ASHES ARE BURNING

Following the release of ''Prologue'' guitarist Rob Hendry left the band to be replaced by Peter Finberg for the upcoming tour of the band.When finally Renaissance were ready to write another album, Finberg was replaced by Michael Dunford, who returned as an acoustic guitarist.''Ashes Are Burning'' was recorded between April and August of 1973 and released in October of the same year on Sovereign Records for the UK market.The album featured a guest appearance of Wishbone Ash'es guitarist Andy Powell on the long eponymous track.

''Can You Understand?'' is definitely among the band's best offerings ever.Excellent piano-driven Symphonic Rock mixed with Orchestral/Folk Rock and Haslam in her best shape ever, containing both dramatic and dreamy passages.Tout had become one of the band's leading forces, as prooved again by the second and third track ''Let it grow'' and ''On the Frontier''.Nice absolutely ethereal ballads with a smooth rhythm section and Classical-inspired piano vibrations.Notice that ''On the frontier'' was previously released by ex-Renaissance member Jim McCarty's band Shoot.Another beatiful cut is ''Carpet of the Sun'', a short composition with orchestral parts, finally the harsichord of Tout is on the forefront along with string passages and Haslam's crystalline chords.''At the Harbour'' contains a great piano prelude by Tout, but soon it regains a lovely British Folk flavor with an intense lyrical content, led by acoustic guitars and Haslam's vocals, before another piano outro.The eponymous 11-min. track is among Renaissance's classics, no question.A superb arrangement with grandiose vocals but also extensive instrumental themes around orchestration passages, piano and harsichord interludes, even some deep organ appears in the middle and the great solo of Powell before the end.

Overall this was a great improvement over ''Prologue'' and the establishment of Renaissance into full-blown smooth Progressive Rock of very high quality.Highly recommended, one of the best albums of Orchestral Progressive Rock.