NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN

This album is a great travel in time for me. I purchased it a the time of release after having read the review of "Piero Kenroll" in "Télémoustique" a Belgian weekly magazine in which six pages were dedicated to rock music. His review was so favourable that I rushed out to buy this record (at Metrophone in Brussels for the old Belgian readers of this site...).

He was basically writing that this album was a musical kaleidoscope of the great prog bands of the early seventies. And he was no wrong of course.

"Les Cathédrales" is a long and complex song which is fully Genesis and KC oriented (their symphonic side). Very powerful intro, lots of rhythm changes, beautiful key passages, great sax. Vocals are not really convincing but they aren't too many.

"Centurion" is almost a tribute to ELP while Yes sits just around the corner during "The Fireballet". The voice being a real clone to Jon's one, the guitar fully in Steve's style. This might have been "Starcastle" raison-d'être.

If you like "Trespass" then there is no reason that you won't be attracted by "Atmospheres". Full of tranquility, this nice acoustic piece would have perfectly fit on this great album. Flute and mellotron are just beautiful. I like this song very much.

The long epic song is a prog approach of a well-known classical piece of music written by Mussorgsky. Not being an adept of classical music, I have no clue how the original sounds but I have spun this version an awful lot of times.

Each movement flows very well one into the other. The beat is mostly rather rocking and powerful during the first half. This type of interpretation (and at times the keys sounds) will automatically remind you the ELP style of music. The light and subtle part "The Engulfed Cathedrale" is fully Yes oriented ("Close..." or "Ritual") gives us a wonderful symphonic break. Towards the end of the song, a great cresendo featuring some "Child In Time" elements is even featured. The finale is a pure jewel of a melody.

I believe that this part of the album is just great. A wonderful epic. Not very original of course, but wonderful.

In those days, no mention of plagiarism, just a great overview of different prog styles. This album has not aged very well, I'm afraid. I cannot imagine the reaction of a proghead discovering this album in 2007 but it reminds me so many souvenirs that I tend to be very indulgent with it (as I will for several other albums, for the same reasons).

If you like Yes and you are not too harsh with bands emulating this great and influent one, you will be very pleased with this record.

Four stars.