SEA OF THE SINKING SUN

The beach that is a mile from my home is my favourite place to be in the summer, especially to see the sun sink into the water as the album title conveys. And the album cover really speaks to the beach and summer. Yes it makes me really look forward to spring. I have to say that Canadians and Australians seem to have a special connection, and I have an uncle who grew up near Sydney and moved to Canada when he was 25 and married my mom's sister. I worked for him for 18 years and he was the best boss I ever had. I loved the stories he would tell, and a great memory I have is of his dad coming over to Canada purposely in the winter to see snow for the first time, and playing road hockey with him and a bunch of my cousins. Funny thing but he never came back to visit (haha).The guy responsible for MYRIAD is Matthew Heindorff who has been called the Australian version of Steven Wilson.

"Gone" opens with some beautiful acoustic guitar and Steven Wilson-like vocals. The synths are a nice touch as well. "Outside Smile" features an atmospheric soundscape that is dark at times. Some good synth work follows and later in the song we get a great guitar solo with the drums pounding away. Nice. "Picnic In The Park At Solstice" is an instrumental that is less than a minute long with a nice acoustic guitar melody. "Cold Under This Sky" opens with keys,as heavy drums and vocals follow. Some riffs 3 minutes in as the sound gets heavier.

This song blends into "North Sea Road' one of my favourite tracks on the record. It opens with the wind blowing and something jangling in that wind, guitar comes in after a minute.The lyrics are sung rather quickly. "Destiny's Midst" is another good one ! Opening with the sound of a radio playing that gets louder and more audible as it becomes this song. There is a nice scorching guitar solo with crisp drums. Well done. The final song is "Almost A Joker", it has a nice contrast between the heavy drums and the vocals. I like the spacey, dreamy synths and vocals here.There are some beautiful guitar melodies 7 minutes in.

This album and band are well worth checking out. I was fortunate enough to get a copy of this from Greg Walker.

Australia's own Myriad play a warm blend of acoustic based progressive rock, with refined synths/keyboards and electric guitar in the vein of early Porcupine Tree. The music on their debut album `Sea Of The Sinking Sun' is low-key, thoughtful and tasteful melodic progressive rock with a real humanity. I purchased this album many years ago from the long-gone Cranium Records, and I was immensely impressed with it. It's been a very special album for me all this time, and I wish more prog albums had the heart and genuine feeling that this one does.

`Gone' begins the album with the strong and dreamy acoustic guitar playing and plaintive vocals from Myriad main-man Matthew Heindorff that are the band's trademark, backed with uplifting and drifting keyboards. His lyrics always have a very personal and reflective tone, and you'll likely find much to relate to in his words throughout the album.

`Outside Smile' is a little bit darker, with a contemplative vocal and matching lyric backed with thick ghostly synths. Some nice clean electric guitar in the stirring ambient middle section before the track shoots straight for the sky with a spiraling electric guitar solo that is easily the equal of Steven Wilson and Nick Barrett of Pendragon. Terrific commanding drum work from Justin Roebig gives the track a great sense of epic drama. The album highlight!

`Picnic...' is a brief acoustic interlude with an evocative melody! Far too short, but beautiful nonetheless.

Lovely piano and pounding drums kick off `Cold Under This Sky', a classy mid-tempo piece with more pensive lyrics and a warm sighing vocal. We get a a bit of electric grunt in the second half, and there's terrific chunky and fluid bass playing from Matt throughout the whole track. Love the way the music slows up and speeds down, back and forth, right near the end.

`North Sea Road' is a sweet and upbeat boppy track with playful Syd Barret-esque vocal lines and foot tapping clean electric guitar melodies! Matt's voice is very charming and likeable on this one, and there's a lovely dancing guitar solo with shimmering synths backing it up. A terrific joyful little diversion!

`Destiny's Midst' is the heaviest piece on the album, with hard drums and dirty electric guitar riffs. It probably gives the album a bit of an adrenaline kick after the lighter previous track, and the whole second half is filled with a groovy wailing guitar solo.

`Almost A Joker' is the most ambitious piece on the album, comprised of a number of different ideas joined together. The track is based around stomping drums and riff-heavy chugging, before dissolving into an experimental ocean of ambient swimming electronic effects along the lines of Tangerine Dream and early Pink Floyd. Other-wordly treated ruminative vocals call from the distance, and maddening looped drums drive the listener to madness. Then a killer electric guitar solo tears through the nightmare and lifts the listener away. This track most of all shows the true potential this band had, and only hinted at directions the band would eventually head in.

With their next few releases, Myriad would add a sophisticated blend of acoustic and heaviness with `Floating On Ascending Plains', then aimed for the stars with the spacey and electronic `Reminded' (as well as their upcoming `Quietude'). But check out the band's unassuming and melodic debut album for a wonderful little progressive gem.

Australian project Myriad was an idea of singer/multi-instrumentalist Matthew Heindorff, who started it in 1995, based in Brisbane.In his first work he collaborated with drummer Justyn Roebig.The album carried the title ''Sea of the Sinking Sun'' and was privately released in June 1996.

The album follows the Space Rock vein, based on the use of floating synthesizers, atmospheric guitars and hypnotic singing lines, creating a spacey and sometimes somber mood, no matter the track is long or short.There is some sporadic use of piano and organ here and there and the musicianship is quite laid-back, almost based on chill-out tunes.Heindorff often uses also some sound effects in order to come up with even more atmospheric soundscapes.The lack of some energy, the similarity between all cuts along with the very short length of the album (just over 30 minutes) are the biggest problems of ''Sea of the Sinking Sun''.I could name also the absence of some haunting melodies as well, but this part is overcome through the carefully structured pieces, which are not spectacular by any means, but overall complete a decent listening.

This is not a bad album.The music is above average, the vocals are also nice, but it misses some nerve and twists to be fully recommended.Nevertheless this could be a decent listening for fans of the style...2.5 stars.

A late 60s mood is the first impression received by the opening track "Gone". Acoustic guitar, bass and keyboards for a song that has made Donovan pop in my mind. It could be an American band of the same period as well, let me say that I like this genre a lot, and despite being "retro", the production is very good.

"Outside Smile" is another good song, a bit longer and based on minor chords. I hear some psychedelia mixed with sounds typical of neo-prog. The gutar, in particular, could appear in the early Marillion or Fish releases. The second part of the track, with the drums appearing for the first time in the album has a sort of Mostly Autumn flavor but with a guitar less invasive than Bryan Josh's.

"Picnic In The Park At Summer Solstice" is the longest title for the shortest track. Nice acoustic guitar short piece.

A piano synth intro opens "Cold Under This Sky". More bluesy, it's catchy and the clean voice of Matt Heindorff is perfect for this song. There's also space for a bit of distortion on the electric guitar to turn it into a heavy prog song. Interesting the tempo slowing down for few seconds here and there.

Stormy winds open "North Sea Road". Chimes, bells then finger picking guitar. The melody is catchy, the voice is clean and the chord progression is very good even if the first major chord is kept for quit long. The late 60s mood is present also here. Lovely.

"Destiny's Midst" starts with a bit of recorded chaos and I'm not ashamed of calling it psychedelic rock. Only 2 minutes and half, unfortunately.

The closer is also the longest track, scoring over 8 minutes. More on the rock side, with guitar riffs and distorted electric guitar supporting them, but there are pauses, rhythmless moments made of keys and vocals, plus chaotic concrete sections.

In brief, a lovely album that I personally enjoy a lot, able to put me in a particular state of mind. I hope it works the same for you guys.