KIMURA

Kimura's debut is a rather interesting, and not unpleasant album. The band plays a blend of prog folk, a bit of symphonic, over a base that's is something more than standard pop-type arrangements, but has some similarity.

Vocally, Caroline Varlet has a lot of potential. Her voice is sweet and clear, but often holds back a little too much, and when doing that she starts sounding slightly nasal. When she pushes her voice even a little bit, she sounds exquisite.

The keyboards are a strong point as well. The symphonic references mostly come from the synths, which never overpower the music, but add an elegance throughout.

Guitars are nicely done, too. There are some Celtic-style passages that beautify the soundscapes, an some stunning solos (I'll admin I don't know which of the two guitarists plays which).

In all, I'd rate this a strong three stars.

Kimura is a little known young band from France with their debut released in march this year 2013. The album is named Aleryon and is a pleasent one from start to finish. The music is crossover prog with some sporadicaly neo prog passages and prog folk twists. The thematic of this album is about heroes and fantasy stories , it works quite well in the musical context and fits very well in duo female/male vocal lines. There are some fine moments here like on, The other side with a nice intro where the rhythmic section really is solid, nice keybords aswell, Dagnir with a almost celtic atmosphere and instrumental sections, nice tune, some more folkish moments appear on This day. Overall a quite nice and entertaining album to my ears, pleasent music not overly complex to get bored by the neverending noodlings but not easy listning for sure either. I think a fairly good album this Aleryon that desearves from me 3 stars , in some parts 3.5, I really like it.