SOIL FESTIVITIES

I bought this album as soon as it was released and initially I disliked it. I was hoping to find a symphonic prog masterpiece like Heaven and Hell and I was very disappointed with this tendentially newage album. In addition to this, the same year I saw him live in one of the worst improvised concerts I've ever seen, even if the landscape of the Caracalla ruins in Rome was very impressive. I was about to quit with Vangelis that year.

I resisted and gave more spins to this album. It was not bad. Only different from what I was looking for in that specific moment. A bit more fantasy in the choice of the tracks titles whould have been appreciated, in any case.

"Movement one" is long as an epic, but it has little variations. It's more like a Krautrock or space rock track. Just some more melodic than what Edgar Froese was used to do. Some sounds remind to the OST of Blade Runner, but there are some sounds that are typical of Vangelis and can remind to any of his works. It flows very softly. Many people is used to define Vangelis as a newage artist, but try to add a Mediterranean touch to Tangerine Dream and you'll have a description of his music in this period. Don't confuse "Mediterranean" with "Sunshine" It can be wintertime in Greece too, and this is music for a rainy day, stigmatized by thunders and rain in the final part of the suite. This is likely the reason why he started to be considered a newage artist, but the use of Nature's sounds doesn't always mean newage. Is Edgar Froese debut newage?

"Movement two" is based on the same tempo, but the sound that gives the tempo is different. The melody is provided by a "violin" (It's everything made by keyboards, but speaking of violin takes less than writing "sound of violin"). Whenever the chord changes, the passage is never trivial. Again a good piece of space music.

"Movement three" Starts darker than the previous two tracks. There are echoes of "China" in the use of percussions (same as violin, of course), but this really reminds to Albedo 0.31, in particular to "Nucleogenesis". This can't be called newage in any way. It's dark space rock. Some bells remind to the Hell section of Heaven and Hell, too. At around minute 4, the rhythmless dark sounds give room to an orchestral part, still chaotic which ends inaspectately with major chords in the best Vangelis tradition before going back to the darkness and fading out.

"Movement Four" Starts with four Xylophone(same as violin and percussions) notes on which a flute-like sound blows the tune. The variations here are given by the percussions. This is quite a dark version of "Alpha"(Albedo 0.39). Then the pitch starts to change and the passages are used to introduce a symphonic element. It happens three times, then the track is back to the original mood. Now other than percussions we have fender piano, fretless bass and octavine (all championed, of course). An hypnotic track.

Finally, "Movement Five". It's not chaotic as Nucleogenesis but it looks like an improvised track (even if you can't never say with Vangelis). It's very hard to describe as it changes several times and alternates melodic and chaotic parts very frequently, The result is a sort of springtime after all the dark winter days of the first four movements.

I suggest this album to Space Rock and Krautrock fans. Many people considers Vangelis newage probably for his most melodic soundtracks, but this album is not the case.