BLÅ VARDAG

Atlas is a Swedish symphonic instrumental band with a thoughtful mix of the late 70ties sound of Camel and Genesis. It is a pleasant listen but it fades to the background too quickly without leaving much of a lasting impression.

The sound reminds me a lot of Camel's Breathless and Genesis' Trick of the Tail, complete with some regrettable buzzing bee synths and lots of prog and fusion clichés. But generally the band made good use of their influences and while unoriginal they still created some nice instrumental compositions with fluently morphing themes. The mood is very light, mellow and melodious, exactly like many 70's prog fans will prefer it. There are some exciting moments throughout the album but due to the combination of light melodies and soft fusion, it frequently feels as if we ended up in a soft-porn flick.

If you like mellow prog and don't mind the occasional tweeting tea-pot synths you can sure add a star to this rating. It's a bit too predictable and easy-listening for me to match what I consider the 4 star albums in the sympho branch. Nevertheless, a good genre-album that is rightfully loved by many.