HOLDFÉNYKERT

My review (posted originally in November 10, 2015) concerns the remastered version of the 2006 debut album by YESTERDAYS, a band consisting of musicians from the Hungarian minority of Western Romania. [As a side note I'd like to mention that I've witnessed the amazing acoustic guitar playing of Ákos Bogáti-Bokor last spring in a gig featuring the Finnish band Paidarion and multi-national guests. That's one of my fondest gig memories.] A thank you to the drummer Kimmo Pörsti who kindly sent me this CD among a heap of others. He's an executive producer here. Ákos underlines that the remastering didn't involve any compression. The booklet features also very beautiful outdoor photography with piano keys, guitar and a flute. The musicians themselves are not photographed, but this visual approach suits nicely to the pastoral feel in the music. The short instrumental opener 'Napfénykert' stars flute, mellotron and acoustic guitar. Mellow and pretty, perhaps a bit too much so. 'Végtelen' introduces the charming, innocent female vocals. The playing is soft and dreamy, comparable to the classic KC ballad 'I Talk to the Wind'. On the third track there's a brief flute melody citing 'Close To The Edge' (this was amusing to hear for the first time: I instantly recognized it to be from a YES track, but which one was it...). The peaceful and accessible compositions on this acoustically oriented album are not hugely progressive -- and this fact is definitely not a fault, but understandably it can make the album sound a bit too spineless to some prog listeners.

Warmly recommended if you enjoy pastoral works of e.g. ANTHONY PHILLIPS, STEVE HACKETT, ERRATA CORRIGE, CELESTE etc. The Hungarian lyrics are completely beyond my reach but they do sound nice. A couple of songs are sung in English, and actually some of the charm is lost by that. I really like this peaceful music with lots of flute, but the compositions indeed could be more impressive. Hence four stars.