THE PUREST OF DESIGNS

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The Canadian multi-instrumentalist Steve COCHRANE is here with his third release. This is a concept album, and the music is melodic symphonic & progressive rock, with many instrumental passages and catchy melodies. Steve's influences are GENESIS, Mike OLDFIELD and RUSH. Besides his influences there's reminiscences to CAMEL, ELEGANT SIMPLICITY, The FLOWER KINGS, JEREMY, TANGERINE DREAM and YES.

Steve is a good guitar player and his playing is a mix between Steve HACKETT (GENESIS), Steve HOWE (YES), Andy LATIMER (CAMEL), Mike OLDFIELD and Roine STOLT (The FLOWER KINGS). His vocals is sometimes reminiscent to Ian ANDERSON (JETHRO TULL). Steve is an impressive and skilled composer who is putting a lot of work and soul into the lyrics.

One of the tracks, "Songs For Spring" is divided into seven parts, and all in all it's 27 minutes. The highlights are "To The Glory of Man", "The Scent of After Rain" which is one part of "Songs For Spring", the poppy folk inspired "Dreams Of Reason" and the final classical influenced epic instrumental "The Promise Of The Music", that is almost 16 minutes. A masterpiece!

The album has got a good production with a clear sound. It's actually mixed in Sweden! It's an excellent album, and I wish I got the chance to hear more from Steve COCHRANE in the future. Most highly recommended!

Wonderful symphonic prog with a high degree of energy and positive musical spirituality throughout. Steve COCHRANE is a multi-talented musician/song writer who plays keyboards, bass and guitars with great ease. The centre piece of "The Purest Of Designs" is clearly the 27 min epic track "Songs For Spring" which showcase this musicians talents and musical flexibility. Steve COCHRANE's songs are involved and a contain a nice variety of tempo and mood changes. Without a doubt he is a great guitarist and it is during the instrumental moments when one can really appreciate all of Steve's guitar virtuosity. "The Purest Of Designs" is heavily symphonic in nature and contains some highly memorable melodies and wonderful instrumentation.