CINEMATOGRAAF

The album, which by the way you can buy from Tomas himself via his page on MySpace, contains three lengthy compositions: An Ocean in Between, A Spanish Ballerina in Love, and Six Six Six. As far as one can get from the notes, the music was made by Tomas alone (Music composed, performed, recorded & mixed phuu... you know who). All pieces are flowing quite slowly and peacefully (with a more exciting passage here and there, especially on Six Six Six), actually reminding of a movie soundtrack. Some parallels might be found with Vangelis' jobs. Having listened to the album for a couple of times now I must say it's a great piece of music; I would advise it to every proghead (unless of course you're more into metallic stuff). Wouldn't call it essential, yet great music - steady 4 stars.

This is my first entry into Tomas Bodin solo work. And solo is the right word, since the guy wrote, produced, mixed and played everything on this album. You can tell by its title and covers that it was music inspired and/or written for movies. Even though it is not really my cup of tea, in that field, I can tell he is highly succesful. His work is full of imageries and movements that ressemble many moods and shifts of some screenplay. But above all the music in itself is enjoyable and very well done. I really liked the way his played and programmed his many keyboards to get away from commonplace or boredom.

Not really essential, at least for me, but a very fine CD by one of prog´s best new talents. He proves he is one of the true elements that made The Flower Kings so special. If you´re into instrumental prog, this is a must have. If you´re not, you should give it a chance. My rating is somewhere 3,5 and 4 stars.

My Review-Here we have Tomas Bodin new solo cd,My favorite keybord player on the planet.And plays in the best prog band all time The Flower Kings,he nevers seem to dissappoint either.Here we have instrumental cd,That resembles soundtrack based on movies scores in a way.You creat the movie on the screen,While he composes the soundtrack.

1)An Ocean In Between-Good song bout,How to visualise an ocean in between the island.How you you sail thru it,To get to end and other side the island called avalon. The land of milk and honey,Properity and no more pain.

2)An Spanish Ballerina-We can picture an ballerina,But spanish the resemblence of movie based on this in our personal lifes.Is bout mexican girl,Who tried so hard to compete in competition in usa.But cant get in due to laws of american goverment,Due to strict security.But she never gives up,Making it on national tv in mexico.USA sees her,Give her acess to usa.To compete win ultimate prize,The lesson is to persevere never give up hope.In this movie or film,We create in our minds ..

3)six six six-We create an beast inside our selves,We all let our ego get hold us.The movie bout,How evil and humans collided togther.To destroy mankind in year 2020 ad, How we must save this form happening to the severe extent.Since the prophecy was made true,But the damage it does we can prevent by half or mere 90 percent.Choice is up the heroes of the world,Which is mankind so this earth remains not in ruins totally.

Music-5

Cover Art 5

Replay Value 4.5

Theme-5 good soundtracks to movie we create in our minds

Production-5

Overall 5 stars out of 5 to the hero of keybord madness.

cant wait for the next part of trilogy you are.

This 5th release of Tomas Bodin is my personal 4th. At this point I'm only missing the debut in my collection and looking at the ratings that's the least so far so I can live with that for the moment. The four I do know have in common they are all worth checking out but somehow it seems they are also increasing in quality with each new release. And that's a great achievement by Tomas. And listening to this latest for about the 15th time now I can only subscribe the ratingaverage so far (as well as for the three predecessors by the way).

An Ocean in Between is the first of the three epical tracks on this album. Already at first listening I compared the first eight minutes of this song to Ravel's Bolero. And right now I still do, it's simply so striking ! I wonder if this classical piece is also intentionally the source of inspiration for this track but that's something only mr Bodin can answer. After these eight minutes the instrumental piece gets into some sort of a spin as if the room is turning or something. Tomas invited his wife (or girlfriend whatever) for a bit of laughter, they have a great time here obviously. Anyway, this goes on for about four minutes before a wonderful section of piano play is closing down this magnificent opening track. 4,25*.

Second track is a Spanish Ballerina in Love and lasts almost twenty minutes. It opens fairly quiet with an imitated steamboat horn (I guess). After this a few minutes of keyboardplay that first sounds somewhat like Jean Michel Jarre but later on suddenly like a mellotron. (I have no doubt Tomas has some giant synyhesizer-like keyboard with every possible sound thinkable and so he can do whatever he wants. And then a genius keyboardplayer like Tomas Bodin can completely do what he does best: be creative to the highest level. He does this album entirely on his own (including production) by the way, which is another thing to admire.) After some 10 minutes the track becomes highly melodic and these few minutes are about the best of the album. Where variation and creativity are concerned this is reaching masterpiece level. After 14 minutes another section of brilliant piano play in the style of Chopin, romantic, just really slower than the Polish pianist used to compose and play. This passage doesn't really diminish the high quality the track had so far. Brilliant stuff. 4,5*.

Third and last song is called Six Six Six and as we probably know it's the devil's number. In first minutes there are hints to TFK songs in the past (Garden of Dreams, Devil's Playground) just briefly but also there the devil (or its contrast) was the subject. Whichever, the first minutes are quite spooky, very ambient in that sense, another magnificent creation by Tomas. After about 5 minutes the track lightens up a little bit but still remains dark. It's only after about 8 minutes that the song gets more bright with another sensitive piano section. Is this the moment the devil is beaten or chased ? Again we'll have to ask Tomas, I'm just guessing. From minute 10 on Tomas gets to his most usual job by doing a keyboard section with great variation until the end. Again 4,5*.

Resuming this is another impressive effort by Tomas Bodin. It's very creative, virtuoso and what's probably most admirable is that it's his fourth unique release in a row. Each time he manages to do something completely different and I keep wondering when this source of his compositional part of the brain is empty. Hopefully never ! 4 very strong stars for this only just falling short for the masterpiece status. Highly recommended for any progger.

In 1996 Tomas Bodin (known as The Flower Kings keyboard player) released his first solo album entitled An Ordinary Night In My Ordinary Life. Meanwhile he has produced six other solo studio albums, his latest effort from 2015 was entitled She Belongs To Another Tree. To be honest, I am not up to The Flower Kings their music, but a fellow EManiac recommended me his fifth solo album. He said that he was sure that it would please me, as a fan of Seventies Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. Well, indeed, I was very pleasantly surprised during my first musical encounter with Tomas Bodin solo, indeed this is interesting for EManiacs.

1. An Ocean in Between (13.50) : After a sound collage and a spacey climate with soaring synthesizers (in the vein of Larry Fast his early Synergy music), we can enjoy wonderful Grand piano that turns the sound into a warm blend of classical - and electronic music. Then a shifting mood that to me sounds as a variation on On The Run by Pink Floyd, but more subdued and featuring pleasant synthesizer flights. After a sumptuous interlude with orchestral keyboards the final part delivers a beautiful blend of Grand piano, synthesizers and flute-Mellotron.

2. A Spanish Ballerina In Love (19.37) : First an ominous atmosphere with tasteful synthesizers, especially the lush strings-sound is wonderful. Then again we can enjoy a blend of Grand piano and synthesizers, gradually the sound turns into more bombastic with majestic swelling keyboards and in between sounds like the didgeridoo. The music culminates in an experimental part, followed by sumptuous keyboards with snare-drum, church organ, sparkling Grand piano and choir-Mellotron eruptions, a delicious, mouthwatering vintage keyboard sound.

3. Six Six Six (18.34) : After soaring keyboards and swelling synthesizer the music features bombastic synthesizers and a propulsive rhythm with hypnotizing drums, followed by a lush blend of percussion and synthesizers. The rest of this captivating composition contains a flood of exciting moments: from majestic Grand piano, heavy choir-Mellotron and a propulsive rhythm with flashy synthesizer runs and church-organ to sensational Keith Emerson inspired synthesizers, wonderful work on the Mellotron (flute ' and choir section) and a dreamy final part with Grand piano, synthesizers and Mellotron.

What a captivating blend of electronic music and symphonic rock, highly recommended.

Cinematograaf was a reason why I got more into Tomas Bodin and started discovering his body of work to realize that his albums can be compared to any other progressive keyboard magician. A keyboard magician is someone who can not only play but also compose great pieces. So for example, Jordan Rudess would not fit here since his solo work is not comparable with other keyboard masters.

Let's go back to Cinematograaf. This piece is full of focus, vintage keyboards, imagination and scenery. Keyboards build up up to 95% all sounds, they are very cohesive, continuous and fluent. There are no flashy moments for art's sake, the music flows nicely from the start till the end. As a result, the playing abilities are less jaw-dropping but better aligned with music. It's incredible how much time must have been spent to build 3 large pieces with multiple layers that build up and only reach climax after first 10 minutes at earliest. There is no dull moment.

You are immersed in the keyboard and vintage world of Cinematograaf from the very beginning without any other disruptive moments or instruments. Indeed, main motives repeat and gradually gain on intensity or richness in sound.

The most used instruments are synths and piano but organ beats all in the climax moments, it's majestic, overwhelming, stately and memorable.

There are a few moments where modern electronic beats or ambient sounds appear, which is supportive. References to Vangelis or Jarre may come to mind and fans of their music will like them.

However, the best of Banks and Wakeman is also to be heard, Banks' taste in keyboard layers and Wakeman organ hooks are represented.

My favourite track is a dramatic 'A Spanish ballerina" due to its church organ climax and slowly built cresciendo. The starting analogue ARP makes you think of Jarre, however there is a beatiful array of other synthesizers getting more dramatic with classically sounded drums underlined by pianos in the background. Synths play the lead.

Between the 10th and 14th minute the beautiful and intensive climax supported by orchestral sounds peaks, later replaced by classical acoustic piano.

"Six six six" is a more modern piece with similar characteristics but more soundtrack spirit. Great church organ and Wakemanesque moves appear after the 12th minute. The pieceful ending with traces of Banks results in a movie-like epic dark closing underlined by church bells.

This album at least has catapulted Tomas Bodin among the greatest keyboard artists in progressive rock because it proves that Bodin is not only a very capable player but also an suprisingly gifted composer and arranger.

Welcome to the work of highest keyboard calibre.