PANTHEON

PANTHEON's music can best be described as a mix of FOCUS and some bands from the Canterbury scene. Mostly the more jazzy tracks from these bands. A hint of CARAVAN can also be detected. But the flute and the brass draws more comparisions to FOCUS and EKSEPTION. Some delicate keyboards and guitars adds texture too. The music shifts with the moods. Mostly sweet moods and melodies.

The quality is good. Nothing special. The eighteen minutes long title track is the best track on this album. The music is pretty dull at times and requires a lot of the listener. I think this is a good album, but nothing more.

3 stars

The album opens with Daybreak, which resembles Focus' House Of The King a bit. The melody is played by the flute and it has a guitar solo in the middle. There are also some wordless vocals like Thijs van Leer could have done. Anaïs also reminds me of a softer song by Focus, again the song is driven by flute and guitar. It is a very peaceful track. With Apocalyps the sound changes more to the Solution direction. The main instruments are saxophone and organ, although the flute appears on this one also. This is a very sunny and jazzy track. The Madman is a funny short warm-up piece that leads to the highlight of the album, Orion. In this track both the Focus and the Solution side come together. It contains great melodies. I mention Focus and Solution a lot in this review, but that doesn't mean that Panthéon are just copy cats. They have an unique sound of their own, it is just to point out in which corner of the proglandscape Panthéon can be found.

The cd contains three bonus tracks, who were released as singles in 1972. Anaïs is an edit of the album track and Masturbation (at the time released as Master Basion because of the suggestive title) and I Want To Know would later be incorporated in Orion. This is a must for everyone who enjoys a good portion of instrumental prog.

The five original compositions from their 1972 album Orion sound elaborate, melodic and varied featuring some wonderful twists and turns. The colouring of the songs is beautiful with organ, flute, saxophone and acoustic - and electric guitar, even a modular Moog synthesizer (in the short The Madman)! The musical influences are obvious from Ekseption and Solution (brass) but also Focus (organ sound and Jan Akkerman-like guitar work) but Pantheon doesn't sound as a clone. The highlight on this CD (that contains 3 bonustracks) is the long titletrack delivering lots of shifting moods, great build-up parts and powerful saxophone play. Enjoy this melodic and accessible progressive mix of rock, jazz and classic from my home country.