ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS

With Davy O'List having exited the group after their first album, the trio format that Keith Emerson would later carry on so successfully with Emerson Lake & Palmer was established. The Nice's second album Ars Longa Vita Brevis is a bit incoherent with the first three songs being very much in the same Psychedelic style that had dominated the debut while the second half of the album being a group-meets-orchestra exercise that might be categorized as "Proto-Prog". Surely an adventurous thing to do, and possibly influential on other bands, but the side-long, multi-part composition lacks direction and the orchestra adds little of value to the proceedings in my opinion.

By far the most interesting, and for me the only really enjoyable, track here for me is Intermezzo from Karelia Suite. Again an adaption of a classical piece, like Rondo from the debut, this time by Finish composer Jean Sibelius. Like Rondo before it, Intermezzo pointed towards what Emerson would go on to do with ELP, and works well here.

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