JOURNEY'S END... AN ACOUSTIC ANTHOLOGY

It is definitely last of the albums connected to She project... but I of course am not so sure about it :). This album is a perfect picture of second, in my opinion real Caamora - an acoustic duet of Clive and Agnieszka, without the burden of the double rock band and choir. We saw samples of this incarnation at the bonus disc of She DVD, and now we got a better portrait of the band. And I must admit this is the only opportunity where you can really appreciate Agnieszka's voice (not the opera, she was shadowed there by Mrs Christina Booth). The album starts with "Journey's End", recapitulating the story of "She", great coda and as usual very nice song delivered by Clive Nolan, and after that we receive a saucerful or plate full of surprises with one single bitter pill. After the title track there are 21 live tracks, recorded in various countries, including Poland, Germany, England, Belgium, arranged in a way that resembles the single Caamora show. It covers almost every important song from "She", except for "Dance of Fire" and "Fire of Life" (the most operatic acts indeed) and "History" (this is an "Alan Reed's" song, but I always wanted to hear it sung by Agnieszka Świta). And there are songs from repertoire of Strangers On A Train ("Sacrifice", song which somehow signaled the future "She"), Nolan and Wakeman (especially "Shadows of Fate", great performance of Agnieszka Świta), Arena ("Mea Culpa" and "State of Grace", "Salamander" sung by Sebastian Medina), even Tracy Hitichings ("Horizons in your Eyes", Agnieszka Świta live is as good, even better than lady Tracy) and also few surprises in the line-up, for instance "The Bonding" sung by none other than Mrs Christina Booth, "Murder" with guest appearance of guitarists Gonzalo Paz and Myung Jung. Continuing the South American story the second disc contains great performance of Celina Berro Madero, including "The Veil " (another Alan Reed's song) and "(I Can See Your) House from Here", the vocal more sensual than even Agnieszka's . The rest of the album consists of demos (especially "The Storm", more spooky than on studio album) and bonus tracks. The highlight of the bonuses is "In Aeternum", a song worshipping Ayesha in Latin, great vocal overdubs. Also among the bonus tracks is the mentioned bitter pill, track written by Agnieszka Świta named "Grunwald" (the battle fought by Polish and Lithuanian knights with Teutonian Order in 1410), with polish text so patriotic that it crosses the borders of nationalism . On the other hand nice and mellow melody. All in all, very interesting album for anyone who wants to learn about the acoustic incarnation of Caamora and of Caamora itself. Notwithstanding the single flaw, a strong three stars grade.