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Renaissance - Azure d'Or CD (album) cover

AZURE D'OR

Renaissance

 

Symphonic Prog

3.07 | 256 ratings

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Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars This band has their own identity in the kind of prog music they play. It's a combination of folk, ballad, rock and symphonic music. Sometimes they include orchestration for their music. RENAISSANCE has a female vocal with great voice: ANNIE HASLAM. You may not need to care about their music because her voice is really great. I love this band because it's different and they have a very strong songwriting.

"Jekyll and Hyde" and "The Winter Tree" are an example of great pop music with excellent composition combining acoustic guitar and keyboard /mellotron. "Only Angels have Wings" is the track with male vocal (JON CAMP), great keyboard play and orchestration. No drumming in this track. It's totally a symphonic rock track. You may enjoy listening to the keyboard sound.

"Golden Key" is an excellent track with great female voice accompanied by the piano sound at background during intro. It's a melodic track. The orchestration helps accentuate the textures of the song. There is a nice break in the middle of the track (approx min 2:23) where the orchestration takes the lead for track melody. It's a memorable melody! "Forever Changing" is track with great acoustic guitar and female vocals. The nuance of this acoustic guitar sound is similar to GENESIS's "Entangled" of "A Trick of the Tail" album. Nope, it's not the same guitar fills and style. But the nuances created are similar. That's at least what I feel. You may feel differently.

Unlike other tracks, "Secret Mission" is written differently where it has dynamic drumming at the intro part followed by vocal and upbeat tempo music. "Kalynda" is a track with acoustic guitar and vocal in a slow tempo style. "The Discovery" is an uplifting instrumental track with great orchestration and classical music touch. This track may gear up your spirit. This is my favorite track for this album. It has a very strong energy!

Overall, I rate this album excellent. The only thing lacking (if I could say it) of this album is in its musical variety. From one track to another there is a lot of similarity in terms of structure and composition (with the exception of "The Discovery"). This is the kind of music you would like to enjoy before you go to bed in the evening, I think. It's a nice music. Gatot Widayanto, Indonesia.

Gatot | 4/5 |

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