Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography

THE LAMPLIGHTER

Anima Mundi

Symphonic Prog


From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Anima Mundi The Lamplighter album cover
3.74 | 146 ratings | 10 reviews | 32% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

Write a review

Buy ANIMA MUNDI Music
from Progarchives.com partners
Studio Album, released in 2013

Songs / Tracks Listing

- Suite - The Lamplighter :
1. On Earth beneath the stars (4.24)
2. The call and farewell song (6.20)
3. Light the lantern of your heart (6.09)
4. The human house (3.57)
- Suite - Tales from Endless Star :
5. The dream child behind the mask (9.05)
6. The return - Part I (3.29)
7. Endless star (10.38)
8. The return - Part II (3.24)
- Epilogue :
9: His Majesty Love (6.58)

Total Time: 53:04

Line-up / Musicians

- Emmanuel Pirko-Farrath / vocals
- Roberto Díaz / electric & acoustic guitars, percussion, Fx, vocals, orchestrations, co-producer
- Virginia Peraza / keyboards, percussion, Fx, vocals, orchestrations, co-producer & mixing
- Yaroski Corredera / bass
- José Manuel Govin / drums

With:
- Anaisy Gómez / clarinet

Releases information

Artwork: Ed Unitsky

CD Anima Mundi Music ‎- AMMUS005 (2013, Cuba)

Thanks to Second Life Syndrome for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
Edit this entry

Buy ANIMA MUNDI The Lamplighter Music



ANIMA MUNDI The Lamplighter ratings distribution


3.74
(146 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(32%)
32%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(36%)
36%
Good, but non-essential (30%)
30%
Collectors/fans only (1%)
1%
Poor. Only for completionists (1%)
1%

ANIMA MUNDI The Lamplighter reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by tszirmay
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
3 stars I was really looking forward to the follow up of 'The Way', an album that stunned my senses rather surprisingly, not quite expecting a Cuban symphonic prog extravaganza to bowl me over. On first and second audition, I must concur with other reviewers who mentioned the rather odd vocals that grace this fresh release. Let's get one thing straight, the music is spectacular, stately and impossibly brilliant. Being multi-lingual, I appreciate anyone expressing themselves in some other language than their native tongue and I actually enjoyed previous vocalist Carlos Sosa whose accent was only slight but new singer Emmanuel Pirko-Farrath has no command of English whatsoever and sadly, what this does is that it distracts to the point of being too obvious. In view of German national Helmut Koellen's brilliant English language singing on Triumvirat's early albums, where he learnt phonetically to pronounce each lyric properly, I must criticize the choice of a singer who struggles so overtly. Sing in Spanish, hombre! You have a decent voice but mangled words are never enjoyable.

When the mood becomes instrumental, Anima Mundi are easily among the most technically proficient musicians out there, featuring a magnificent keyboardist in Virginia Peraza. She has a strong symphonic inclination by using a tremendous amount of mellotron, synthesizers, organ and piano colorations throughout the arrangements. Bassist Yaroski Corredera provides some expressive bottom ends and occasional runs that are truly defiant. The drums are expertly handled by Jose Manuel Govin, never an issue in Cuba where percussion is a state accepted religion. Guitarist and leader Roberto Diaz is a killer slinger, his searing leads and chugging riffs inspire with abandon and grace. The melodies are grandiose and kaleidoscopic, expertly entertaining and effortlessly complex. The poor vocals kill the joy, though. Unfortunately, they are not few and far between. On 'The Human House', one can plainly feel the ridiculousness of mispronounced words such as 'cam' instead of 'come'. Sorry, but it's unavoidable and they linger like a sour aftertaste. Yet elsewhere on this short track, the playing is superb, go figure!

The pain is best expressed by the woeful rendition of the lyrics on 'His Majesty love', its torture when the words do not even make any sense and the delivery suffers accordingly. The finest moments on this disc is the all instrumental 'The Return-Part1', with its neo- medieval sheen and the bombastic epic segue 'Endless Star' and both are jewels of the very highest order. The latter in particular runs for a good 10 minutes and showcases the immense talent at hand, Peraza doing some masterful work in arranging this colossus of sound and fury. Diaz shows off delirious electric guitar technique that is just off the wall brilliant. The rhythm section just cooks up a tropical storm of musical delight.

Roberto, please invite Carlos back or re-record with someone who has mastered a language (any one of your choice, even Kobaian!) and I will anoint this with 5 cigars. Cover by the amazing Ed Unitsky only deepens my sorrow, for it's a truly stellar package.

3.5 berlitz lessons

Review by Second Life Syndrome
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Anima Mundi is a band out of Cuba that plays wonderful symphonic prog rock, so I was extremely excited when they sent me a download of their latest album, "The Lamplighter". I was slightly wary, I do admit. Their previous album, "The Way", is one of my all-time favorite albums. The problem is that the vocalist, Carlos Sosa, from their first few albums is no longer with them, and so I always get a little worried when this happens. He just so happens to have one of my favorite voices. The new singer, Emmanuel Pirko-Farrath, is definitely different. Let me explain how this affects the album.

If there's one thing that Anima Mundi can do flawlessly, it's create incredible instrumental passages. Virginia Peraza is most certainly one of my favorite keyboardists, and one of the best in the business, too. She has an incredible way of creating keyboard lines that are bobbing, spacey, epic, sublime, and unexpected all at the same time. On this album, she is no different. In fact, I'd say she goes out on a limb a few times, but always succeeds. The guitarist, Roberto Diaz, is also a magician with his instrument. Soulful solos by the bucketful are the name of the game, and an almost exploratory vibe is felt throughout the album. Again, drummer Jose Govin and bassist Yarroski Corredera impress with their performances, too. This group of musicians are an amazing unit that works like a well-oiled machine.

Yet, with the addition of the new vocalist, I can't help but be slightly disappointed. Emmanuel has a good voice that is nearly the opposite of Carlos'. While Carlos had huge range and a soaring style that left my knees quaking, Emmanuel has more of a rich, mellow sound that feels almost jazzy at times. This is okay, but I have three problems with it. First of all, Emmanuel (as has been pointed out by other reviewers) does not have a commanding control of English. His enunciation is very poor at times, and he forgets parts of speech at times, too. This becomes distracting, thought I do admit it is not as bad as I feared it would be. It is there, though. Second, his voice does not fit the music. Anima Mundi is all about soaring melodies and spacey vibes, but Emmanuel's voice doesn't fit this mold at all. Like I said, he jazzy, not proggy. Lastly, I feel that the vocal melodies have suffered. Carlos was always taking the incredible music and blowing it through the roof with his pitch perfect, stunning vocal passages. Emmanuel seems to get by, just barely. The vocal melodies come off as awkward to the point where you just want him to be quiet so we can get back to the fantastic music. I don't say this to be cruel: I just want to be honest.

Overall, though, this is still an excellent album. In all honesty, it features probably only 25% vocals, so the disappointing vox don't drag the entire album down with them. The music is still inspired, and the theme of human hearts as interconnected lamps of love and enlightenment is intriguing. But I hope Emmanuel can work on his voice and on his English. I think he has promise, but I just don't know how he can compete with his predecessor. All in all, however, this is a great album still.

Review by ProgShine
COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
3 stars Anima Mundi is a band that comes from Cuba. This fact alone would be enough to make you curious, and honestly, you should. Anima Mundi is a good band that's been around for over a decade and their new album The Lamplighter (2013) is their 4th. I was indeed curious about the band, I kind of missed their 'boat' along the way. I've listened to their debut album Septentrión (2002) but completely missed their next two albums: Jagannath Orbit (2008) and The Way (2010).

Now Anima Mundi has a new vocalist Emmanuel Pirko-Farrath and this is a fact that could make them even better. But to begin with I'll tell you that Eammanuel's vocals are... not there. His voice is far away from being a bad one, but the problem for me lies in his accent. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a snobbish kind of guy that looks for the 'perfect english'. Being from a country that doesn't have English as its main language (Brazil) I struggle myself to not have a heavy accent. The problem isn't that, very often bands comes from different places with singers with a bit of accent and that's fine. In Anima Mundi's case is very hard to bear the accent and because of that the melody lines.

Now, when it comes to the music, The Lamplighter (2013) has everything correct. Symphonic Prog played with very good keyboards (the best feature on the album), good Gilmourish guitars, good bass lines and ok drumming. And as I was listening to the album I notice that is exactly that the biggest problem with The Lamplighter (2013), everything is 'correct' and 'good' but there's nothing on the album (with a few keyboard moments) that make me say 'oh yeah, now we're talking' or even get really excited about.

The 'Suite The Lamplighter' is nice and I particularly like the last song 'His Majesty Love'. Overall the feeling of 'ok, when they're going for more' stayed with me the whole time. Maybe it's not their kind of music, but I was always waiting for some challenge, for some more. And it never came. Maybe it's not MY kind of music, anyway, a good album, but not essential.

Review by Gatot
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
3 stars I just realized this band couple of months ago when a friend of mine recommended me to have listen to it. AT first I was not quite impressed with it as I found the mismatch which was quite obvious between the music and the vocal part at the beginning part of the album. This might be caused by my expectation the band would play something heavy as its name is quite similar with the opening track of Black Sabbath "Tyr" album called as Anno Mundi. I think the name has different meaning with the Black Sabbath one. Once I removed the image of heavy music then I started to appreciate the music even though still found the vocal is not quite powerful - not something prog, I think ...

The music of this album isa basically pure soft neo-prog music with long sustain keyboard solo and some guitar work in Floydian style. Obviously this is a concept album with major three movements and I started to enjoy the music as the second track The call and farewell song (6.20) unfolds. It's basically a typical soft or dragging neoprog with relatively slow tempo music. This is not something that I can enjoy day by day as I feel not having patience with its really slow movement of the music. I am not saying it's bad but I have to wait quite a long time to get the right passages. As I enjoy the music its entirety, I find the 7th track titles as Endless Star (10;38) is quite interesting. It's not because of the longest in term of duration, but I really enjoy how the music moves in ambient mode with long sustain keyboard work and stunning Floydian guitar work.

Overall, it's a good album from Cuba prog band Anima Mundi. The music is in the vein of something like Red Sand etc. Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Review by Progulator
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars If you've got an itch for something that'll transport you back to the days of neo-prog, Anima Mundi's latest release, The Lamplighter, may be your ticket. These guys do a surprisingly good job at nailing a sort of Marillion vibe with some moments that even take you back to Gabriel-ish era Genesis, such as on "The Dream Child Behind the Mask." The structure of songs becomes a bit predictable overall, with a general focus on vocals and a sort of verse/chorus format, but this format seems slightly obscured (in a good way) by the dense atmosphere of synths (particularly the synth brass on songs like the quirky "The Call and Farewell Song" and "Endless Star," both of which additionally feature some piano work that feels very tone-poem- esque in nature. Additionally, Anima Mundi seems to have a knack for the haunting and ominous, as in the tron flutes opener to "On Earth Beneath the Stars," as well as the aforementioned "Endless Star." Some of these elements do get a bit overused, however, as is clear by the time we reach "The Human House." Luckily there are still some great moments on the record, such as the lovely folk/classical blend guitar motifs of "The Return Part 1″ and the variations on these by way of vocals in part two. Despite the fact that I'm not a huge fan of neoprog, I still enjoyed The Lamplighter due to the sort of serious feel of the album as a whole and perhaps the very dark moments which were very intriguing.

Latest members reviews

5 stars The Lamplighter, takes an unmistakable turn in style towards the symphonic progressive spectrum. Again, this is an area that I have focused on in the past fifteen years and Anima Mundi plays the same trick with me; the album opens up the eyes and ears again towards symphonic progressiveness. Changi ... (read more)

Report this review (#1002696) | Posted by mbzr48 | Sunday, July 21, 2013 | Review Permanlink

5 stars Majestic memorable masterpiece! In my opinion, one of the best symphonic prog bands in the world today. I was a little concerned as to what this would sound like after I heard there would be a new vocalist on this album. Well, I have been listening to this cd non-stop since I received it, and I m ... (read more)

Report this review (#995005) | Posted by emperorken | Wednesday, July 10, 2013 | Review Permanlink

5 stars ANIMA MUNDI The Lamplighter : GREAT album for any PROG music fan! Very nice CD with magic artworks from famous artist Ed Unitsky invites listeners to discover the new music world: it's something new between Camel (Rajaz) and The Flower Kings' ballads and it's really NEW step for the band! It's or ... (read more)

Report this review (#990045) | Posted by Olgaodessa | Sunday, June 30, 2013 | Review Permanlink

5 stars Anima Mundi...World Of Soles...beautiful soles could be with the addition of this beautiful music Another inspired album of this Caribbean band ...Who could really tell that a band of Cuba with al the caribbean environment...salsa music...will be so good composing and playing symphonic pro ... (read more)

Report this review (#985094) | Posted by robbob | Monday, June 24, 2013 | Review Permanlink

3 stars Two steps forward, five steps back. After the brilliant 2010 release The Way, I had great anticipation and expectations for The Lamplighter. The Lamplighter continues with the outstanding compositions and excellence in musicianship. To me, Anima Mundi (Roberto Diaz and Virginia Peraza are list ... (read more)

Report this review (#982883) | Posted by PaulH | Thursday, June 20, 2013 | Review Permanlink

Post a review of ANIMA MUNDI "The Lamplighter"

You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.