BOOTLEG SYMPHONY

This is a very decent live concert by After Crying, performed in Budapest in 2000. It’s also one of their more reasonably-priced CDs. This isn’t exactly a symphony and it isn’t exactly an orchestra, but it is pretty close on both counts.

The band is augmented by several brass, woodwind, and string musicians in addition to their own appreciable number of performers. Most of the compositions are from previous After Crying albums, ranging from “Shining” off their excellent ‘Overground Music’ CD to “Viaduct” and the short intermezzo piece from ‘6’. The concert (or at least the CD) is arranged into four stanzas like you would expect a symphony to be, so I guess technically it qualified as one, although there are vocals which are a bit unusual for an orchestral symphony. Then again, we already established this wasn’t an orchestra either, so who’s to quibble.

Trumpeter/keyboardist Winkler Balázs and cellist/bassist Pejtsik Péter conduct most of the concert, and also have provided nearly all the arrangements. The entire third stanza is credited to Winkler and is centered around the Manticore theme introduced on their 1994 CD ‘Föld És Ég’, while Pejtsik is credited with the finale which includes an extended version of “Shining”.

While most of this music comes from previous albums, the arrangements are different enough to be interesting, and in most cases either seems to represent maturity on the part of the group, or were simply concessions to better fit the chamber setting of the concert. “Viaduct” for example is a bit longer than the original, mostly due to an extended intro that I suppose was dramatic when witnessed live.

“Struggle for Life” off the ‘Almost Pure Instrumental’ album has been split into two parts and features more emphasis on the piano parts and much less electric guitar than the original. I have to say that I like this version better, mostly because I first fell in love with After Crying’s music from their ‘Overground Music’ album which was completely absent any guitar.

And the introduction of a female vocal part for “Enigma” improves this one as well over the original off ‘Föld És Ég’ on which both vocal parts were male. So you get the idea – reworked arrangements that favor the concert setting and tend to improve on the originals for the most part.

The second stanza is apparently a set of interpretations of the Hungarian composer Vedres Csaba, and as far as I know these have not been previously released on an After Crying album. This is a beautiful section heavy with strings and quite energetic, although also quite short at only about nine minutes.

In all this is easily a four star work, maybe even five (but I won’t go that far myself). It will be much appreciated by any After Crying fan, as well as those who appreciate chamber or orchestral-based symphonic music. Not typical progressive music fare for sure, but this band has never been known for being typical. Very highly recommended.

peace