SCHEHERAZADE AND OTHER STORIES

A male dominated universe of prog was infiltrated by the likes of Annie Haslam's enchanting vocal prowess. What a voice she has on this album, a voice of authority and tranquillity with a huge octave range that has spellbinding power.

'Trip To The Fair' starts things off with a lengthy piano interlude played with grand finesse by John Tout. An orchestrated approach of classical proportions follows with some manic laughter and ethereal vocal harmonies. It builds till at 3:40 there is a musical box chime and Annie begins to tell the story with her inimitable voice. The story concerns a fair where "nobody was there" and the feeling of childhood innocence turning to fear as the realisation is the fair is creepily devoid of people; "A creak as the dodgems came onto the scene, Wheels began turning I started to scream, A carousel swung around, My head spun and hit the ground..." The melody is pretty but the lyrics give it a dark tinge of paranoia and sadness; "I close my eyes to disguise the fear from inside, Trembling within my own mind I find no place to hide, Stars of tomorrow shine through the grey mist that has gone, I wish that this trip to the fair had never begun..." The instrumental break is dominated by glockenspiel or childish toy piano sounds. There are passages that sound like a carousel as the people appear in the fair and "Everyone seemed to be staring at me, Clowns laughed in the penny arcade, What was this game my mind played?" Quite a chilling opening track. Next is the short 3 minute 'The Vultures Fly High', a fairly standard moderate uptempo tack. The lyrics are dark again but Annie is able to lift it to a soaring level with her lovely vocals. I find this as more of a throwaway track than a classic but it is sandwiched between two excellent tracks.

Next is a superb track, the 7 minute 'Ocean Gypsy'. It begins very quietly that builds to a chorus with evocative lyrics; "Gold and silver rings and stones, Dances slowly of the moon, No-one else can know, She stands alone, Sleeping dreams will reach for her, She cannot say the words they need, She knows she's alone, And she is free, Ocean gypsy of the moon, The sun has made a thousand nights, For you to hold..." The gentle piano and clarinet are complimented by strings and gentle vocals. A very emotionally charged atmosphere is the result and it is a terrific Renaissance work.

The epic that makes this an excellent album is the 25 minute treasure, 'Song Of Scheherazade'. It is broken into 9 sections but moves along seamlessly as an orchestrated suite. It takes some getting used to with the hyper orchestration and classical singing. Annie holds back for most of this but is still a gem. It is difficult to pinpoint any particular section but the lyrics are as evocative as ever coming in on 'The Sultan'; "And so for many days with the dawn, The sultan had his way, Wives were put to death, His name on their dying breath, Then one day as the evening came, Sultan sends for him a wife, Choose her well charms I wish to see, Bring her, send her in to me, Then came Scheherazade to his side, And her beauty shone, Like a flower grown, Gentle as he'd ever known, Scheherazade bewitched him, With songs of jewelled keys, Princes and of heroes, And eastern fantasies..." The epic is based on the folklore of the tyrant sultan, the young prince and princess as told by Scheherazade, including the Festival preparations leading to the grand Finale. Scheherazade was given a death sentence by the Sultan who had murdered princesses, his wives each night duly to the fact his wife betrayed him. The story of Scherezade is told by the princess to delay her death sentence who relayed the story for 1000 nights; she was never executed as The Sultan decided such a faithful princess should remain his wife.

The music captures the heroism and has a decidedly Arabic flavour to enhance the atmosphere. I am not a huge fan of this epic as it is a slog to get through with severe repetition and painstaking patient music, but I still recognise this as one of the best pieces of Renaissance. This is a flawed album, difficult to get into, but in the right frame of mind this can be a very pleasant listening experience.

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