LIFE LINE PROJECT

A great effort for a low budget project from Holland. Completely independent and without fund raising the Dutch Life Line Project have once more succeeded a beautiful and rich orchestrated symphonic rock album with their 2010 production "Distorted Memories". A stunning electric violin, played by Josine Fraaij, a bit like U.K. in the title track and a bit more reminiscent of the Mahavishnu Orchestra in "Caelum Aurum", two guitarists alternating in acoustic and electric leads and sometimes joining forces in twin soloing, a throbbing rhythm section consisting of bass and drums and not to forget a beautiful woodwind section, consisting of flute and oboe, no samples this time, but the real stuff, well-skilled musicians, putting their heart in their playing. Listen to the splendid oboe part in the intro of "Left Is Right" or enjoy the bucolic flute playing in "Acoustic Spring". All music is centred around the beautiful, mostly analogue keyboards of Erik de Beer. Some great Moog and Hammond playing can be enjoyed in "Reaper of the Keys", my personal favourite on the album. This time the vocals are taken care of by Maruschka Kartosonto, who has a nice voice, perhaps a bit too thin for the more solid symphonic rock themes, but convincing in the more folk like parts. "The Final Word" is the main attraction of the album, a beautiful symphonic rock composition with room for all musicians and with well-sung vocals. The sound quality in the more heavy parts could have done with a bit more punch, but I think that this is more a budgetary problem. In this time of illegal copying and downloading, I am afraid budgets will only get smaller. The more keyboard dominated parts and the more acoustic parts (with more exotic instruments like lute, mandolin and chitarrone) are all perfectly recorded. The album ends with a very pleasant and sparkling version of a Dutch folk song. A beautiful album which aims to please the listener with well-balanced melodic symphonic rock. Oscillator11.

An extremely keyboard orientated album by the Dutch LIFE LINE PROJECT. If you like your Moog sound fat and seventies', this is an album to check out. Completely instrumental and built around the keyboards, played by Erik de Beer, this album offers agreeable melodic rock. Erik seems to be influenced by his fellow country man Rick van der Linden, although Erik doesn't borrow from classical composers like Bach. There is in fact one song "Joy" dedicated to the memory of the late Rick van der Linden. Apart from the overwhelming keyboard parts, there is also room for woodwinds like the flute and the oboe, "Sonho" being one of my favourite tunes on the album. Every now and then Erik makes way for the well played guitar parts of Jason Eekhout and Jody van der Gijze in songs like "Stampede" and "Subjective Object", one of the few songs on the album composed by Jason. Also a perfectly played classical guitar in "Modinha-Oraçao". Songs like "Keeper of the Keys" and "Another Dayride" are a true orgy of Moog sounds I liked a lot. The production of the album is not perfect, the drums sounding a bit rough, the guitars a bit too sharp-edged and if you take a look at the cover you will see that the money to finish the production wasn't abundant. An album I liked a lot!! Guy.

Recorded on 8 analogue tracks only, "Time Out" by the Dutch Life Line Project, offers a surprisingly well succeeded sound quality. Naturally i would have preferred if the Tama acoustic drums had been used on all tracks, in stead of the Roland electronic drum kit used in the larger part of the songs, but the overall sound quality has a pleasant transparency. The over 20 minutes lasting instrumental "Behind The Curtain Of Your Mind" has everything a lover of melodic symphonic rock wants, filled to the brim with excellent themes, perfectly executed on keyboards and lead guitars. Bonus track "Across The Lines" is in the same vein and also armed with a superb Spanish guitar solo in the middle section. It's hard to believe that all instruments are played by one man, Erik de Beer. The voclas by Maron Brinkman-Stroetinga are pure and well-sung. Songs I particularly liked: "I Miss You Now", "All You Need Is Bluff" and the jazzy "Just A Thought". Originally recorded and produced in 1995, this is certainly one of the better Life Line Project albums! Guy.

With the Life Line Project album "The Journey" you get the best value for your money. It's a double disc with a lavish booklet, showing all aspects and possibilities of the band. The first disc contains the complete "Journey To The Heart Of Your Mind", a piece that lasts a bit longer than one hour and tells the story of a man in search of himself. It's a bit like a rock opera, because there are more vocalists participating. Don't expect vocal diarrhoea, because Journey To The Heart Of Your Mind isn't like all these metal operas full of bombastic vocals. The music is the most important thing here and every theme and every chord progression underlines the events in the story. The arrangements are perfect. A woodwind section with flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, playing over an accompaniment of acoustic guitars, lutes, harpsichord & piano, gives you moments to unwind between the massive symphonic themes, played by the keyboards and lead guitars. The bass and drums give a solid support to both the beautiful symphonic rock themes and the often more aggressive very seventies sounding Moog and Hammond solos. In fact the keyboard playing by Erik de Beer can easily compete with the best Emerson or Wakeman, although the beauty of his themes remind me a bit more of Tony Banks. The lead vocals are taken care of by Marion Brinkman-Stroetinga, who has an excellent and warm voice. Songs like "Longing for my Childhood" and "Credo" sound beautiful and touching. The voice of Marion is like the heart of the music. The second disc shows a bit more the skills of the individual band members. The flute and the oboe play major parts in acoustic pieces, accompanied only by the piano and in the brilliant unplugged "Collage". "Turn the Key" shows us once more, that Erik de Beer is among the best keyboard players and gives us an overdose of Hammond and Moog solos. The beautiful centre piece of the second disc is the title piece "The Narrow Path" an almost 12 minutes lasting symphonic rock epic against the madness of religious fanaticism. It's a dark and brooding piece with a leading role for the mellotron, that sounds a bit like early King Crimson. An oriental oboe intervention, a lonely flute passage and the beautiful vocals of Marion complete the picture of this song, that is perhaps the best composition on the entire album. A cheerful note is struck with "Monkey Business" with a swinging flute part and a very jazzy acoustic piano solo. After the beautiful symphonic rock ballad "Does it help", well sung and with an almost Hackett- like guitar solo, the Journey ends with an adaptation of an anonymous French folksong. THE JOURNEY is the best way to get to know all the possibilities of Life Line Project and it is one of the best albums I've heard lately and I think this is one of those albums that truly deserve five stars! Whistler.

Are you kidding me?! by the march of 2013 this album is voted as the best album of 2010 ( I hope I can change its place after rating it) and I cant find one (just one) reason to put it even in the top 200 albums of 2010! i never heard of Life Line Project and got this album yesterday for its high ratings and when i listened to it I began to think why someone should rate it 5 stars and i got nowhere! this is a very bad album with a very poor production, most tracks are based on simple melodies that are played with a variety of not pleasant sounds and effects of keyboards. the vocal is poor and the lyrics are ridiculous, and the other instruments (except of keyboards in factt!) are as bad as the whole album itself. i thinks this is an album not worth to hear and i never suggest it to anyone. 0.25 realy

When I looked at the booklet I thought, hey another humoristic story spoiling the music, but after having listened several times to this new album of the little known Dutch band Life Line Project, I had to admit, that the music is just great. Here we have a band with a true original sound, straight forward warm and well chosen melodic lines and often baroque sounding harmonies. And what is more: we are offered a well conceived story with a clear beginning and end, a thing so rarely encountered on most progressive rock albums where free-floating supposed intellectual and incomprehensible stuff is interwoven with so often exaggerated complex music. On 20 Years After we get a simple but effective story about the silliness of communism and the exaggeration of capitalism as seen through the single eye of a little green haired guy called Duplo, who desperately tries to find his own way. A charming and original story, well sung by Marion Brinkman-Stroetinga, sometimes funny but always touching! Erik de Beer may be held responsible for all of the music and I was amazed by his keyboard- playing, which is truly way above the average.

I almost fell in love with the short but extremely beautiful interventions by oboe player Dineke Visser, most of the time assisted by a likewise excellent woodwind section, consisting of flute, clarinet and bassoon. Also liked a lot the very symphonic electric guitar solo's in parts like "Move Out". The bass playing by Iris Sagan is solid, but very melodic as well: the right connection between the drums of Ludo de Murlanos and the sumptuous keyboard parts on Moogs, Hammond and piano by Erik de Beer. Recording quality is reasonably well succeeded, with perfectly recorded acoustic parts. At some spots the more heavy parts sound a bit thin (too little punch on the bass drum and lower toms).

An album I liked a lot and advisable to everyone who likes his symphonic rock warm, melodic and straightforward without superfluous complexities!! Rating is somewhere between 4 & 5 stars, but since this is impossible and I think the album is closer to 5 than to 4, it will be 5.

If I understand the liner notes to Life Line Project's The King correctly, Erik de Beer actually started the process of composing the 38 minute title track to the album back in the 1970s, but it was not until 2006 when he attempted to record it after a nasty health scare made it uncertain whether he would ever live to see it completed. Happily for all concerned, Erik's medical issues turned out to be much less dangerous than feared, and in 2009 (which must have been around the same time as The Finnishing Touch was being prepared for release) Erik got the mix and mastering on the King to a point he was happy with and unleashed it on the world.

The centrepiece of the album is unquestionably the title track, with the four previous songs being little more than a warm-up exercise, though a competent enough one at that, giving de Beer a chance to show off his multi-instrumentalist skills. The main epic is, I fear, mildly hit and miss - there's a lot of enjoyable passages, but also some points which kind of bug me. (In particular, there's a vocal section about 10 minutes into it which never fails to drive me up the wall.) It's a reasonable symphonic effort and certainly no major embarrassment, but I can't say that I feel it was necessarily worth the multi-decade gestation period.

This 2010 album by the Dutch Life Line Project is a symphonic rock album of the virtuoso kind. Dazzling electric violin parts, biting electric guitar solo's and incredible keyboard wizardry are the main instrumental ingredients on this mainly instrumental album. To counterpart these often high speed virtuosities, there is a beautiful woodwind section, consisting of a clear flute, played by Elsa de Beer and an incredible warm sounding oboe, played by Dineke Visser.

Most of the compositions are supplied by keyboard-player Erik de Beer, while lead guitarist Jason Eekhout may be held responsible for two compositions.

After a short but frantic jazz-rock introduction by Jason Eekhout, we are served the title piece "Distorted Memories", a weird and almost surrealistic version of a nagging children's song. This children's song, only once interrupted by a bucolic scene played by the winds and the acoustic violin, is almost brought to hysteria, before it evolves into a beautiful symphonic theme, carried by the keyboards. Josine Fraaij comes closely to resembling the great Eddie Jobson, with a pulsating baroque like electric violin solo. The following "Life Line Suite" is a beautiful symphonic rock suite, showing all series of beautiful melodies on all instruments.

Frozen Heart is a symphonic rock ballad with a very beautiful role for the flute and an almost Tony Banks like synth.solo, but the vocals of Maruschka Kartosonto aren't the strongest part of the song. I prefer the vocals of previous LLP singer Marion Stroetinga, who fits in with the music in a better way (meanwhile Marion has rejoined the project again).

Eekhout composition "Caelum Aurum" is almost Mahavishnu-like and show once more the incredible talents of both violinist Josine Fraaij and lead-guitarist Jason Eekhout. "Interlude" is an oasis of rest with beautiful keyboard sounds over the Spanish guitar, played by Jody van der Gijze.

"Reaper Of The Keys" is a terrific and incredible Moog & Hammond based song played over a throbbing rhythm section by bass player Iris Sagan & drummer Ludo de Murlanos, which will make most ELP-fans drool!

"P.C. Left Is Right" starts with a mysterious and ominous sounding theme on the oboe, before it evolves in a solid rock song, well-sung this time and with great harmony vocals, a fantastic Moog- solo and an amazing electric guitar solo in the fade out.

"The Final Word" is the main attraction and gives us over 13 minutes of beautiful and dramatic symphonic rock. This time the vocals are very well-sung and this is probably the composition that will please symphonic rock lovers the most.

The album ends in merriment with a stunning instrumental version of the Dutch folksong "Hop Marjanneke". Distorted Memories is an album, that is great fun listening to and it's highly recommendable.

Erik de Beer brought Life Line Project back to life in 2003 and in a five year span he managed to record a few albums like the short ''Illusion'' or the early versions of ''The king'' and ''The journey''.By the end of the decade he established a solid core for his project with Jason Eekhout and Jody van der Gijze on guitars, Ludo de Murlanos on drums, Elsa de Beer on flutes also with Iris Sagan on bass and Dineke Visser on oboe.Helped by the press, the first trully official release of Life Line Project was the 2008 album ''Modinha'', at a time when de Beer was strongly influenced by the book ''Mar morto'', written by Brazilian author Jorge Amado.''Modinha'' refers to somekind of a melancholic song a blind man was constantly singing throughout its lines.

However ''Modinha'' remained only the source of inspiration for Erik de Beer, as the album contains nice classic-rooted Symphonic Rock along the lines of E.L.P., FOCUS and CAMEL with no particular references to anykind of Portuguese tradition.It is completely instrumental with a balanced level of energy and a deep sense of melody, still there are moments with big time solos performed by de Beer on his synthesizers.His performance though is much more varied than this.Great retro-inspired organ waves, Classical-influenced piano preludes and tons of moog synths stand next to his modern synthesizers, while his delivery ranges from atmospheric and melancholic to bombastic and grandiose.And there is still room for some fine guitar solos and rhythmic parts by the duo of Eekhout and Van der Gijze.The closest comparisons that come to mind are TEMPUS FUGIT and SOLARIS, especially if taking into consideration the few but lovely CAMEL-esque flute parts of Elsa de Beer.A few pieces even contain a bit of jazzy piano lines, showing the direction this project would take in the future.

Nice little gem from the Dutch grounds.Dynamic, melodic and flexible Symphonic Rock all the way.This country gives us a whole new world of decent symphonic-oriented Prog acts.Warmly recommended.

It is hard to believe, that all instruments on "Beyond Time" are played by one man. Generally these one man projects tend to sound a bit static and not all instruments are played equally well. But this album, originally recorded in 1994 and remastered in 2010, sounds so dynamic and so very much alive. The man behind the LIFE LINE PROJECT, Erik de Beer, is playing 6 and 12 string electric & acoustic guitars, keyboards, flute, a medieval lute, bass guitar and electronic & acoustic drums. The sound on the album has a touch of the seventies, which isn't strange, because three of the compositions are written in the period 1976/1978. The album is completely instrumental and starts off like a rocket with a short overture, that returns in a different form as a finale. "Shadows of a distant past" is a beautiful symphonic rock piece with lots of changes of tempo and atmosphere. The keyboards have that full symphonic sound, to support the melodic guitar parts. The synth solos remind me a bit of the glory days of Tony Banks, perfectly played and very harmonious. A short prelude, called "Acceptance" precedes the over seventeen minutes lasting title track "Beyond Time" in which Erik shows all his skills. Several of the guitar solos are of the twin type, so loved by lots of metal bands like Iron Maiden, with two guitars playing very fast triplet scales. The more quiet parts sound very mysterious and just when you are carried away, the tempo changes and you are startled by a solid Hammond solo. I particularly liked the majestic symphonic guitars themes, which go straight to the heart. "Like Never Before" is an up tempo piece, that ends with a viruoso guitar solo, while "Liberty" is a beautiful symphonic conversation between the keyboards and lead guitar. As a bonus there are two live tracks added, played by a complete band. The sound quality is excellent and the band deliver a solid live sound. It's a pity the names of the band members are omitted in the booklet. Still it gives a good impression of the live qualities of LIFE LINE PROJECT. I think "Beyond Time" is a great album and that it's worth checking out, so four stars are well deserved. Whister.