LUC HENRION

Back in early-70's, at the time when he was a student at the University of Leuven, Belgian composer Luc Henrion was inspired by the music of E.L.P., Pink Floyd and Mike Oldfield, albums like ''Pictures at an exhibition'' were very close to his Classical roots.He wanted to put up a similar effort of his own, hence he gathered some money to rent or buy instruments after recording an album for singer Dominique Delvaux.He met Dan Lacksman in a Jazz club, a man who owned a studio, which prooved to be too small to feature a grand piano, thus some parts of his solo effort had to be recorded in another floor.Henrion recalled also that the organ or harsichord sounds on the album were actually coming out of cheaper instruments due to lack of money, like a Crumar organizer and a spinet.Despite the difficulties he recorded all instruments alone, bass, drums, guitars and a variety of keyboards and pianos and launched this album independently in 1977 as ''Galerie''.

Henrion's solo debut was very much an amateur production, fortunately overpowered by his talents as a composer and performer.It contains two long instrumental suites along with a couple of shorter pieces, ending up to be a dramatic, romantic journey into the world of Classical Music, based primarly on a keyboard- and piano galore, avoiding the strict academic approach of other musicians and presenting a pretty atmospheric offering.I find the opening suite to be too much based on his grand piano, guitars are only used at the beginning, having a strong MIKE OLDFIELD-ian style, and the rest of the way is bombastic piano-driven Classical Music, doubled by a harpsichord.The second part is pretty great and more diverse, not only instrumentally speaking, but it also contains a variety of atmospheres: Romantic sections, haunting interludes and melancholic passages.Henrion's armour is on full display here, impressive GOBLIN-like polymoog synth lines, sweet symphonic E.L.P.-ish organs, cinematic piano textures, a nice attempt on laid-back, keyboard-based Symph Rock with a stronger guitar content, again akin to MIKE OLDFIELD works.The two shorter pieces on each side have the same title, but a different sound.Side 1-''N'publiez pas le guide S.V.P.'' is about a minute of folky, acoustic music, while side 2-''N'publiez pas le guide S.V.P.'' is a lovely harsichord outro, similar to Italian acts like CELESTE or LE ORME.

Henrion became a professional composer through the years, releasing lots of Classical-related efforts, providing music for several productions and delivering instrumental background for quite a few artists.

Symphonic Rock of a more loose variety, semi-improvised and more atmospheric than the albums you've used to listen to.Quite original with some interesting keyboard and piano themes, so this one comes recommended.