FOUR DAISIES

This "Arcansiel" debut album is rather pleasant. Very personnal although some Camel influences can be found in the opening number "Un Arc Dans Le Ciel". But the song is harder and most convincing. A good instrumental piece of work. Probably a bit of Genesis during "Four Daisies" but not too much. it is a more complew song, featuring some good vocals (in English).

The song featuring most vocals is "Evelyn"; and Marco Galetti is doing alright I must say. The second half of the song is truely magical : guitar & keys sharing the top of the bill. Really attractive.

My fave song is "When You're Right". This will bring you with lots of subtlety into the Genesis world. Instrumentally. No attempt in sounding like Gabriel since there are almost no vocals on this album. And this is fine with me. The music in here is just beautiful. And I like it. Romantic sweet moments, wonderful acoustic breaks and finally a very catchy finale; somewhat Supertrampish. A great number, no doubt. "Stories Of A Lake" sounds also very nice : good sax (but not invading) and great guitar even if the struture of the song is rather straight-forward.

This is of course not an essential album, nor "Arcansiel" a pivotal band in the Italian prog history but when this album was released (1988); prog was not really in great shape and this must be added to Arcansiel's credit. I believe that prog needs such a band; which perpretrates the style.

Three stars for this one. But they'll do better.

A Milan-based band led by Marco Galletti (keyboards),ARCANSIEL started in 1982 as ''Sprouts'' covering mainly GENESIS songs.By mid-80's Galletti had already written some original material,while the band was renamed to ARCANSIEL,featuring also Gianni Lavagno on drums,Nico Clerici on bass,Piero Zancanaro on clarinet/sax and Claudio Baretta on guitars.It was the time for ARCANSIEL to start performing live,while they also recorded their first LP ''Four daisies'',released on Contempo Records (re-released two years later on CD).

The album holds some similarities with the style of mid-70's GENESIS and MARILLION,but it also has a strong personality,mainly to the use of the saxes of Piero Zancanaro.Their sound is definitely out of fashion,regarding the year of the album's release: Galletti's organ passages are clearly in the vein of TONY BANKS,his synth parts are also well-crafted and the guitar work of Barretta tends to 80's UK prog sound with a FLOYD-ian reference with nice melodies and catchy grooves.Zancanaro is definitely the pleasant surprise here.His melodic sax solos are full of emotion and delicacy,adding the band a touch of originality.Vocals,held by Galletti as well,are not the strong point of ARCANSIEL,without being an obvious weakness.My conclusion:The album is balanced between some trully fantastic memorable tracks and some mediocre ones,so ''Four daisies'' has more than a few good moments to be part of your collection.Recommended.