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Gazpacho - Night CD (album) cover

NIGHT

Gazpacho

 

Crossover Prog

4.14 | 666 ratings

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Roland113
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
5 stars In My Not So Humble Opinion:

"Night" by Gazpacho defines Neo Prog for me.

I know, they are considered Crossover by the Prog Archives, but in my thought, this is what Neo is all about. The lush keyboards, carefully thought out transitions, the layers upon layers of sound is done brilliantly on this CD. I can thank Franz Keylard of "The Dividing Line Broadcasting Network" for introducing me to this band, and also the belief that they're Neo. You see, my first introduction to Gazpacho was on a podcast of his radio program. If I remember correctly, he planned on playing "Upside Down" before moving on to something else. Almost a half hour he came back on, cursing them for being so good, he couldn't just play the one song. He ended up completing the album and made the comment, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'they do Marillion better than Marillion'.

Right or wrong, it was at that point that I defined the Neo Prog sub-genre in my mind; also, it's a great one line description of the album to the uninitiated. It's hard to highlight individual passages because everything builds from one point to the next. Each note leads to the next one and so on and so on through the entire fifty three minutes of the CD.

Jan Henrik Ohme's vocals are mesmerizing, so soft and fragile; it took me a few listens to realize that he was a he. Thomas Anderson builds a wonderful wall of sound with his keyboards, never sticking out like a sore thumb yet every note and sound is beautifully placed. Jon-Arne Vilbo does a fine job on the guitar, building from a minimalist place in "Dream of Stone" up to his personal crescendo in "Valarie's Friend" to finally add to the CD's most energetic point in "Massive Illusion". Mikeal Kromer adds some spine tingling moments with his violin, mostly to segue between the different movements of the CD.

If you like lush music, if you like subtle music with a thousand little nuances filling the many layers, then this CD is highly recommended. Five Stars.

Roland113 | 5/5 |

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