VISIONS

Out of Brazil comes a new band called AETHER. They are playing a progressive rock that is a mix between CAMEL, Classical & New Age Music, Mike OLDFIELD, PINK FLOYD, UK and Rick WAKEMAN. The musicians are good although the drum sound sometimes reminds of a drum machine. The songs are often very beautiful, dreamy and "floating". There are a lot of different sounds: children playing, ocean-waves against the shores, birds singing etc., and together with the music it creates atmospheric soundscapes. My favorite tracks are "A New Bright Day", "Kings & Knights", "November" and "The Lake". Overall it's a very beautiful and relaxing CD that I think many would enjoy if they got the chance to hear it.

Excellent Brazillian classic symphonic progressive rock with rich melodies and great instrumentation throughout. "Visions" is apparently an album made up of songs dating back over 20 years from AETHER's past all newly recorded and for the first time available on CD! Although the vast majority of the album is instrumental in nature, a couple of tracks do contain the excellent vocals of Alberto Curi. Songs are well written and played with a high degree of professionalism with some real nice guitar and keyboard performances. Although "Visions" is made up of shorter numbers in the 5 minute range, it includes a mini epic 6 part suite called the "Altenburg Suite" which is the center piece of the album. This number would make a great movie soundtrack in my opinion being so full or orchestration. In fact the album is really divided in 2 with the first half being slightly more electric and the second half much more orchestral. "Visions" is very well recorded sounding simply delicious with a wide dynamic sound and is clearly destined to be a classic

AETHER (Greek) - Is the real quintessence of all possible energy; the Uneversal Agent which is possible for all energy manifestations of the material, psychic and spiritual worlds. One of it properties is the Sound.

This is basically a "best of AETHER" album of songs they have recorded over the last 20 years. Therefore it has become a superb album. Most songs are merely instrumental pieces, but there are magnificent vocals of ALBERTO CURI on "A Bright New Day" and "Kings & Knights". AETHER is also known as the "Brazilan Camel". Not hard to make this comparison once you've heard their music. If you like CAMEL and PINK FLOYD there's a big chance you will like AETHER as well. I see this album as a great introduction into Brazilian Prog- and symphonic rock!

Some other great Brazilian bands in the prog-rock scene worth checking out are: INDEX, TARKUS, SOLIS and TEMPUS FUGIT.

3.5 stars. This is a collection of songs this band has done over the previous twenty years. Yet there is a surprising unity in this record. The band says "Each song represents a musical vision of an image, a moment or a situation".

There is the "Altenburg Suite" consisting of songs 8-13, which is a Symphonic vision of one of Germany's old castles. There are also two trilogies. "Whales", "Trinidad Island" and "Ocean" make up one, the other is "Autumn", "November" and "Woods". This is primarily an instrumental album save for two tracks. And one of them "A Bright New Day" really sounds like the MOODY BLUES to me. One of the guys plays a synth guitar which sounds pretty cool on "Trinidad Island" and "November". There are some orchesteral movements and some sampling (like birds and children playing) on this record, as well as some amazing piano and organ on "The Lake".

What I find interesting and rewarding, is listening to this album with the title of the song in mind, and trying to imagine what you hear.

Nice surprise when this first reached our ears , being hotly recommended by the local prog store, who unbiasedly lives in Brazil 4 months of the year. The prog tradition there is very reminiscent of their attitude , a blend of creativity, passion and relaxation . Most Brazilians are so laid back , no wonder they have only soccer and sex on their minds. Aether features the uniquely melodious guitar stylings of Vinicius Brazil, whose Hackett/Latimer/Falsini style is even more aquatic , very upfront and cascades boldly through some very Camelesque material. The bassist is also a great player (very common to most bands from this country) and both keyboards and drums complement the arrangements well. But the "Guitarra" really steals the show, worth checking out , as this is a pretty original take on the genre. There is also an abundance of atmospherics of all types , very soundtrackish (generally a very good omen of quality)and a deliberate interest in creating astounding sounds and gorgeous melodies. The material has a hard to describe warm Halloweenish/gothic feel , as if a group of Celts and the girl from Ipanema decided to unite their talents !!! In ending, its the originality of their style and their sound that truly deserves praise. Definitely a band to watch. 4 cariocas

Honestly I'm kinda shocked a bit with all these positive reviews. I appreciate efforts of the band, but lets face it - this is DIY self-made product with cheap programmed instruments, lame arrangements and new-agy attitude. A little PARSONS/popppish CAMEL/FLOYD thrown into it, but nothing more. Avoid, if you like something more interesting and care for quality of the record.

The brazilian Camel has finally arrived!

Usually, when you talk about the major progressive rock acts from the 70's, some bands just seem to be, somehow, forgotten by people, just because they didn't have a flying piano during their live performances or because they didn't sold millions and millions of album or because they didn't have hundreds of copycats back in the days. Camel is one of those bands.

Although that may be true around the world, at least in this part of the Equator Camel is a fairly popular band among progheads and had surely been influential in this sunny land, as Aether can attest with their releases so far. In their debut, the band Aether shows us that they are heavily influenced my Camel's music in many aspects, from being mostly instrumental, to the type of singing (almost monophonic) and to the ethereal guitars and synthesizers. Also, in some degree, they seem to have some Floydian influence as well. However, unlike other modern bands who look to the 70's prog acts for inspiration, their music do not sound derivative.

There is, however, one big problem with this album: some songs sound way too generic. Don't get me wrong, the album is, overall, great, but some songs just sound like the generic 90's prog, like the songs Whales and November. Maybe that happened because they intended to make a broad approach, experimenting and trying the different aspects of their music instead of focusing in just some chosen few. That may be it, because this debut lack some focus, it seems to be everywhere.

The highlights go to: Millenium, Autumn, Kings & Knights, The Altenburg Suite and The Woods.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Being one of many prog bands that came to life in the 90's in Brazil, Aether was able to deliver a solid debut with great overall quality, but still a bit raw and lacking focus. That would be fixed in their next release, but that is another story. For a very good release like this one, i think 4 stars is a fitting grade.

Brazilian Progressive Rock was in flames through mid-90's and mid-00's. We've seen many bands releasing albums out of nowhere and then? disappearing out of nowhere too.

Aether is one of these bands. Tough they started in the 70's they just recorded their first album, Visions (1999), in late 90's. After the second album in 2002 they disappeared. Thinking about that is quite incredible that their website is still online.

The band was formed by Alberto Curi (keyboards and vocals), Vinicius Brazil (guitars), Fernando Carvalho (bass) and Brandon Ramos (drums). To tell you the truth, Aether doesn't have an impressive debut in Visions (1999).

Visions (1999) is in fact an almost instrumental album, having only one song with vocals ('A New Bright Day') and one with speech as an intro ('Kings & Knights'). Then we have a CD divided into two. The first half has 7 tracks soaked with keyboards and guitars that sometimes are completely out of place, drums and basses that edge the unbearable and corny melodies. Despite the good vocal track with lots of Camel influence, the band's sound is absurdly overproduced and it seems a 80's album, even though it was 1999.

The second half of the CD is more interesting and it's occupied pretty much by the 'Altenburg Suite'. This suite has 6 parts in more than 18 minutes. It's hard to understand why it was divided into 6 different tracks, even though there's no blank spaces between the tracks. A weird suite made pretty much of sounds (like horses, people, etc) and short themes. Good violin guest is presented in 'The Lake' (Glauco Fernandes) and good organ guest in 'Essence Of Freedom' (Eduardo Campos).

Two songs, 'The Woods' and 'The Ocean' that sound out of place after the suite finish the album. Both of them without any surprise or even light to make them shine.

Resuming, a really weak album. Tough I have to admit that the CD artwork (cover, booklet, etc) is amazing. One more case where the box is great and the contents inside not.

Key track: A New Bright Day