FABRICE BONY

For once I won't talk about separate titles but as part of a concept; yes the sound varies little but follows an evolving musical framework throughout the different titles; the atmosphere is new-age but not soulless synthetic, oriental, relaxing music, additions of traditional string and percussive instruments; monolithic, metronomic, borderline psychedelic melodies where you don't get bored, where the base invites introspection; sounds including 'Antalya - Château de Kaleici' reminds me of the tune on 'Birdy' with its glockenspiel, the 'Aubeterre sur Dron(n)e - Eglise Monolithe' with its captivating organ and flute and these crystalline percussions which revolve around from our head, a bit on a SCHULZE, an old TANGERINE DREAM with a relaxing and sinister atmosphere. 'Sikasso' reminds me of the tribal percussion that Peter GABRIEL loves, a beautiful reference; the neo therefore leaves the charm of relaxation and carries to contemplation, which is becoming a luxury in our current society. 'Kamloops' brings a symphonic, Oldfieldian side in fact and flirts with an evolving, bizarre, avant-garde and well-calibrated jazzy-soft-prog spirit.

In short, 30 minutes which pass too quickly for a new sound.

It appears that there is a concept behind this work, but the music is entirely instrumental with Bony handling the guitars, keyboards, drums and other programmed instruments in a work drawing influences from modern Symphonic Rock and even New Age/Ambient Music.Needless to say that I prefer the richer parts of the album with Bony having made a great mix of the isolated instrumental parts, leading to a palette of prog instrumentals with strong orchestral parts, interesting guitar melodies and even some retro references, provided by the use of Mellotron samplers and the superb piano lines.Echoes of CLEARLIGHT and CAMEL are evident throughout the release, the music is spacey, symphonic, dreamy and even Avant-Garde at moments, featuring a nice balance between piano, keyboards and guitar, producing some great melodies and delivering some light symphonic soundscapes.There are even some smooth jazzy underlines and acoustic themes added for good measure and I am extremely impressed by the way the man placed the vintage vibes into a contemporary sound.All things work pretty nice, until we reach the 11-min. ''Infini journey'', the quality of which is at least questionable.Propably serving the purpose of the concept, this is an over-stretched ambiental composition with a cosmic atmosphere, trying to fill the gap between calm Experimental/Lounge Music and no music at all, featuring slow motion soundscapes based on guitar and sound effects, pretty good for a Space Film, but not really counting as an advantage for a Prog-oriented album.The single minute of ''Thread of life (continue)'' and its symphonic sound with the melodic synths, Mellotron and guitar is at least a decent farewell.

''Infini journey'' lowers the value of an otherwise excellent one-man work with a trully professional attitude.Great symphonic-inclined instrumental music, suffering from the trippy journey of the aforementioned piece, but containing lots of goodies, composed and performed by a talented musician.Warmly recommended.

Careful and controlled melody based music is what Fabric Bony presents and explores on his second full length album "Inner Lands". A taste for jazz-rock oriented details will be helpful to be able to appreciate the songs on the disc, as will a certain affection for the use of cosmic sounds. First and foremost my impression is that this is an album about moods and atmospheres rather than styles as such however, this fairly harmonic and elegant journey into a not easily defined corner of the progressive rock universe. A trek into Inner Lands, and an engaging one at that if you like your progressive rock to be melodic, harmonic and mostly instrumental.

Although not always managing to keep the listener on his toes, some rather compelling textures and landscapes are produced, blending floating and searching ambient passages; quite often with space-tinged elements; with pace-filled ventures of a distinctly symphonic origin.

The different tracks are parts of one composition; and the different moods and atmospheres explored as well as the way the different parts evolve indicates quite clearly that there's a story being told here; in this case without any words though.

A fine example of an artist blending instrumental ambient explorations with symphonic rock in other words; with space-tinged elements as a nice bonus feature.