SHAMALL

''Mirror to eternity'' is another journey by Shamall through the worlds of Synth Pop, Electronic Music, Ambient and New Age and his style reminds a bit of GANDALF's though this is far more groovy and powerful.But he returns to fall into the same traps as on his previous releases.The steady groove parts are interesting but way too stretched, the synths sound very digital, the programmed drums are out of this world (in a negative sense) and his ideas seem too extended.A few Electronic/Symphonic orchestral passages, a few grandiose beats and the limited moments with the additional rock instrumentation are the only things one could consider interesting.And these last moments should have been under serious consideration by Mr. Krueler, as they add some colors to his music.Otherwise this is very repetitive, boring and unimaginative stuff.

Another fail in Shamall's discography.It can't be even regarded as a good Synth/Electro-Pop release of the 80's or the 90's, containing just very few moments of true interest even for this type of music.Avoid it.

The first disc contains material written by Shamall between 1988 and 1993.The style here is a mix of TANGERINE DREAM electronics along with spacey New Age elements and DEPECHE MODE-like Synth Pop.The music is totally instrumental, largely based on Krueler's synths, sequences and pianos with only occasional flashes of bass and guitar sounds along with programmed drumming.However the whole CD is actually quite boring with long repetitive grooves and cheap synth sounds, not to mention the overall sound is ''computerized'' and far from anything human sounding.Actually if you listen to the first track is like you have listened to the whole 70 minutes of the CD's time length.No surprises or particular emotions to be discovered.

The second disc is more diverse with material written in 1986 and 1987, but again far from being trully recommended.Reasonably this time the sound is closer to Synth Pop/Rock with some more guitars and basses to be heard and finally some vocals added to color a bit this pale effort.To my ears the pieces of the second CD sound more dynamic, darker and far more energetic than the first one, although Krueler's style is going quite far from anything progressive.

Shamall fails to impress with his previously unreleased material.If you own any of Krueler's early albums, this album is propably an excess.But even if you don't, there is nothing here worth of recommending it.Mostly uninspired and repetitive Electronic/Synth-Pop with rare occasions of challenging music.This should end up to be what actually its title suggests: a collector's item...1.5 stars.

A slight turn of the events comes with the opening ''Physical Visions''.Bombastic synths,pounding rhythms and an atmospheric grand symphonicism is a very good introduction into the Electronic sound of the album.Unfortunately the eponymous track sees Krueler returning to boring New-Age/Synth Pop fields of little interest.''Spanish Impressions'' is even worse,not to mention is too long and repetitive.Light Spanish influences presented under thin- sounding synths and awful digital percussion.''Winter Colours'' is again very long,the guitar work and a good piano part is quite decent,but these cheap-sounding digital drums are childish,to say the least.''Power of love'' shows a return to the grandiose opening style,maybe this one is the best track of the album.There also New-Age elements here as well,but the majestic synth work close to JEAN MICHELE JARRE is of first class.''Mozart's Flight to Bangkok'' indicates the upcoming Classical influences and so it is,the opening part with the organ,the middle section and the grand piano finale are much Classical-inspired,but the rest of the track is again childish Electronic music of low quality and spoils the good parts of the track.

For one more time Krueler didn't escape from these faults,which made his previous albums rather uninteresting.There is a bit of improvement on ''Moments of Illusion'',but again the album is far from even a decent release.Only for dedicated Electronic Music collectors.

Main basic idea that runs through this entire concept album is the often re-occurring "Life" theme. And for no less than 80 minutes he keeps coming back to this theme playing numerous variations so to speak. So that is a long sit and this will probably not please all our prog fans who happen to like albums of half of the length I just mentioned. And the repetition that is the logical consequence of my explanation can be interpreted as a drag for too long.

For my personal experience and taste it is no problem but if you dislike repetition maybe you'd better skip this one. But if you like drawn out instrumental solos (guitar!) and a nice flowing concept in Pink Floyd style for over an hour this release by Shamall could well be a great pick. I always liked this aspect of Pink Floyd so Questions of Life is very much my cup of tea. It will be no surprise my final verdict is going to be 4 stars for this very fine piece of music.