AS THE YEARS GO BY

Again produced by Beppe Crovella in his Synergy studio, of course Circle Of Fairies has been using some of the man's equipment so yes you can hear some familiar sounds. Compared with Secret Cinema however, this band is more guitar oriented which is a showcase for Luigi Ametta. What is amazing with this band is that they have a girl drummer in the person of Elisa Pilotti. I think she is the only girl playing this kind of music ... in the world (apart from Ars Nova of course)!

As The Years Go By is the band's first CD succeeding the demo Twilight which emerged in May '93. Starting off very classi-cal on piano, Requiem gets close to the feel of Pink Floyd's E-choes by using the se-quencer on the synths whilst the guitar is played in a repetitive way. Singer Carlo Biorcio tries to sing like a cross between Fish and Geoff Mann. Check out Crawling On The Floor and you know what I mean. What is lacking, however, is the sound in his voice to convince us about what he's singing about. My Camouflage could already be found on a rare Italian compilation tape but can finally be heard without the tape -hiss. The song starts out with acoustic guitar before becoming more rhythmic and incorporating some strong Wakeman flavoured synth parts. Towards the end there's a strong chorus which nicely blends with Ametta's guitar.

When compared to other Italian prog bands you could say that Circle Of Fairies has more of a contemporary feel in its music. You can hear some Twelfth Night, Abel Ganz and Chande-lier influences; the music is more rhythmic, there's more of a rock sound so I guess this band could do well live. The band should try their hand on more melodic structures though so they can create songs which stick to the mind. Meanwhile let's give them the credit they deserve.

Reviewed by: John Bo Bo Bollenberg, April 2001 on ProgressiveWorld.net