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Amazing Blondel - England CD (album) cover

ENGLAND

Amazing Blondel

 

Prog Folk

3.36 | 56 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

BrufordFreak
4 stars I do like these attempts at recreating old/ancient musics, folk, courtly, minstrel, and religious. Thus, I am thankful for artists "obsessed" with these forms and instruments as John Gladwin, Terry Wincott, Edward Baird, Adrian Hopkins, and Jaque La Roche were.

- The Paintings (Three Pastoral Settings For Voices, Flute, Guitars And Orchestra): 1. "Seascape" (6:13) nice pastoral music using ancient instruments that fails when the multiple voices sing the choral sections. (8/10)

2. "Landscape" (7:38) a continuation of the previous song with slightly different themes and weaves but using the same pacing, flow, and instrumentation. Voice and oboe enter together in the second minute while the orchestrated background weave supports beautifully. The lead vocal, melody, and lyric are much more engaging here and even the little choral support is improved from the previous "setting." At the 4:00 mark a different voice adds something in the left channel while an instrumental section seems to go on. Nice guitar work within the orchestra but it sometimes it feels a little buried there. The flutes and oboes and strings are definitely more forward in the mix. The final minute going out is kind of a slowed down, choir-supported crescendo. (13.5/15)

3. "Afterglow" (3:40) a third "setting" using the exact same pacing and structure, hand percussives, recorder, bass, oboe, multiple male lead voices and antiphonal choir help present this more light and frivolous song. (8.5/10) - 4. "A Spring Air" (3:41) guitars, orchestra, flutes support this more-traditional folk-sounding tune. The entire feel here feels so RenFair appropriate. (8.75/10)

5. "Cantus Firmus To Counterpoint" (3:21) presents itself as a religious (Christmas) choral song of the pre-Thomas Tallis era--almost as if the congregation of a small countryside church service were being recorded. Some of the voices are able to be singled out due to their . . . idiosyncracies. (7.75/10)

6. "Sinfonia For Guitar And Strings" (3:11) (from the suite 'For My Ladys Delight') an instrumental just as the title indicates--a guitar with orchestra strings backing it--though the appearance and takeover of a harpsichord in the second section surprised me. The third and final section reverts back to strings support though there is a more Spanish feel to this section. (9.25/10)

7. "Dolor Dulcis" (Sweet Sorrow) (3:25) acoustic guitars, orchestra strings, support this minstrel-like folk song (a courtly love song?). The chorus presents in the choral form that we've now come to expect. The lyrics bring this one up to a higher level than the music alone might do. (9/10)

8. "Lament To The Earl Of Battesford Beck" (3:11) an odd and eerie song using electronic engineering techniques to create some of the sonic landscape here. Weird--especially for a song to close an album with. (7.5/10)

Total Time: 34:42

Four stars; an excellent addition to any lover of Prog Folk music and a great example of the effort within progressive rock music to explore, recover, and preserve the instruments, styles, and traditions of older musics-- here pre-Enlightenment.

BrufordFreak | 4/5 |

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