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Mostly Autumn - Heart Full of Sky CD (album) cover

HEART FULL OF SKY

Mostly Autumn

 

Prog Folk

3.54 | 136 ratings

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Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars As we fade away / Every single day / Is dying away in the sky

And we're nowhere near Kansas anymore / We're not even over the rainbow

Well, this band has gone unnoticed to me since I found that the music was somewhat in the middle of something, not truly south or north . or just simply put, most of the compositions they make do not stir my emotion. While, as you know it, that I believe "music is emotion". My experience with the band started back when I purchased directly from their label (Cyclops) an album called "For All We Shared" in 1999. As I wrote at this site, I started listening again this album after I listened to AYREON "The Human Equation". HEATHER FINDLAY of Mostly Autumn appeared as guest vocal, played her wonderful role as "Love". What an excellent performance she did, for example in DAY THREE: PAIN. That debut was heavily influenced by PINK FLOYD, STEVE HACKETT and FOCUS even though their music is different - it's more on folk-based music with some ambient, psychedelic and symphonic flavors. If we typically listen to soft keyboard sound with PINK FLOYD, the band chooses to use violin instead without losing the intended output. Their music is overall accessible to most listeners. It has a relatively minimum high and low points and or it's relatively flat, minimum or even no tempo change.

True North .

That was then in the beginning .and now with their seventh studio album they took a firmed standpoint by adopting "more" on Pink Floyd flavor, combined with their roots in folk music. You might say that this is a combined style of Floyd and Joan Baez or Fleetwood Mac. But most of their compositions in this album are leaned toward Floydian sounds.

The opening track is well-positioned in the album because it definitely will attract most listeners, be it a long time fan or newbie or..in fact any music buff will probably love this catchy track. "Fading colours" (8:25) opens with soft long sustain keyboard work followed peacefully with Heather Findlay's great voice "As we fade away .". After the first lyrical verse the music is punctuated by keyboard work with nice ambient followed with a blast of music with great energy, in Floydian spirit like "Sorrow" (Floyd's "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" album). The song moves wonderfully in medium beat teamp using brilliant orchestration, and catchy melody. You might imagine that this might be Pink Floyd meets Nightwish but without progressive metal elements. It's a superb song. The ending part with mellow and dark nuance has truly enriched the textures of the music.

"Half a world (4:50)" is a ballad-based music with an intro like Pink Floyd's "Welcome to The Machine" (Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here"). It contains ample Floydian electric guitar work that reminds me to "Time" from Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of The Moon". The next track "Pocket watch" (4:20) flows in medium tempo with ambient nuance, like Porcupine Tree or RPWL, with its roots on Pink Floyd style. "Blue light" (4:58) mellow track with nice melody and nice acoustic guitar work augmented with keyboard, featuring Heather Findlay on vocals.

"Walk with a storm" (7:51) starts nicely with guitar riffs followed by guitar work that sounds thicker than previous tracks' guitar work. It flows with male vocals and later in duet style. The combined guitar effects and keyboard work accompanying the vocal is really great and catchy. The song is solid in bringing the music from one segment to another. The interlude part in the middle of the track moves the music into crescendo with great organ / keyboard work while the music runs in faster tempo with higher register notes on vocals. At the end of this interlude is a wonderfully crafted violin solo that makes the music of Mostly Autumn is a "category in its own". I really enjoy the evocative violin work at this ending part of the track, backed by keyboard with symphonic nuance. The ending part is another great segment with wild lead guitar solo. WOW! It's a masterpiece!

"Find the sun" (5:32) is a brilliant track in mellow mood with Heather Findlay on vocal while acoustic piano and violin improvisations play dominant role followed with acoustic guitar as main rhythm section accompanying Heather Findlay's voice. "Ghost" (5:27) continues similar vein with previous track but it has faster tempo and male vocal which then followed by female vocal when the music moves into heavier segment. "Broken" (5:11) is another mellow song with piano touch and beautiful female singing. The song has created excellent nuance with simple composition, catchy melody. It's cool. "Silver glass" (7:12) is nice track with mellow and dark opening by female vocal accompanied by piano and acoustic setting, in catchy melody. The song moves beautifully to full music in electric setting, with Pink Floyd ambient. "Dreaming" (8:36) guitar riffs remind me to The Beatles' "I Want You" even though it's not the same. The song moves from mellow to music with high energy like a straight rocker.

"Science and machinery" (6:00) starts ambient with guitar effects followed by low register notes on male vocals. "Open road" (4:22) is basically a pop song with a bit of rock orientation, followed with "Gaze "(4:48) in similar vein, pop. "Yellow time" (5:11) starts nicely with acoustic guitar and flute that brings the music in medium tempo, acoustic guitar serves as main rhythm section. "Broken soldier" (6:12) is a mellow track with excellent Floydian guitar, while acoustic guitar serves as main rhythm section augmented by keyboard. "Further from home" (6:27) is another brilliantly written track which opens nicely with soft piano touch followed wonderfully by guitar solo which satisfies Pink Floyd fans, really. After the music starts in slow moving tempo, at approx minute 2:00 the music sounds louder than before with even more stunning Floydian guitar work. Well, I believe David Gilmour will be very happy with this track because his style has been wonderfully adopted by the band. I am totally happy with this "almost" instrumental work featuring great guitar solo in excellent flow from soft to heavy and wild guitar work. I am totally nggeblak! (stunned and paralyzed .comfortably numb and dumb!). The ending part of this track is like a reprise of "Fading Colours".

"Bright green" (4:00) is a po rock track. The album concludes with "Softer than brown" (5:02) which has nice acoustic guitar work and great male vocal. The music reminds me to Pink Floyd "Obscured by Clouds" style.

Overall, this is definitely an excellent addition to any prog music collection. Fans of Pink Floyd will find this album is inspiring even though Mostly Autumn does not fully embrace the music of Pink Floyd, but most of their tracks here share similar nuance with Pink Floyd music. Highly recommended album. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW (i-Rock! Music Community)

Gatot | 4/5 |

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