NOUS

A truly wonderful album!

Five years after their excellent "Flektogon", Nodo Gordiano released their fourth studio album this 2014, offering once again a first class record with its obvious Italian flavor, but with a pretty original, yet unclassified musical style within the progressive rock realm; here one can enjoy a seven-track album full of textures, atmospheres, symphonic passages, eclectic melodies and much more. So if you have time, sit, relax and enjoy "Nous".

I loved their latest album, the quality of the compositions let me speechless, I remember at that time it was one of my main surprises, and because I liked it a lot, I thought it would be difficult for them to make a new record with the same tremendous quality, but now with Nous they did not let me down. It is worth mentioning that this time the band changed a bit in the lineup. It starts with "Portonovo", the eclecticism of this band can be easily perceived since the very first seconds due to its synth atmospheres, the oriental drums and the soft acoustic guitar, deliciously accompanied by Italian vocals. The music flows and before reaching the fourth minute, a moment of tension begins, the rhythm changes and guitar produces a quite nervous sound. It is like a day's soundtrack, I imagined several things. Great introductory track!

"Aion" is a beautiful composition, the band managed to create a top-notch track whose constant changes in tempo and mood produce a mesmerizing sound. First the bass creating dark atmospheres, later drums and electric guitar join and create new nuances, together they build up a progressive rock structure that might not be bombastic, but in my opinion, is very clever, so one can perceive their compositional skills. There is a part I love and comes after four minutes with a spacey passage that lasts some seconds just before the song returns to its main form. "Apologia del nolano" starts with acoustic guitar, seconds later bass and drums join and then the music makes an explosion, more intensity is added, the bass sound is strong, so the energy is spread. Male vocals appear later and within almost six minutes Nodo Gordiano is capable of offering a vast mixture of sounds, with slices of oriental and Spanish cultures in its sound. What I love about them, is that they do not sound as the classic RPI band, in spite of its roots and influences.

"Nous" is the longest composition with almost ten minutes of a great psychedelic / symphonic prog carousel. Some reminiscences of Pink Floyd are in this track, mostly in the softest moments. The music naturally flows, there are no weak moments so it is easy to enjoy the 10 minutes and its different stages, which means that Nodo Gordiano has found the way of capturing the listener's attention. "Officina" is a enigmatic track whose synthesizer work is fabulous, because it superb atmospheric backgrounds while vocals and strings do their job. After three minutes it changes and the symphonic side of Nodo Gordiano appears, reminding me of Camel or PFM just to name an example.

"Arturiana" is an instrumental track that might also work as a film soundtrack, in moments its atmosphere is dark, tense, like for a horror score, but in others it might even be used in a sci-fi one, so go figure the eclecticism of the music here. Like a lot the bass sound here, it is hypnotic. Drums are always constant while guitars experiment a lot, producing a diversity of textures. The last song is "Stella Maris" is a gem, a great way of closing the album. A tender beginning with piano and the sound of the ocean; a couple of minutes later the mood changes, some electronic drums enter making a strange but interesting sound. Then it returns to its original form, but now with the addition of sweet female voices.

It is an excellent album, one of a kind, the sound is unique, something that should make Nodo Gordiano proud. Congratulations!

Enjoy it!

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