BROKEN HOPES

After the warm reception of their 2005 album Albion were a regular entry in radio broadcasts, while also getting interviewed numerous times for well-known magazines and stations.A good opportunity for them to republish their first couple of albums with a 2-CD offering, entitled ''Remake'' and released in 2006.By the end of the year they started working on new material, while they announced that the official line-up was now the trio of Katarzyna Sobkowicz-Malec on vocals/classical guitar, Jerzy Antczak on guitars and Krzysztof Malec on keys and the upcoming recordings would take place with guest musicians.These would be ex-member Rafal Paszcz on drums, Krzysztof Wyrwa on bass and Aretha Chmiel on sax.The album, titled ''Broken hopes'', was recorded during the summer of 2007 and shelved later in the year by Lynx.

They picked up from where they left things with ''Wabiac cienie'', at least musically speaking, offering the definition of Polish Prog, atmospheric, melodic and lyrical material, heavy on keyboards and featuring unique, slow guitar moves.But the band was apparently encouraged by the latter fame and decided to leave their native language for texts written exclusively in English for a worldwide exposure.This would take away some of Albion's charm, cause a signgificant part of those group's identity was to sing the lyrics in Polish.Anyway, the dissapointment was rather reduced by the fact that they kept playing and composing with passion and emotion, while we find Katarzyna Sobkowicz pretty comfortable with their new responsibilities on the English texts.Beautiful soundscapes with developing structures, starting from a laid-back PINK FLOYD-ian enviroment and ending up to thrilling CAMEL/MARILLION-esque solos with some nice layered synthesizers, the music follows generally a slow pace, but the album doesn't lack a few more bombastic moments with heavier guitar attempts and even some great organ work next to the modern keyboards.I fail to detect this one piece, that really stand out on this Albion effort, but the musicianship is really strong all the way through with injections of vocal and guitar distortions appearing every now and then in a normal delivery by new Polish bands.

Yet another goodie by an overlooked band.Strong Neo Prog in the vein of Collage, just less symphonic and with a female singer leading the way, characterized by soundscapes of sheer beauty, melancholy and passion.Warmly recommended...3.5 stars.