ASHES ARE BURNING

Annie Haslam's voice truly is the heart of Renaissance's music,and in this album this is more apparent than ever.The consistent musical background that beautifully mixes clasical influences with a solid rock and roll spectrum is the perfect vehicle for the shining voice of Haslam,transforming the band's compoisitions into incredibly mellow pieces,and a very iconic example of pure symphonic prog.These are the elements that make a good Renaissance album,and Ashes Are Burning is the one that combines them most remarkably.If the former Prologue contained wonderfull virtuoso compositions and rather boring ballads,this album balances the tenderness of some of the band's beloved moments and the intimidating might of previous songs as the epic Raja Khan.

All the six tracks in the album are captivating and worth getting into.If more folk-inspired numbers such as On The Frontier may sound too raw at first,they gradually become of interest in a way.But there are also those pieces which will be aprecciated from the word go for being pure statements of early 70's progressive rock,for instance Can You Understand or the thrilling and climatic title track,closing the album in a remarkable manner.Such songs are the traditional english school of symphonic prog,the unreplaceable basis of bass,guitars,keyboards and percussion.However, they are crowned with deciding orchestrations and most importantly the leading voice of Annie Haslam,which although is not omnipresent,comes to set the mood of each piece.

More radio friendly tracks like Let It Grow and Carpet of the Sun don't allow the album to be tagged as an epic in the line of Mirage,but are still prog.Above all,they're very good songs,flawed perhaps in the unecessary use of orchestred arrangemnts,but still solid and remarkably melodic numbers.

My favourite song on the album,however,is the solitary At The Harbour,a piano driven piece that expresses an unparalelled sadness.Here's Haslam's voice at it's best,making the piece impossible to be imagined without it's crying verses and melody.The aforementioned title track reaches the album's powerfull climax at the interlude 'Ashes are burning brightly/Ashes are burning the way'.From there,follows a geniously built arrangement of growing intensity,untill finally the music fades away.

This album is apart from the rest of the band's career,but is also Renaissance's most important achievement:a powerfull and shining icon of the early 70's gold age.