ROBERT BERRY

As far as compilation/greatest hits releases go, this one is absolutely a thrill to listen to, so much fun, so much talent. Robert Berry, multi instrumentalist, producer, touring musician; really showcases his solo career here. From his Magna Carta tribute releases, solo works, as a musician with Ambrosia and working with Keith Emerson, it's a great historical look at this mans fine career out of the limelight. Karn Evil 9 is worth purchasing this release alone, his arrangement with Jordan Rudess and Simon Phillips is BRILLIANT! It's not the original, but it is magic. Life Beyond LA, Roundabout, Minstrel in the Gallery, all highly praised arrangements. His solo works also have that hook and feel that keeps you coming back to them, plus the YES inspired Carol of the Bells from his December People project has become a Christmas staple in this household. Missing from the release, perhaps due to contractual reasons with Geffen, is Robert's work with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer in the 1988 Prog/AOR band "3." A solid 5 stars if it would have included Desde La Vida from "3."

Pointless pilgrimage

In addition to having his own musical career - which, among other things, included a brief stint with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer in 3 in the 1980's - Robert Berry was also heavily involved in a series of tribute albums to major, classic Prog groups released by the Magna Carta label. Prime Cuts is a compilation album that mainly features Berry's contributions to these various tributes with only a few tracks representing his own music! Exceptions include two good selections - the title track and Winespring Reel - from his Folk-tinged concept album Soundtrack To The Wheel Of Time, and (the only previously unreleased track featured here) Life Beyond L.A. The latter is a half-decent, but ultimately forgettable Rock song.

The collection opens with Berry's interpretation of Yes' Roundabout, taken from the tribute album Tales From Yesterday. Steve Howe himself (whom Berry first met in the 80's when he was asked to join new version of GTR that never came to fruition) contributes some extra guitar to this one. Next up is a version of Minstrel In The Gallery by Jethro Tull from the tribute album To Cry You A Song. Brain Damage is the Pink Floyd song, taken from The Moon Revisited which is a tribute to that band's Dark Side Of The Moon. Also Genesis and ELP are covered with Watcher Of The Skies (taken from the tribute Supper's Ready) and Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression (taken from Encores Legends & Paradox) respectively.

The last of the covers included is Berry's version of Rush's Different Strings, actually a very nice interpretation of the song. Indeed, all of these covers are of high quality and Berry is a strong performer, but one wonders what the point was of reproducing them in this way. And obviously, they tell us nothing about Berry's own music. And this is the main drawback of this unnecessary compilation. Finally, Carol Of The Bells is a Christmas song (appropriately since today is Christmas Eve) recorded by a group called The December People.

With the exception of the aforementioned selections from Soundtrack To The Wheel Of Time there is nothing here from Berry's solo albums, probably because they were not released by Magna Carta. I haven't heard all of his solo albums, but both Soundtrack To The Wheel Of Time and Pilgrimage To A Point are worth hearing. Start there and don't bother with this lame repackaging of (almost exclusively) previously released material.

A veteran of the Pomp/AOR US and worldwide scene, Robert Berry begun his career in mid-70's with the AOR group Hush, before following a solo career in 1985 with his debut solo album ''Back to back''.The turning point of his career comes in 1986, when he receives a call by Carl Palmer and travels to England, where he meets also with Steve Howe and is being suggested as a replacement of Steve Hackett in the GTR supergroup.After months of sessions GTR eventually disbanded and Berry went on to join Palmer and Keith Emerson in the newly established trio of 3.They released their only album ''...To the power of three'' in 1988, which was never responded by the continuous support of Geffen Records and this trio folded as well.Berry returned to the States and continued writing songs, which finally led to his second solo album ''Pilgrimage to a point'' in 1993, joined by Marcus Miller on bass, Preston Thrall on drums, Mike Wible on keyboards and ex-Hush bandmate Paul Keller on guitars.

About half of the songs date back from the days of Berry with GTR and 3, featuring the composing talents of Howe, Emerson and Palmer, and actually Berry himself dedicated this work to his unforgotten days in the UK with the aforementioned musicians.Musically this a blend of melodic AOR/Pomp Rock with some Prog aesthetics around, based on Berry's sensitive vocal lines, the melodic guitar work, the atmospheric synthesisers and the progressive tendencies in the vein of 3.Some complex and certainly bombastic keyboard parts are always present, albeit a bit cheesy and typical of the sound of the time, reminding the early works of CAIRO and MAGELLAN.Most of the pieces follow the secure lines of straightforward Melodic Rock with grandiose keyboard deliveries, highlighted by Berry's pretty great songwriting, eventually offering memorable themes and catchy choruses, without ever being nowhere near the heart-felt sound of similar sounding bands.His most progressive tracks actually remind a bit of KANSAS' more easy-going material, balancing between a radio-friendly style with powerful grooves and instant melodic lines and semi-symphonic passages with a monster synth sound, efficient guitar moves and extended instrumental textures, like in the long and dramatic ''Last ride into the sun''.

Berry's career remained fairly connected with the easier side of Rock music, both via his solo releases and after the formation of his more steady band over the years, Alliance.He has been also a member of the Christmas-inspired Art Rock group The December People.

''Pilgrimage to a point'' is not only Berry's most progressive album.It is a sum of his memorable stint with GTR and 3 next to some of the most significant Prog figures of all times.Recommended, especially for fans of melodic Prog/Art Rock, who are not afraid of a more pompous approach.

A novel soundtrack

It may look like a film soundtrack album, and it may sound like film music, but (as far as I understand) this is not a film soundtrack album. Indeed, (again as far as I understand) no such film exists. Rather, it is a conceptual album based around a series of fantasy novels written by Robert Jordan. I have never read any of these novels, but presumably Robert Berry has read them, and he has created a book soundtrack to go with the fantasy series. The music could however easily have been for a film, at least some parts of it sound like film score material. Other parts reminded me of Alan Simon's Excalibur trilogy, even though the present album is significantly less star-studded. Most of the instruments are played by Berry himself, but he does invite a few helpers including two members of the brilliant Prog Folk band Tempest. Berry has previously contributed production and keyboards to Tempest's albums and here Lief Sorbye and Michael Mullin of that band repay the service on mandolin and violin respectively. The album is mostly instrumental, but a few tracks feature lead vocals by Andy Frazier and Lisa Bouchelle.

Compared to the only other solo album I've heard from Berry, Pilgrimage To A Point, this one is radically different. While Pilgrimage To A Point is best described as Crossover Prog in the vein of GTR (the band featuring Steve Howe and Steve Hackett and in which Berry was involved at some point) and 3 (the version of ELP in which Berry replaced Greg Lake), A Soundtrack For The Wheel Of Time is a mixture of Folk Rock/Prog Folk and "film" music. At first, I found it a bit tame, but I began to appreciate it after several listens and find it a rather enjoyable listen. The mandolin playing of Sorbye adds a nice touch to the often hard edged electric guitars and New-Age like synths. The best track for me is The Winespring Reel in which mandolin, lead guitars, and synthesisers interact wonderfully.

A Soundtrack For The Wheel Of Time is worth hearing, but it is certainly not essential listening

Progressive... to a point

This album sounds like a cross-breed of GTR (the 80's band formed by guitar legends Steve Howe and Steve Hackett) and 3 (the version of Emerson, Lake & Palmer not featuring Greg Lake). This is hardly surprising since Robert Berry was involved in both bands; Berry was invited to contribute to a follow-up (that never came to fruition) to the self-titled GTR album and he was Greg Lake's replacement in 3. On the present album, Berry goes solo, but at least some of the material consists of leftovers from GTR and 3 sessions. Some of the songs here were co-written by Berry and Steve Howe, some with Carl Palmer, and the closing track with Keith Emerson. Perhaps this is what Asia would have sounded like had it been Emerson instead of Geoff Downes handling the keyboards?

Berry sings all lead vocals and plays most of the instruments. This includes some very Howe-like guitars and some very Emerson-like keyboards. Berry is a good musician and instrumentalist, but he lacks a style of his own. The vocals are professional, but again rather anonymous.

The quality of the material is varied and ranges from strong to pedestrian. The best, and most progressive, track is the closing number Last Ride Into The Sun. This one is in the style of To The Power Of Three (which in turn is in the style of ELP). Another highlight is Shelter which reminds me somewhat of the style of Trevor Rabin's better recordings. It features a nice piano and acoustic guitar section. No One Else To Blame that opens the album is the most GTR-like number. It is not bad, but is not up to par with the better songs from the self-titled GTR album (an album I actually like a lot!). The least good songs are in the middle towards the end. Here the album runs out of steam and frankly tends to get unexciting (until it is reinvigorated by the aforementioned Last Ride Into The Sun).

Pilgrimage To A Point is a good but far from essential album. It is recommended to fans of the bands mentioned above.

Robert Berry is an odd character, in the liner notes he insists in reminding us of his relationships to proper prog (member of 3 = close relationship with ELP, his work with GTR and Steve Howe etc, he even includes a family tree showing all these links and more) but actually his music is plainly crossover. A very similar case to Trevor Rabin or Billy Sherwood.

The music we find here is not much different from 3, GTR, Asia or Trevor Rabin / Billy Sherwood-era Yes, AOR-oriented prog, easy-listening and melodic while still retaining a decent level of complexity and using several typical prog sound patches and motifs, it sounds good but it's far from outstanding when you think of it a bit in detail.

Robert's voice is good, no question about it, but it is not very personal and it does not save the whole thing.

The best songs for my taste are in the second half of the CD, with "The Blame", "The Otherside" and "Last Ride Into The Sun", the best song here, a great symphonic 10 min epic with many nods to ELP.

Robert Berry's Pilgrimage to a Point is in my collection for a very long time now (since it's release I believe) and I always felt a bit sad Berry wasn't included in our site yet. Till recently when the crossover team decided to add him anyway, a rightful decision as far as I'm concerned. Because crossover is an excellent subgenre for this album (don't know any of his other works just yet). The booklet has a very handy schedule of Berry's musical history up until 1995. It shows his roots are especially in the typical eighties "prog"band Asia with slighter lines drawn towards ELP (Emerson and Palmer), Yes (Howe) and even a bit of Boston and Sammy Hagar there. And that's pretty much what you should think of if you want to know the musical style of Berry.

It's mainly Asia (No one else to blame, The Love we share, Freedom) that comes to mind when listening to this album added with some ELP (Another Man, Last Ride into the Sun) and even hints to Cairo (Shelter, The Blame) and a little bit of Toto (The Otherside). So that means a blend of prog and AOR roughly spoken. It's probably no coincidence that the longer tracks Shelter, The Blame and Last Ride into the Sun are the most progressive on this release. On two of these three Berry had the assistance of Carl Palmer concerning the songwriting. These three tracks justify Berry's presence here on PA where Pilgrimage is concerned. The other six added with the hidden track The Weapon is Love are more or less forgettable for the real proggers in our scene. And that is when the progressive content is concerned and not really the quality of music because the other six are also worthwhile.

In the end the only right outcome for me is three stars taking into account this is a progressive site. But it's rounded down, the right score is around 3,3 for me. Recommended for those who dig crossover prog and don't mind a bit of AOR flavour.

This was just a haphazard discovery from the library; it had 'progressive rock' description and it was classified in the electronic/ new age section, so it had a good chance of being interesting. The fact that it's a "soundtrack" for Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time fantasy series is not a recommendation for me, because I really couldn't care less of epic fantasy literature (Tolkien is the only name from the genre that I've read). But who knows, the music might be nice nevertheless, I thought. After one quick listening (and that's all I'm going to give it, except for re- listening to few better tracks for a possible inclusion in a compilation CD - you see, there just isn't time to re-listen everything that's not interesting in the first place, that's my principle with music) I can say that it was not up to my taste.

The music has no memorable melodies, and it feels as if it's not even properly composed, just worked together in the studio with images and plots of the fantasy story constantly in mind. I believe that multi-instrumentalist Robert Berry has captured very well the atmosphere of the series, and the dedicated reader of Jordan's fantasy may gladly use the CD as the background listening while reading, or memorizing the story in his mind. And it seems that's exactly what the "soundtrack for The Wheel of Time" stands for, as it is not a case of any film or TV series. The music is dark and cinematic, it has a sort of sinister feeling of a quest through dangerous landscapes (by this music I get a picture of the books themselves); happily there are no overblown battle sequences or other sorts of megalomanic drama, but as a whole the CD is quite tiresome and frustrating to listen to if you're not already familiar with the world it describes. It simply doesn't work as pure music on its own.

It's mostly instrumental, and neither of the featured vocalists (Andy Frazier and Lisa Bouchelle) are ones I would want to hear more. Mandolin on several tracks brings a folkish feeling. This is epic fantasy music all right (note that I use the word epic as an epitome to fantasy, not to music itself: the longest track is about five minutes). But I'd say it's only for the target audience, the fans of fantasy books and roleplaying games.