THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED

Here we have the latest project from French writer poet, vocalist and lyricist Thierry Sportouche (Anoxie, Silver Lining, Silver Hunter), who is best known in the prog scene for running the indispensable Acid Dragon progzine. Here he has joined forces with Florida-based keyboardist/composer Stephen Gilbert-Rivera (Azureth, Cosmic Singularity), while Norwegian based Kenneth Aspesl'en (Blue Lynx, Wasted) guests on two tracks. With Thierry providing vocals and flute, Stephen keyboards, and Kenneth vocals (on one track), bass, guitars, drums on the two tracks he is involved with, here we have a prog project which is looking backwards to the Seventies, bringing in some classic ELP sounds and styles.

Opening number 'On The Prowl' is one of the weakest, with the vocals and keyboards not really gelling, but in many ways it is false representation of what the rest of the album is like as from here on in there are some very positive elements indeed. To my ears it is a shame that Aspesl'en is not more involved as 'Reason of Truth' is where the guys really come alive, with the additional instrumentation providing a much broader and heavier approach. Here we have a band really firing on all cylinders, powering through the longest song on the album, the keyboards rising, guitar crunching, drums providing the backbone and vocals perfectly in sync. Contrast that to the far more thoughtful and restrained 'Intermission', where Thierry talks us through man's stupidity, then allows Stephen to provide some lovely, layered, keyboards which are both delicate and passionate, with the sung section perfectly capturing the moment.

They even manage to bring us a prog track which is only just slightly longer than 2:30, which is highly unusual, yet works well. This is an interesting project, and I certainly hope it does not take as long for the next one to come out (this took more than three years), and for that one they need to get Aspesl'en onboard as a full member as that is the direction they should be moving in as it is just so powerful.