BEYOND

Fifteen short months after their brilliant debut album "Golden Fragments," FRAGILE (YES, we miss you) is back with their second album, "Beyond." The silver lining of the global health crisis is that musicians have more time to compose, although in FRAGILE's case, it's clear that the drafts of the new tracks were already well advanced when "Golden Fragments" was released.

Barely two minutes into "Beyond," the eponymous track, clocking in at twenty-one minutes and fifty-six minutes, there's no hesitation, we find ourselves on familiar ground (at least for those who made the effort to listen to the first album): Claire Hammill's voice (like an Annie Haslam who hasn't suffered the ravages of time), Oliver Day's Howardian guitar, Max Hunt's protean keyboards, including remarkable piano playing (more John Tout than Rick Wakeman), and the gurgling of the synthesizer around the fourteenth minute, a bass guitar worthy of Chris Squire no less... this isn't La Redoute's catalog, even if it sounds like it!

My only criticism of this very long piece (9/10) is that it's far too heavily sung for my taste, even though Claire Hammill is an excellent vocalist (she sings for fourteen of the twenty-two minutes; the main and final instrumental part is found in the second half and is absolutely remarkable in terms of symphonic progressive music).

The second piece, "Yours and Mine," at fourteen minutes and a bit, follows in the same vein, with the same inspiration, the same creativity, the same (damn?) Yessian influences (you can't change your ways, and when you love, you don't count!), a piece enhanced by a beautiful two-minute instrumental introduction before Claire Hamill's diaphanous voice takes over, like the ethereal voice of a child or, at most, a young adult, a musical canvas that never tires (10/10).

We're already coming to the last track, but there were only three: "The Golden Ring of Time" (10/10), almost as long as the previous one, with an instrumental opening of just over two minutes, a track where the London band's influence is more pronounced, especially for Oliver DAY's six-string guitar. If Steve HOWE needed support, he's there here (the funny thing is that Oliver didn't compose the track, which was written by Claire HAMILL and Max HUNT). Progressive with a symphonic tendency, without the sometimes pompous symphonic side, and still with that rare, beautiful voice that makes me simply adore FRAGILE.

We can't close this review without highlighting the remarkable iconographic work of Steve MAYERSON (as on the band's first album), a sort of hidden spiritual son of the illustrious Roger DEAN: mayersonart.wixsite.com/home.

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