven but with some fine keyboard segments and decent atmospheres as well.Recommended, ''The well'' is said to be following more or less the same style.