FLAIRCK

Flairck were like no other band regarding Holland, they were a band with an all acoustic but very rich sound, somewhat divided between Classical Chamber Music and Folk.The first side of the original LP contains rather laid-back musicianship with many folk references, the guitar playing of Erik Visser remains in the background with no particular surprises and the majority of the instrumental arrangements is led by the talent of Weekers and its dominant work on flutes, pipes and whistles.On ''Oneven wals'' though things become more serious.Plenty of great interplays and beautiful harmonies on an uptempo acoustic piece full of lovely soundscapes and balanced work on bass, flutes, violins and acoustic guitars, sounds a delicate piece stepping both into symphonic and folk territories.Of course the album is mostly known for its almost sidelong eponymous suite, clocking at 21 min. long, and offering all the basic tunes met in the first side.From melancholic passages with crying violins and depressive flutes to energetic Chamber Music with Classical references and some nice, fiery battles between the musicians.A great track, however the middle-based violin solo prevents from being rather great.

The album received some high praise back in the days, winning several awards as a very innovative release.And actually it is, with its deep energy hidden behind the acoustic instrumentation making it almost a must-have for fans of challenging acoustic experiences.But even a more rock-friendly prog fan will met some desired interplays in here.Recommended.

And a different kettle than their other live albums. This one is much more laid back and somber than the other live albums. The instrumentation is down to the bare basics and the dynamics is on a different level again. Even a great song like Variations on A Lady has lost a lot of it's life.

That is my problem here. Flairck is fantastic and can blow any band - Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Dream Theater, Rush, Metallica & Co - cleanly of the stage with their vitality and musicality. And those who doubts me (or laughs out loud/requires medical attention due to strained tummy muscles) ; check out the other live albums. But they left the pulse and vitality at home. What's left is a band working on 2/3 of their capacity and perhaps creating a new musical expression by that. But I want the good old Flairck back from the other live albums. Maybe that is not possible. But this live album is not Flairck at their best, I am afraid. It is still a good live album though and is recommended. All Flairck albums is recommended, in my humble views. Flairck is a truly fantastic band, in my anything but humble opinion.

3 stars

A double live album full of folk music is not what should entice a symph head like myself. But this album, although live, has a lot in common with the double concept albums from the symph prog scene. Like for example Genesis album Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Then you have a look at the tracklisting here and you think that does not make sense whatsoever. Well, you are wrong.

Symphony For The Old World consist of made up folk music symphonies from east, west, north and south. That and a finale and an encore. I believe all of this is new music too, played live. All symphonies are on average 25 minutes long. And it is easy to detect which symphony you are listening to. The starting symphony The West, all twenty-four minutes of it contains a lot of bluegrass, country and jazz in addition to South American folk music. That off course refers to the Americas, north and south. The twenty-seven minutes long The East symphony have a lot of gypsy, Eastern Europe and further afield folk music. That is the Disc 1.

Disc 2 starts with the twenty-three minutes The North with a good nod to the Swedish folk music scene, Icelandic psalms and in particular; the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. The best symphony on Symphony For The Old World, in my view. But you would not excect anything else from a Scandinavian, would you ? The longest symphony here, clocking in at over thirty minutes, is The South which contains Spanish flamenco and a lot of other influences I am not able to detect due to a large hole in my knowledge base. The five minutes each Finale and Encore ties up the loose ends.

Symphony For The Old World is by all means a symphonic prog album, containing folk music. Period. The musicianship is excellent and Flairck has exceeded themselves here by a solid margin. The quality of the symphonies are excellent and the concept is easy to follow. If this indeed is the final Flairck album, they have given us something the coming generations of music lovers will cherish as the masterpiece it is. And that from one of the best bands this scene has ever witnessed. I cannot recommend this masterpiece highly enough to anyone interested in excellent progressive music. Hence my verdict.

5 stars

There is no points of releasing a greatest hits album when you get your band together and give it all in a live setting. In particular; when you take a long and hard look at your impressive long career and choose the best of the best to play that evening/those evenings. Then you fire up the band and tape the result.

The result is given. Flairck has some great albums and songs under their belts in additions to some not-so-greats and one turkey. Well, that's the world according to me and it is therefore a highly subjective opinion. But I really value this band and give many thanx to ProgArchives for pointing me in their direction.

There is not much point of even describing this music. The music is like symphonic prog with all the electric instruments removed and a solid dosage of folk/gypsy music added. The music appeals to a wide variety of prog rock fans. The second CD includes the best music here and the final three tracks is exceptional superb. But before that, we have been taken through some truly great music, performed by a band at their best.

This double album is a superb introduction to this exceptional band and comes highly recommended.

4 stars

Flairck would prove to be brave enough to try very different approaches in their music during the many years of their existence. Most of these were quite experimental. In a sense this was also a very experimental album but than according to their own standards. the result is very pleasant and strongly underrated, both on this site as well as elsewhere.

For me this is one of the best Flairck albums to listen to.

On their 9th album, Flairck has distilled everything they are about into one album. This album. You find plenty of their symphonic prog, folk rock, pop, avant-garde and the jazz stuff they did on their first album on De Optocht. Which makes this album an excellent intro to this incredible band. De Optocht is also a concept album too. Very symphonic prog, in other words. And the symphonic prog lovers will also find a lot of familiar themes on this album. The music though is acoustic with guitars, violins, pan flutes and some obscure instruments replacing the usual symphonic prog instruments (mellotron, electric guitars and Hammond). Besides of that; this is a symphonic prog album. Added to the acoustic instruments, Erik Visser is also contributing with some vocals and narrative spoken words. Dutch vocals, that is. Which is a welcome change from the usual English vocals we get from prog bands.

The quality is great throughout. The rather somber, dynamic and pastoral music is superb. The concept seems to have a purpose. This whole album is simply a great concept album.

If you can get hold of this album, it is a very good introduction to Flairck. I love this album.

4.5 stars

East to West Express" features powerful rhythm-work by the Visser brothers on guitar and bass, laying the ground for superb interplay of pan-flute and violin ( A Flairck Trademark). After a romantic middle section it 's getting rocky again, with a great pan-flute solo by Weekers. "Butterfly" starts slow and spacy, with flute, sitar and oriental flair, then it speeds up with violin-shredding by Houtzager (being more than an adequate replacement for Judy Schomper by the way). On intro and outro Peter Weekers shows a trick by blowing a continuous flute phrase without taking air, possible because of a special way of breathing. "For Antoinette" is a short but nice solo piece by Erik Visser on 12-string guitar. "De Stoomwals", a Weekers composition, is my favourite on this album. Again it 's starting slowly but soon builds up with a wonderful flute theme and violin interplay. Then the band goes up-tempo, performing some powerful variations. Once more bass and guitar are really rocking, while Weekers and Houtzager supply staccato melodies before coming back to the main theme. In a tricky middle section all four players combine single notes to weave an almost "Giant-like" arpeggio.

It would go to far for me to go into detail with the last piece, the 23-minute title track, written by mastermind Erik Visser. It just blows away all doubts if Flairck plays progressive music at all. Complex themes, time changes, classic influences, odd rhythms, variations, moods, virtuosity, it 's all there. Besides that, the acoustic sound and the folkish melodies make "Gevecht met de engel" a very unique album, and Flairck a very unique band.

P.S. For reasons nobody will ever understand, Polydor changed the album title on early copies outside Holland to "The Lady 's Back". Maybe they hoped it would sell better in english, maybe they liked the idea to refer to the cover art as well as to the first album. But for me the even bigger sin is to "translate" the title of the center piece into "Some funny symphony"! Angels don 't go with money, or what?

The cover art work is a major turn off for me. 1980s is the decade the mankind rather want to forget in a hurry. 1980s was the decades ran by bad taste and the taste of plastic. Hence the front cover which is sickness inducing.

The 1980s was also introducing a very slick sound and production into an album like this one. Flairck normally have an edge. Not on this album, though. The band dishes out pan flutes and slicked out violins, other acoustic instruments, synths and a horrible drum sound. Slick is the keyword. The same goes for the vocals from the well known and in that decade frequently used Irish vocalist Maggie Reilly. Her vocals and the backing from Flairck makes sounds like a combo of Jefferson Starship and Clannad. And that is not a compliment, btw.

In other words, this album is very commercial, corporate and very 1980s. The rebuilding of the civilization and reintroduction of good taste has not been kind to this album at all. Flairck is never a bad band, but this is not a good album at all and is best avoided.

2 stars

Well, that's in the album title. What's not in the album title is the music itself unless you know who Georges Moustaki is. I did not, but now I know this is a singer who sings sweet laden ballads in French. Flairck acts as his back up band here and is occasionally let loose with some tasty melody lines.

Flairck on their own is excellent. Georges Moustaki is not. This most of all reminds me about the pretty ghastly Futuro Antico series released by Angelo Branduardi. Hence vocals on the top of some classical acoustic instruments.

Despite of that, this album is pretty good. The reason is Flairck and their performance here which is jaw dropping excellent. Their use of Middle East rhythm patterns and melody lines is great. In this setting, Georges Moustaki's own contributions works fine. Some of this album does not work at all though. But this is still a good album nevertheless.

3 stars

Wrong !

On Gevecht Met De Engel, their second album and the follow up to their x million albums seller Variaties op een Dame, Flairck has created an excellent Symphonic Prog album. And that without any Moog, Hammond, Mini-Moog, electric guitar or any other of these electric machines whatsoever. Well, the lamps in the roof, the tea kettle and the studio was very probably run by electricity........ but that's all. Sorry Thomas Alva Edison.

Flairck's use of acoustic guitars, flutes, acoustic bass guitar and violin (but no vocals) is simply superb here and creates both a big sound and a sound that really breathes. Most of all; the sound is really warm enough to heat up a half decent metropolis.

When they also gets the music right and creates some really brilliant pieces of music like the De Vlinder and the twenty two minutes long title track opus, divided in three parts like a proper symphonic prog opus, you know you are listening to something really special. The music is very complex at times too and it ebbs and flows from really powerful to very silent at times.

In short, this is the album symphonic prog and folk prog fans should find as their common ground. The standard of musicianship is also excellent throughout too. There is a couple of minor gripes I have got with this album, but it is still a great album in my view and probably Flairck's best album....... to this date, that is.

4 stars