CELELALTE CUVINTE

A fantastic album from Romania!

This is my first review and my native language isn't English so it might seem awkward when reading.

Like a lot of albums in this category, this is a blend of hard rock and prog, with a bit more empahsis on the hard side. The music has clear influences from hard rock bands of the 80's, such as Led Zeppelin or Rush, but also some influences from Romanian bands, most notably Phoenix. Usually there are heavy parts combined with some mellow acoustic ones, and also some riffs and fast playing. The combination works extremely well and even though one might say that they've heard a particular part of a song somewhere else it doesen't sound like the band has blatantly copied bits of music from other bands. I would like now to describe a bit of each track without trying to review music for deaf people. I'll try to translate the track names as best as I can.

Scrisori Iubite (Loved Letters) - A short acoustic intro song with nice flute parts aswell. Here on the first track you will first hear how the singer is: he has a high pitched voice not unlike Geddy Lee or, to a shorter extent, Jon Anderson. If you like the aforementioned singers, you will like his voice aswell.

Un Sfarsit E Un Inceput (An End Is A Beggining) - This song basically summarizes the general mood of this album: mellow parts followed by heavy parts, and a bit of country too. It's a very good song, and one of the highlights of the album. The ending is a killer.

Daca Vrei (If You Want) - A slower and much more sentimental song; you won't find any riffs or headbanging moments hear. However it's a very pleasent song with nice lyrics. This one grabs the listeners attention without being bombastic and is memorable I think; I am saying this because usually light songs by other just drift away without leaving much of an impression on me, or forgetting them all toghether. This one is differen though.

La Ceas Tarziu (At Late Hour) - Ah, a contrast to the previous track. It starts with a slow tempo and then continues with atmospheric and almost electric playing. The band is very tight here and awards us with some very nice grooves as it starts getting heavier and heavier, the bass is terrific in places. The track is dynamic and is a proggers heaven with lots of tempo and rythm changes (at least I think so, I am not musically trained). Anyway it's almost an instrumental with only a bit of singing in the middle. The only problem I have with it is that it's so good it feels like only 3 minutes instead of 7. My favorite of the album and I like to blast the speakers all the way too the max when listening to it.

In Zori De Zi (Morning) - ....and... a filler. Yeah, there's not much to say about this one. Heavy and short and not very memorable. I'm not sure what the band's reason was to add it to the album. Oh well...

Fantana Suspinelor (Well Of Sighs) - you can listen to it here so you can make you own opinion about it yourself, but I'm gonna say a few words about it anyway. Remember when I said that Celelalte Cuvinte draws in influences from bands like Phoenix and Led Zeppelin? Well it's here that they are most present. It starts with a beautiful poem about a well with bad and warm water from which weary travellers want to drink from it but can't. I think it's a metaphor about life, but I can't tell for sure. The music is medieval sonding and reminds me of the northern part of my country where a lot of beautiful monasteries ar ebuilt. Anyway, this a method used by Phoenix too using poetic verses in their songs. The song goes from mellow to dynamic playing and it all sounds verry proggish. Oh, and some nice flute playing at the end too, reminding us of the begining of the track, thus bringing it to full circle. Another clear highlight.

Despartire (Parting Ways) - A fitting name for an end track I think. Here is where we say goodbye (for the moment ;) ) to Celalate Cuvinte. A very good ending song. Kind of sums up the album.

In conclusion I'd like to say that this is a work which can be enjoyed by a broader audience of people, namley those who aren't necessarily into prog rock, but like hard rock or classic rock or just good music in general. The songs have plenty of variety in them so proggers are sure to enjoy it. I *think* I'm being a bit too generous with the rating, maybe 5 stars is too much, but 4 stars seems too little. I'd give it 4,5 if I could, but since I can't, 5 will have to do :)

4.5 Stars A great progressive rock album!

A great Romanian band. Pristine production and the use of a variety of acoustic instruments give this CD a great dynamic range presenting music that ranges from folk inspired melodies and vocal arrangements to frenzied electric rock workouts with some very tasteful guitar soloing over a superb rhythmn section. Definitely a band worth investigating for anyone who likes a 'classic rock' sound mixing strong melodies with accomplished playing and imaginatve compositions.

Well,being a Romanian it's impossible for me to sat bad words about this band,au contraire I say with hand on heart that I am extremelly happy and honoured thet I can express my sincere apreciation and admiration for this sensational band from my country!CELELELTE CUVINTE is already some kind of cult Romanian band,they have started to work hard in rock music since the comunist period!They made in that period of time full sport halls and they were supposed to be considered the followers of another Romanian cult band PHOENIX!They made this album with the help of some people thet really believed in their potential and had a huge success beause the quality of their music was undoubtedly!Some serious RUSH influences ,combined with folkloric ones -style JETHRO TULL-but in the Romanian way and with serious progressive elements and rock attitude!The guys in the band were-at that period of time-heavily influenced by RUSH-GENTLE GIANT-KANSAS and other great prog rock bands! The particularity of the band is the high vocal register of CALIN POP, a very talented and charismatic musician-that's why the comparisons with the Canadians icons RUSH is coming automatically in my mind!The texts are extremelly important too-very poetic and feeling,something superbe indeed!This album is an important part of my youth,at that times I was a true CELELELTE CUVINTE-THE OTHER WORDS-in English translation die hard fan!!!.I knew by heart all their texts and I saw them many times playing LIVE!The feeling was unique! They are still active,but have lost a little their identity-anyway CELELTE CUVINTE still has many fans and atre permanently trying to be in musical actuality with good quality albums!5 STARS because I love them and their music is BRILLIANT!

3.5 stars. CELELALTE CUVINTE are a 5 piece band from Romania who have released eight studio albums including this the debut from 1987. I was surprised to see that they just released a new album in 2023 with the one before that coming in 2008. Three guitarists but the one adds vocals and flute and the other violin while the third is maybe the most used playing his 12-string. No keyboards here but they would add them to the followup to this. These guys changed styles a lot going from the proggy first two to Thrash, then Doom followed by Alternative Metal and so on.

Romania like most East Bloc countries was not the best place to demonstrate your artistic freedom. What freedom? Even this debut was released on the state label allowing the government some control I suppose. They lived in a city near the Hungary border and no doubt were influenced by what they heard on Hungarian radio. I know PHOENIX, SFINX and THE STEPAN PROJECT and that's about it. This self titled debut is interesting the way we get so many contrasts between the acoustic 12-string led sections and the heavy electric guitar passages. They form a nice contrast and these guys can certainly play. Vocals don't do much for me at all, higher pitched and there's that one moment when I'm asking why? That would be on that second track.

A balanced recording overall and there's two tracks I really like and that's about it but this is a good record. The opener "Beloved Letters" is such a beautiful, folky piece with vocals, flute and 12-string. Under 2 minutes but what a gorgeous track. Then "Late Hour" where they go darker and heavier much to my appreciation. Almost galloping at one point too and the bass is the best here.

Not a lot to chose from when we're talking 1987 but this is one of the better ones for sure. A talented band. I might check out their new one for fun.