SUNRISE

A hidden gem from Germany that I didn't have a chance to discover until having listened to hundreds progressive rock albums before. Out of three albums, I acquired the latter two ones and what a high quality prog rock that is. You can recognize group's ambitions by not only using progressive elements but also throwing bluesy, folky and classical elements. Nick Woodland has always been a versatile guitar player and he provides lyrics in English for this album. Singing is very good, in English, and inspired by late' 60's and early 70's folk music. Two keyboard player show off a vast array of keyboard sounds including church organ, Moog, hammond. The first song is a nice 7-minute ouverture with some bombastic sounds. "Circles" brings warm harmony vocals, bluesy harmonica, Hammond and a laid-back feeling. Also, don't miss out a nice acoustic guitar solo that slightly goes into a bluesy one. "Rainbow raider" borders with a harder-edged rock, it has an aggressive bass guitar, emotional guitar solo as well as organ/deep synth tandem making the sound majestic before turning into a jazzier territory with guitar and Moog. "Sunrise" is easily the most ambitious song or suite with its 27 minutes. Starting off as a Camel-spirited work (judging by flute and odd-rhythm), there is a lot of complexity by guitars, drums and keyboards with irregular rhythm. By now, you can recognize some Yes influences. Thankfully, singing is limited on this piece and instruments take the lead. The work graduates by rising and decreasing tones, similar to some Blue Effect stuff from the same years. Very progressive!

Although Sahara has not influenced or brought about revolutional elements in their music, their execution and ideas are baked together into a very tasty cake that will please almost everybody.

Look for a remastered edition that contains two live tracks, one of them being Sunrise with 23 minutes :-).

A masterpiece of German progressive rock! 4.5 stars.