THE DRAGONFLY FROM THE SUN

I don't understand that much of the text in the CD booklet as it's entirely written in French. What I can find out from the booklet is that this Swiss band was formed in the seventies. They released their debut album "At King" in 1985 on the French Musea label (FGBG 4017 AR). Two years later, in 1987, Musea released their follow up album "Vision in the dark". The music on this album though was recorded live during spring 1979. Unfortunately the recording isn't very good so I think that if you haven't heard the band before, it might be hard to decide whether this is really good or not. What you hear though is typical 70's instrumental progressive rock in the same vein as CAMEL, EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER, GENESIS, PINK FLOYD and YES with many extended soloing, rhythm changes and skilled musicians. The music is very good and I really would've wanted to hear a proper studio album with these tracks. I think that DEYSS will have a new album out later this year. I have a feeling that it will be something really great.

"The Dragonfly From The Sun" is a compilation album by Swiss progressive rock act Deyss. The compilation was released through Musea Records in 2000. It comprise recordings the band made from 1978-1979, so these early recordings predate Deyss´s two mid-80s full-length studio albums by quite a few years. The Musea Records CD version of "The Dragonfly From The Sun" features a thick booklet with the band´s history, but since it´s written in French, some of us are left in the dark...

The eight tracks featured on the 64:55 minutes long album are all fully instrumental and they all sound like demos. I wouldn´t call the sound quality awful, but it´s thin sounding and not particularly pleasant sounding either. The tracks soon become background muzak, and there´s little here which will excite a seasoned progresive rock listener. Deyss are mostly known as a neo-progressive rock act, but since this was recorded in 1978-1979 it´s probably more correct labelling this instrumental progressive rock. The 80s keyboards/synths which became a big part of the band´s sound on their subsequent full-length studio albums weren´t invented yet when this was recorded, so naturally the recordings on "The Dragonfly From The Sun" sound quite different from what came after.

Upon conclusion this is a hardcore fan item. Taking into consideration that their 80s albums aren´t exactly anything to write home about, it´s not a positive when I say that this one is even less interested. A 1.5 star (30%) rating is fair.