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Fromage - Ondine CD (album) cover

ONDINE

Fromage

 

Symphonic Prog

3.05 | 17 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Beautiful Scarlet
3 stars Standard music from Japan from the 80s. I like the singers nasally dramatic voice.

Extermination opens the album with its synths and heavy guitar riffing. A brief flute line introduces the vocals which go with the music. Later, there is a nice extended mellow section, chill singing, pastoral piano and guitar leads. Anyways the song returns to the heaviness to close off the song. 3.5/5

Inspiration Philology is a more upbeat shorter song, punctuated by 80s pop synth patches and guitar squelches. It has a nice bridge with vibes and flute 3.5/5.

Ultimate opens with with a jazzy piano line, thenheads into an angular riff with flute adding its soft touch. Acoustic chords subsume this, then are in time consumed by the sections return. Shortly, guitar breaks into a pleasant solo with some neat stops that add an extra oomph. The song has a nice coda where the instruments work well together. Short but sweet 4/5

Ondine opens with gentle singing and and piano, punctuated with guitar. More is added to the mix, which goes until it builds up into the tracks echoey refrain. Back to the sparse verse, then chorus again, then tasteful, brief electric guitar solo which heads into piano that builds to the chorus. After this the rhythm continues with piano playing in the background.the guitar returns after a bit, now supported by piano. The song then fades out, it's a great, emotional song that could have developed better in its seven minutes. 4/5

The worst would have to be Colour Vision Night where the singer struggles to sing in English because they clearly don't speak the language. This song is laughable at best. Fortunately, it's only 3 minutes. 2.5/5, the music is okay and the vocals aren't wholly irredeemable, mostly bad due to the execution.

Tsuki No Hoeru is nearly 18 minutes long and just majestic. It opens with quiet flute fluttering for a minute till piano and mournful vocals come in. In another minute the song picks up and one is graced with strong singing delivered in a powerful manner. A matching guitar lead comes in, flute subtly enriching its melancholic playing. A calm transition occurs with instruments whirling till a new section unfurls it's petals. Acoustic guitar, vibraphone, bass and drums establish a rhythm. Soon the vibes are replaced by more symphonic synths playing. Flute briefly takes the spotlight before the song heads to a good 80s section, complete with vocals. This section is short and after 30~ seconds a duet of piano and flute replace it. The flute is in turn replaced by bass and drums. A new section finally sets in with a punctual bassline underscoring beautiful flute/acoustic guitar lines. A string synth cleanly takes over and hides the change beneath it. Just as the song seems to be pattering out a mighty drum fill introduces a strong electric guitar lead. Then, bam, the vocals from the song's opening moments return to my immense gratification. Guitar returns to take the song to its fade out finish. 4.5/5, I dislike the guitar solos.

Overall this is a pretty good album, although I recommend one listens to the compilation album Tsuki No Hoeru before this album.

Beautiful Scarlet | 3/5 |

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