TORTOISE

A project led by Flamborough Head's Edo Spanninga in order to compose some music closer to 70's styled Progressive Rock.He recruited fellow bandmate Eddie Mulder on guitars and bass as well as Odyssice's drummer Menno Boomsma and thus Trion were born.The debut of the project was released in 2003 on Cyclops under the title ''Tortoise''.

Spanninga & co. managed to come up with a nice, melodic, retro-sounding effort combining the modern technology with old school equipment and the result is a nostalgic, all instrumental journey into the world of GENESIS, CAMEL, GREENSLADE, FANTASY and the likes.The album is full of short and mid-length arrangements, where the focus resides on melody and harmony, but there are plenty of dramatic and grandiose themes to be found along with some good breaks between acoustic interludes and electric passages.Spanninga fills the sound with a number of analog keyboards, most notably huge waves of Mellotron as well as a fair dose of vintage organs and he is accompanied by Mulder's sensitive guitar style, offering series of melodic solos along with some LATIMER-like jazzy vibes, and Boomsma's solid drumming.The atmosphere is dreamy, ethereal and of course highly nostalgic regarding 70's Prog, with well-crafted orchestrations, which here and there contain also some string parts and delicate flutes.

Definitely a top prority if you are a fan of melodic Progressive Rock or vintage Symphonic Rock.This is a nice piece of dreamy instrumental music by this Dutch trio of talented musicians.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.