OCTOBER PROJECT

1993. No internet for rapidly spreading the word about new prog groups. Not that many new prog groups anyway, especially in the Anglophone world. In this underground environment, bands that might appeal to progressive music fans were considered fair game, and OCTOBER PROJECT was a name that kept coming up for the beautiful voice of Mary Fahl and the lavish sounding production in spite of low budgets.

October Project was compared to Renaissance, and Fahl's voice does bear comparison to Jane Relf but not Annie Haslam. Notwithstanding short track lengths, having her voice multi-tracked as on "Take me as I am", and having a group member who did nothing but write lyrics are other points of valid comparison, especially to the "Azure D'Or" era. I'm just not sure how much any of this resonates in 2009, when so much more bona fide prog is available and widely discussed, and bands can release on their own labels. Nonetheless I was there and everyone I knew was into this group, or perhaps I knew everyone who was into this group, which might explain their rapid disappearance.

For me, 4 tracks make this album worth having - "Ariel", "A Lonely Voice", "Wall of Silence", and "Paths of Desire". Apart from the closing track, everything else is decent, if at times reminiscent of tired 1980s pop a la BRYAN FERRY. While the sound does include folk elements, I would more classify October Project as crossover or prog related.

If you are into music of the above description, some sweeping heartwarming melodies, suffusing string synthesizers, romantic lyrics just to the good side of trite, and tightly knit songs, make this your next project.