VISION

French composer and keyboardist Michel LAZARO has been an active musician since the early 90's, and has actively cooperated with Stephane Deriau-Reine since 1994. Towards the end of the 90's Lazaro started working on material for a planned solo album, closely collaborating with Deriau-Reine. The project evolved on an on-and-off basis until 2006, when the original French version was finalized. Songwriter Mike Shannon then helped translate the material into English, and Deriau-Reine called up some friends and acquaintances to record it. The end result was issued as "Vision" by Musea Records in the fall of 2010, on their Musea Parallele imprint.

"Vision" is a well made effort from the less intricate parts of the art rock realm. Pomp rock with a contemporary approach is my favored description, although sophisticated melodic hard rock might apply just as well. It kind of comes with the territory that recommendations to fans of Magnum and Queen will follow suit. I'd also surmise that aficionados of neo-progressive music might want to investigate this album as well.