BROKEN HOPES

I remember vividly that I received a demo-tape from this band when I was working for a Dutch progrock magazine in the early Nineties. The recording quality was a bit sloppy but I liked the pleasant atmosphere with strong hints from early Marillion. More than 15 years later I received this new album, this is my second musical encounter with Albion while they have made five albums in the meantime.

After a short first track that contains Hitler his horrible voice, I notice again strong early Marillion echoes in the long and compelling second composition entitled The Place (almost 12 minutes): the guitar player sounds as the Polish twin-brother of Steve Rothery and the synthesizer flights strongly evoke Mark Kelly. Halfway we can enjoy a raw guitar solo with lush organ and in the final part a slow saxophone solo, this is obviously not early Marillion inspired! In the other seven songs the climates range from dreamy to often compelling with wonderful female vocals, lots of howling guitar solos and now and then a flashy synthesizer solo (like in Angel) or bombastic eruptions like in Once Upon A Time and the strong This Is The Way Where We Go (beautiful final part with exciting guitar - and keyboard work). The final track evokes Mostly Autumn: first twanging acoustic guitar with high pitched vocals, then a moving atmosphere with fluent synthesizer runs and in the end a sensitive guitar solo, simply wonderful!

For me this new musical meeting after many years was a very pleasant one. I like the modern and elaborate album with strong female vocals, outstanding guitarwork and tasteful keyboards. Incredible how many good progrock bands Poland delivers at this moment, from Riverside, Osada Vida and Satellite to Quidam, Exodus and . Albion! My rating: 3,5 stars.

4,5 stars, really. Albion seems to have some problem keeping a stable line up through their short career so far. Only original members remaining are guitarrist Jerzy Antczak and keyboards player Krzysztof Malec. Fortunatly they still have singer Katarzyna Sobkowicz-Malec on vocals (who joined them for their second official CD). Former drummer Rafal Paszcz is listed as a guest musician. Unlike their line up thought, the quality of Albion´s music only grew since it inception. If Albion (1995) was good and Wabiac Ciene (2005) was very good, Broken Hopes reaches the excellency leavel.

The group has matured both as players and as songwriters. Their music sounds like an interesting mix of early Quidam and latter day Satellite, with some strong Pink Floyd overtones. But make no mistake, they have their own sound and Katarzyna Sobkowicz-Malec is a gifted and unique singer, in a country that seems to have some of the finest prog female vocalists in the world nowadays. Oddly enough, guest bassist Krzysztof Wyrwa is one fo the best features in this CD, with fine bass runs throught the whole CD.

The arrangements are varied and tasteful, with lush keyboards passages and some great guitar licks and solos. Those guys do understand about writing songs and make their music emotional and creative. The CD is a little short for my liking, but the band did not waste a single note, something really hard to hear lately. The second track is the 11 minute epic The Place, one of the most beautiful prog songs I ever heard. I get chills down my spine every time I hear it. This tune alone is worth the price of the CD.

I´m glad to say Albion more than fulfilled their promising start. Broken Hopes was one of the best new releases in 2007. Fans of early Marillion, Pendragon, Quidam, Satellite, etc. should not miss this terrific work. Highly recommended for any music lover.

I got my first taste of this band recently with the self titled album from 1995 followed shortly after by Broken Hopes...These discs have been in high rotation since then. I now want more and have been searching high and low for their CDs of course not to be found in the traditional retail environment.

Enough ramblings about my quest let's focus on the music. Lush arrangements great guitar work gorgeous vocals inventive composing and never boring kind of sums it up in my mind. One of the really interesting Neo-prog bands in my humble opinion. I would welcome that kind of album any day and wish more surprises like Albion will turn up for me :) Marillion influences can be heard throughout like in a lot of Neo Progressive bands but Albion manage to maintain their own identity to keep our interest going.

Sad thing, this could be better and it also should. But it is not, due to several things. First, its symphonisity isn't as good as it's supposed to be, its neo element lacks wilder synths and other signature parts and only thing that's left is atmospheric music, which also fails, because this record is trying to do more than it can bear. Wants to be many things at once, but is unsuccessful in deriving them to listeners. And easily, this could all be much more interesting. Because what is supposed to be atmosphere here are boring passages for me, full of nothing. And nothing like in krautrock for example (this music is intending to be different, lacks composition structure of these), these parts here are just empty. And that's not good. Guitar spots, solos, riffs are average, but not much more. Vocals are nice, they can really please (if they're on, which isn't truth at half a time).

3(-), you know why. I've heard much better from Poland.

Beautiful and captivating female voice leading this group, with good long instrumental passages, especially in the two larger tracks. In addition, some identification with Polish music.

This is a neo-prog rather complacent. The arrangements are acceptable and guitars intelligent and well executed. When the sax enters contributes to make the music more colorful. The keyboards usually do not take a leading role, but also of support.

Nothing spectacular, which does not mean it is bad or not wanting to give back to listen. The shorter songs, especially Once Upon a Time and I Am, are interesting and well done. It is attractive and appropriate for progressive hearing.

3 star well deserved.

After the warm reception of their 2005 album Albion were a regular entry in radio broadcasts, while also getting interviewed numerous times for well-known magazines and stations.A good opportunity for them to republish their first couple of albums with a 2-CD offering, entitled ''Remake'' and released in 2006.By the end of the year they started working on new material, while they announced that the official line-up was now the trio of Katarzyna Sobkowicz-Malec on vocals/classical guitar, Jerzy Antczak on guitars and Krzysztof Malec on keys and the upcoming recordings would take place with guest musicians.These would be ex-member Rafal Paszcz on drums, Krzysztof Wyrwa on bass and Aretha Chmiel on sax.The album, titled ''Broken hopes'', was recorded during the summer of 2007 and shelved later in the year by Lynx.

They picked up from where they left things with ''Wabiac cienie'', at least musically speaking, offering the definition of Polish Prog, atmospheric, melodic and lyrical material, heavy on keyboards and featuring unique, slow guitar moves.But the band was apparently encouraged by the latter fame and decided to leave their native language for texts written exclusively in English for a worldwide exposure.This would take away some of Albion's charm, cause a signgificant part of those group's identity was to sing the lyrics in Polish.Anyway, the dissapointment was rather reduced by the fact that they kept playing and composing with passion and emotion, while we find Katarzyna Sobkowicz pretty comfortable with their new responsibilities on the English texts.Beautiful soundscapes with developing structures, starting from a laid-back PINK FLOYD-ian enviroment and ending up to thrilling CAMEL/MARILLION-esque solos with some nice layered synthesizers, the music follows generally a slow pace, but the album doesn't lack a few more bombastic moments with heavier guitar attempts and even some great organ work next to the modern keyboards.I fail to detect this one piece, that really stand out on this Albion effort, but the musicianship is really strong all the way through with injections of vocal and guitar distortions appearing every now and then in a normal delivery by new Polish bands.

Yet another goodie by an overlooked band.Strong Neo Prog in the vein of Collage, just less symphonic and with a female singer leading the way, characterized by soundscapes of sheer beauty, melancholy and passion.Warmly recommended...3.5 stars.

For Polish neo prog group ALBION, the years between 2005 and 2007 whelped an explosion of activity after a decade of somnolence. First up was a superb Polish language release with a new vocalist, followed by a remastering of their first 2 albums from the 1990s in one package, and finally back to English lyrics with "Broken Hopes".

This is another brilliantly arranged and played offering, with more of a focus on the searingly melodic lead guitar of Jurek Antczak, but with chunky dollops of spacey keyboards, mostly synths. I'd say, while it's of consistent high caliber, it lacks the couple of killer cuts present on its predecessor. Continental influences include SATELLITE and CLEPSYDRA. The theme, enunciated through injected, at times, irritating voice clips of 20th century leaders in the two epic tracks, seems to be how are lives are manipulated by those leaders for good and evil. But honestly the lyrics might as well be in Polish because I endure long stretches without making out a single word let alone a sentence. Katarzyna's voice is just fine as instrument though, particularly on the hard rock moments in "Angel" and "I am", but in the dreamier numbers we often don't realize she has been singing until the incendiary solos begin. "near the End" is actually at the end and it marks the second album in a row that is serenaded off with a lighter almost folkie number. Yessssssss!

"Broken Hopes" is a another sweet sounding effort by ALBION which is unlikely to disappoint fans of this style.