THE SECRET GARDEN

Although I know of only two albums from this band, I've been in love with them forever it seems, and I always hear them with equal pleasure. "The Secret Garden" is an excellent piece of prog centered around the musical style of the late 70's and early 80's. It is made up of sophisticated keyboards with highly melodious, original tunes and some dramatic vocals (mostly sung in English but sometimes in German). Although the production isn't always perfect (the guitars, especially, need more prominence for my taste), the mixture of tightness and mellowness that characterize the material makes it very seductive.

You'll rarely hear such energetic yet melodic prog from beninning to end on a single album, except perhaps from the likes of CLEPSYDRA. There are some epic tracks here, with various themes and time changes such as "Orient Express" and "A Tale of Mr. Fogg", both clocking at over 12 minutes. "Broken Heart" with its slow, PENDRAGON-like opening melody, its about-face guitar riffs that catapult the tune into a tight, energetic rocker and the mightly colourful musical phrases through out is enough to seduce any progger's ears who's into melodic prog. A fine album indeed.

3.5 stars.

The record starts off with a short instrumental of synths and sampling on "The Secret Garden (intro)". "Septagone" is a good example of what this record is about, lots of keyboard passages.This is an upbeat tune and the vocals are well done. "Eng Oppen Dir" is sung in the Luxemburg language, which is a form of German.This one has a catchy beat. "Merry-Go-Round" is a song I really like, especially the chorus.There is a good guitar melody that is followed by a keyboard solo. "Orient Express" contains heavier passages, but there is a lot of tempo changes. I am impressed with the acoustic guitar and keyboards at 11 minutes, it's beautiful.

"The Eternal Spring" is a cool song about springtime, it's a straight forward tune with lots of pulsating keys. "Broken Heart" is a slower song about one's feelings after a breakup. "Autumn Days" is an instrumental that is keyboard driven with some tasteful guitar. "A Tale Of Mr.Fogg" is where the guitar finally takes a prominant role with lots of great guitar melodies. This song contrasts the uptempo and pastoral sections. And check out the amazing piano melodies. "Follow The Signs" features some acoustic guitar and flute, and I like the way the keys and guitar trade places in the melody. The final song "De Verstand" is again sung in their own language with piano, and is quite beautiful.

The highlights for me are "Merry-Go-Round" ,"Orient Express" and "A Tale Of Mr.Fogg". Good record.

Two year after ''Zodiac'', No Name would return with a new album entitled ''The Secret Garden''.The sophomore effort of the band finds them in a transition period with bassist Dan Pieknik being replaced by the new face of the project Gilles Loes.Still Pieknik contribute bass duities in most of the tracks with Loes performing only on ''Septagone'' and ''Broken heart''.Additionally the band had signed a contract with Angular Records.

The minor flaws of their debut are long gone in ''The secret garden'', where the band is established as the new hot name of the Neo Prog scene, offering very rich and bombastic musicianship.The opening and closing sections of the album are frenetic and masterful.The short eponymous intro along with ''Septagone'' mark some 8 minutes of grandiose, fully symphonic and dramatic Neo Prog with a flashy performance and intricate arrangements.The pair of closing tracks are on the opposite side, more mellow and atmospheric but featuring lovely tunes, excellent vocals and great keyboard work by Rukavina, another couple of fantastic music offerings.The rest of the album follows a familiar MARILLION/PENDRAGON/PALLAS vein.Nice keyboard solos, elaborate melodies, even some Classical references on piano but above all crystalline and dramatic vocals by Patrick Kiefer, one of the best performers of the style.All tracks are sung in English and the band sounds more British than the British bands, except ''De verstand'' and ''Eng oppen dir'', which contain lyrics in the band's native languange.Finally the production is top notch, clear with a great instrumental mix, which helps the composing talent of the band.

''Zodiac'' showed traces that this band could become something good.''The sectret garden'' fullfills these great expectations.Among the best 90's Neo Prog releases, keeping the old- fashioned fundamentals of the genre and offering plenty of superb musicianship.No less than highly recommended.

No Name from little country Luxembourg is a top notch neo prog band with two out of four albums released by the band being very strong. One of their most great releases from the catalogue and why not among the best neo prog albums ever is their second offer from 1995 named The secret garden issued by Angular records. This is one hell of a great and solid neo prog album, everything from here is from good to excellent, the arrangements and instrumental passages are very strong, crafted and full of intresting parts. Crafty pieces with lots of temo changes and full of melodic lines that for sure desearves attention. The band remind me or being in same category with Clepsydra, Marillion or even Pendragon but some pieces are even better then on these bands. Septagone, Orient express clocking around 13 min is a good example this band is capable of, great keybords arrangements interluded with intresting guitars parts always very unique and with plenty of melodical parts. Another highlight is A tale of Mr. Fogg with fantstic guitar parts, and Follow the sign with beautiful flute besides traditional instruments. All in all a very worthy album, one of the best I've heared from neo prog zone, much intresting and better composed then many well known albums from this zone. Very good is a the voice typical for this style but never sounding like a copy of Fish or other well known vocalist from neo prog. I will give 4 solid stars, very strong album with plenty of great moments that will pleases most of the neo prog listners.