AUGUST IN THE URALS

The prime mover of this musical project is Dan Britton (keyboards, vocals, guitars) from USA progrock band Cerubus Effect. He had been working on material of his own and wanted this new group to record the music he had composed and even play it live. Well, fellow collaborator Avestin has done his best to take notice of this outstanding new progrock band and I am glad to agree with Avestin: their debut CD is highly recommended, what a dynamic, alternating and surprising prog and what an excellent musicians!

The first, very long and varied composition Inaugural Bash (running time over 25 minutes) impressed me from the very first moment: captivating and enervating music featuring splendid interplay and lots of great shifting moods: from soaring Mellotron with fiery guitar and powerful bass work to propulsive with an adventurous rhtytm-section and sumptuous climates with howling guitar and lush Mellotron. A surprising and often subtle element is the blend of instruments like the xylophone, trumpet, church-organ and male choir. The references range from King Crimson and Gentle Giant to Frank Zappa and Yes, all bands that deliver virtuosic interplay, lots of dynamics and musical ideas (at some moments even avant-garde but quite melodic). The other four compositions are also on a high level: the titletrack contains great tension between the acoustic guitar and a varied 'vintage keyboard sound' (Hammond, Mellotron, harpsichord and Grand piano), in Abandoned Mansion we can enjoy a wonderful duet from Fender Rhodes electric piano and acoustic guitar, the song A Squirrel features swirling play on the Moog synthesizer and Hohner D6 clavinet (evoking Gentle Giant) along howling, distored electric guitar and the final, very exciting track The Solitude Of Miranda has a sultry Andalusian atmosphere with play on the Oud (a kind of Arabian lute), fluent Spanish guitar runs and a flashy synthesizer solo.

In my opinion this album will turn out to be one of the highlights of 2006, what a stunning debut!