ISILDURS BANE

1. It presents plenty of orquestration, without getting folky, boring and/or snob.

2. It's inventively and free-based on the true story of an "ordinary person" who made something outstanding. He builded a castle almost all alone, just collecting rocks and finding there places on the main idea to create a space where people could connect to something bigger than them. I'll give more details ahead.

3. The relations and connections between the two points above are clear, direct and consistent.

There's an additional reason for me to review this album. The booklet has informations about Ferdinand Cheval and his project, but there is also IB's interpretation's about this true story, that brings an artistical and empathetic enrichment to this release. And the listeners who don't have the CD or the LP will lose that. I'll make therefore a cross between IB's approach of this story, with my own interpretations.

Cheval (1836-1924), during his work as a postman, had a vision about constructing an esoteric and/or spiritual structure. The idea had such na impact on his mind and heart, that it was just a mattter of time until he found the opportunity to execute it.

The first track of the album, called Initiation, with strong percussions and rhythms, simbolizes the deepness that the project went into his soul and personality. When he found a rock with an unique and exquisite format, that idea came strong, consistente and enduring to the surface.

This occasion is more explored on track 2, "The Find". The quiet melodies indicate that despite the huge amount of labor ahead, Ferdinand probably became serene, smooth, because nature had helped to free his imagination, lighting up the path and giving him the necessary motivation.

The following track, "The Interpreter", starts smooth and grows to a more pompous feeling. A brief interlude appears and makes a very pleasent transition to a march. On the middle there are some delicious and joyful tunes. This is the more diversificated track and also the longest one. IB's description of this composition puts it by the expression: "How to explain not using words/Spellbound by inspiration". I'd make my own contribution saying that every time Cheval found a rock, he'd try to feel and see what meanings and symbols it could bring to his work.

"33 years" is the title of the fourth track and supposed to be the time Cheval took to conclude his opus. Starts with a peaceful tune on the oboe. Gradually, other instruments take part on the same tune, adding additional harmonies. So, one by one, the violin, other chords, the guitar, the flute and the bass assume and colaborate with each other to develop the song. This musical structure inspires me to understand that the postman never abandoned his central idea and motivation, and had to find different ways to deal with and execute it.

On the following track, called "The Cicerone", the album again becomes joyful, even cheerful. It also gets, on some point, more rock-oriented, with more solos and interventions from the guitar. Well, my impressions is that this song brings a jovial vibe to the album. And I wouldn't be surprised if I discovered that Cheval looked like a teenager whenever showing his castle to the visitors.

Sixth track, The Aged, is very majestic. IB designates it as "The approaching end of a body that manifested the expression of it's soul and brought it closer to immortality".

Track 7, named Present, doesn't mantain the high level of the rest of the album. The percussion is too disruptive to me, and it repeats a tune that isn't much interesting. Fortunately it's very short.

Final track, entitled The 8th Wonder, begins with excelent vocal harmonies, but it's only a brief introduction. Most of the track is a consistent majestic synphonic prog effort.

I have some limitations to point about this release. On most of the tracks, the harmonies aren't much elaborated, and the percussionist's performance isn't as rich as I'm used to hear on prog rock.

Musically, 3.7 stars. 4.4 for its artistic conception and development.

The second plot, which is divided into four pieces entitled "Gently", will become lyrical and peaceful to make the listener travel slowly in gloomy plains where the joy of living will have almost disappeared. And as a companion of pain, the atmosphere, the electronic environment, various and varied sound effects and tones such as wooden tubes, a xylophone, multiple brass instruments, a violin, a piano, grandiose cinematic effects, a few keys of mellotron and synths do you want ... The song is a little rarer and less virulent but will present a carnal aspect engaging in afflictive expressionism which will show us a rather dark and theatrical picture ... at the height of his 73 years, the boss is still at the top of his game, he delivers here a voice that has retained all of his youth and continues to transmit his emotions to us still so vivid with a range almost unchanged but slightly more serious like a good Bordeaux "Grave" wine which would have aged well. Why New wave and Punk ...? Because there is in it! Like the orchestration, these two genres only appear in Peter HAMMILL's voice for the "In Deliquibrium" part. Some notes of trumpet and bamboo begin the "1/1", KING CRIMSON guitar chords combined with an avant-garde orchestration with the sharpened organ of our cantor deliver energetic intonations with some resemblances to BONO from U2 premier period or also of Peter MURPHY de BAUHAUS. Feeling of imbalance when listening to this first piece? Surely ... but an admirably ordered and efficient mess (8.5 / 10)!

On the "1/2" we are sent a "punky" voice which vociferates with an incredible verve and aplomb, at times it coos and it sings silently and happily in chorus. The instruments are numerous, the punctual but effective guitars and generously bright synths, surrounded by a djembe and bamboos nourishing a sound river at high speed. The end will be calm and "Vang'lisque" (8/10). The "1/3" begins gently with beautiful woody brass which will serve as an introduction to the theatrical song of our star, this recitative will be repetitive and will be accompanied by a thousand fires resounding like a perfectly controlled cacophony to progress gradually to a point culminating where the song appears as a soft delivery in perfect harmony with the instrumentation. An excellently crafted piece with technicality and talent! (9/10). Let's move on to the second part with "Gently (Step by Step)" where the agitation falls back to more reasonable levels. "2/1" is a short interlude where the wind blows and is activated in cadence until the keys of a silky and peaceful piano, a xylophone and a trumpet will bring a little more to this successful cinematic work! (7.5 / 10). The vocal impression on the 2/2 makes me think of the Quebecois group CIRKUS, for its solemn side articulated with slowness and its arrogant and a little annoying "so britsh" tone .... The instrumental edges remain classy and definitively high levels , but the general result is a bit far-fetched ... a performance that leaves me unmoved (6/10).

"2/3" is a short atmospheric piece where we can hear a saxophone playing deep bass on "mellotron" atmospheres letting us navigate in serenity and contemplation (7/10). Cinematically the "2/4" is the most remarkable ... with its explosions, its childish laughter and its particularly well constructed depths of field and performed by sound effects and instruments of all kinds. This somewhat pompously sung symphony reminds me of the BEATLES under morphine, with a hymn that becomes monotonous and somewhat dissenting. The instrumental chords here are of rare beauty with an apotheosis point at 6:31 where the very essence of this highly elaborated album lies. If, like me, you tend to listen at high decibels, I advise you to remove your headphones before 7:48 ...! (9.5 / 10). This cake was written during confinement and was born after 14 months of gestation, a long enough time to create texts that hold the verses well, complex chords to penetrate at will into the register of Prog and detailed sounds for to grab an extraordinary voice. Now the challenge is no longer on the side of the musicians because the mission has been perfectly accomplished but on that of the listener. He will have to listen several times and with a lot of attention to understand all the subtleties that abound in this pancake with savory and sweet flavors. The production is flawless, nothing has been left to chance, there is no doubt that we are in the presence of great professionals. The audiophile in search of high fidelity recording will appreciate this one. "In Desiquilibrium" remains in line with the previous album "In Amazonia" in terms of quality. Don't hesitate to hang on to these very talented funanbulists!

This is a very memorable record, despite the unusual song structures and the varying lengths - also, the 'exotic' instrumentation is so rich that it really shifts the listener's attention to the details and the manner in which songs gradually unfold; This works more than excellently in combination with Peter Hammill's vocals, which are certainly some of the most recognizable ones in the genre. A total of 15 musicians plays on this record, some of them being the members of Isildurs Bane and some being guests, like Pat Mastelotto from King Crimson, who plays drums on the third track. Killer songs, engaging tempo changes, atmospheric instrumentations - all aspects that make up for a really good album that is capable of transporting the listener to another place, maybe Amazonia, in this case.

'In Amazonia' kicks off with the enigmatic 8-minute 'Before You Know It' - a suspense-ridden composition, packed with tribal-like percussion, sparse guitars, and intelligently-modelled keyboard sounds, gradually climaxing just to fade out in the last couple of minutes - a very intense song! This is followed by the shorter 'Under the Current', with its beautiful melodies and more electronic edge; Peter Hammill delivers some of the more mysterious lyrical content on the album here. 'Side one' concludes with another 5-minute song full of electronic instrumentation, gradually climaxing in the end - this is, of course, 'Aguirre'. The band manages to flawlessly carry the listener through these compositions, as if this is an intense ride through the Amazonian forests, by building-up intense songs that just make you want more and more of this.

The fourth track on the album is the 'big epic', the 10-minute 'This Is Where', probably the most straightforward prog song, with the quirky synths and more 'disordered' melodies - overall, the album feels like prog but at the same time it is not explicitly prog, which is probably what makes it so compelling and different. The 9-minute 'The Day Is Done' comes next, which is the least dynamic composition on the album, reminiscent of something like 'World Record'-era Van der Graaf Generator; an emotional, yet hardly listenable song that could be somewhat of a challenge for some of the listeners. Finishing off is the coda-like instrumental 'This Bird Has Flown', where the band revisit the theme from the opening track.

Highly recommended album for someone who is looking for a little less standard modern progressive rock album - the music on here is memorable, compelling, and very unusual, although it is not even necessarily a rock album. It actually feels more like a painting made of sounds!

Nevertheless, more interesting to the progger seriously involved with Avant-prog and Chamber Rock can be the textures interwoven by Isildurs Bane, that go well beyond a simple acompaniment or instrumental background. They contribute a stunning revision of contemporary counterpoint composition adapted to the occasion.

If one looks here for the same kind of dynamic that prevails in Prog, is probably wasting time. But the Swedish compensates this by far, for example, with an amazing treatment of the strings that takes advantage of the ability to slide between tones allowed by the absence of frets (just listen to "Ice Pop", the first track). A fine addition to the prog explorer's collection

Another thing I love about this album is the fact that it is so progressive! I mean good 'ol prog rock, the kind that you don't have any clue what's coming in the next three seconds. The music is constantly evolving, incorporating so many sounds and instruments, mixing electronic sounds and beats with guitars, jazzy trumets and violins in an awe inspiring manner, very reminiscent of Jaga Jazzist, so if you're a fan of them look no further because this is an amazing gem. The writing is very mature and right, it doesn't matter if the song is 4 minutes long or 10 minutes long it's always interesting and so fun to listen to. Keys, electronics, synths and whatever they use take a big role throughout but never take the center of the show, same goes for all the wind instruments. I'll shortly review the songs to let you in what it's all about.

From the first minute of "Drive" you can sense that you are in for something special, as the rhythm drives in a storm of instruments, it looks like everything is thrown into the party, violin, trumpet, clarinet, synths and some glockenspiel to give it that Zappa touch, it doesn't sound too busy at all because they come and go, everyone is adding their two cents, the music is really crafted meticulously. It calms down half way and becomes relaxed and a little bit psychedelic until the end, great stuff! The S/T track keeps the positive vibes and happy energies although it is different, a groovy rhythm harboring more electronic experiments with some cool jazzy saxophone to go along. Under Your New Moon has this acid jazz coolness which brings another shift in style, I love the atmosphere on this one, the rhythm is slow, relaxed and disturbing. Drums perfectly carry the pace half way to the end, pure joy. Xenolith is the longest piece, sounds like something out of their Mind Volume 1 album, a progy tune filled with ideas experiments with all kinds of sounds, a bit avant garde, jazz fusion and more, drums comes and go until about the 7th minute where it kicks in to gear with screaming saxophones, this is excellent! Goodbye Berlin continues in the same vein and holds a fine guitar solo which up until this point was pretty much in the backround spicing the music, Endless Air starts as a chamber jazz piece which at first sounds out of this album but then grows into a disturbing atmosphere until the album ends.

It's good to see Isiludrs Bane after all these years of silence still keeping it going with this amazing performance and such a high level of writing and creativity Fans of Jaga Jazzist especially don't miss out on this one. 4.5 stars HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

On this album the sound of Isildurs Bane is a mix of chamber music (great variety in wind and string instruments), world music (especially those violins), adult rock and symphonic rock. Some moments cast that acoustic beauty of Sigur Ros at their finest, whilst other moments remind us of the less electric compositions of Marillion in recent years. The arrangements are all filled with great musical detail, suprising sounds and original combinations of instruments. Steve Hogarth has written lyrics that enable him to perform in his most story-telling fashion, which suits the imaganitive music very well. His vocals stand out as particularly honest and 'in the room'. The result is a very listenable, yet complex album with a very adult feel to it. The songs are well-written; I guess they could have been performed with significantly less rich instrumentation without loosing their potency. My only complaint is that most songs tap in that same artistic / sensitive / emotional atmosphere. The final song 'Incandescent' brings a significant change in moods that could have been introduced earlier on in my opinion. Still a great high-quality album though!

I would recommend 'Colours Not Found in Nature' to all listeners with a slightly wider definition of progressive music. This could even be an interesting record for music fans in general.

In my opinion the sophisticated arrangements and Hammill's disturbing presence really compliment each other. I've read some online comments of critics who'd disagree - but who can honestly say he thought that Van der Graaf Generator sounded coherent at first spin? No-one I guess. On this album Hammill seems to care particularly little about pitch perfect singing - in stead focusing on immersing himself in the highly original material. This works really well, though the sophisto piano ballad 'The Day is Done' could have used a more subtle approach at times.

On side one of the vinyl the three pieces are a continues flow of ambient progressive music. Though pretty dark and dissonant, even my girlfriend reacted positive on it because of its imaginative effect. On the second side 'This is Where? ' is the most avant-garde styled piece, with less ambiance and a more dry & eclectic progrock-based pallet of sounds. Very original, but perhaps a little bit unfocused compared to the other tracks. 'The Day is Done' is a minimalist piece compared to the others in which the piano and song-writing of Hammill takes center stage. The addition of lots of creepy sound-effects keeps the listener on his toes. The ending track 'The Bird has Flown' then brings back the ambiance of opening tracks and offers a conclusive atmosphere to this dark album.

Conclusion. This album could almost be seen as a 'Blackstar' for Peter Hammill. A resurrection of his most artistically successful days, a great gathering of talent and an album where old age adds to the creepy dark vibe. 'In Amazonia' might not be perfect, but it has a lot to offer and really adds something original & substantial to the progressive rock releases of 2019. Four stars for sure.

* Bumped the rating to a solid five.

Somehow without the burden of carrying on the whole music writing and performance, Peter Hammill unleashes an energetic feel which sometimes his own later works lack.

Sound wise this album travels smoothly along varied moods and Eclectic Prog. atmospheres, with a subtle Symphonic Prog. touch thus, besides a here and there spiced oriental flavor, the styling is not far from Hammill´s and the Swedish ensemble Isildurs Bane and a long list of other notable collaborators play around the vocalists lyrics and stop-motion pace with creative and very well detailed performances and arrangements.

There is no doubt that this release is richer in musical ideas than Hammill own 2017 From The Trees, which somehow confirms a freer disposition and breadth in its sound and the corresponding fringe benefits of working with talented performers who are used to host other musician´s musical language.

****

Now, having said that as a clarification, Peter Hammill is totally immersed into this. Lyrics are dark and deep in true Hammill tradition, and his presentation is perhaps his best in many, many, years.

When collaborations work, you get wonderful "above each other's abilities" works like this "In Amazonia."

Let's hope for a continuation of collaborations like this one, as the one with Steve Hogarth is equally inspired.