CHRONICLES I

In the early 1990's, Eloy were in reality the duo of Frank Bornemann and Michael Gerlach together with other guest musicians as required. The 1992 release of the album "Destination", prompted the band's record label to re-release the Eloy back catalogue on CD. According to band leader Bornemann, he felt obliged to respond to fans observations that while Eloy's best music was on their earlier alums, the later ones sounded so much better due to technological advances.

Bornemann therefore decided to re-record tracks from some of those early albums, the selections being driven by polls of band favourites and feedback during touring. Two releases were planned under the "Chronicles" banner, this the first covering the period from 1977 ("Ocean") to 1982 ("Time to turn"). This means that the period from the band's inception up to "Dawn" in 1976 is bypassed completely. A quick look at the band's page on this site though does indeed confirm that Eloy's halcyon day's are captured by this compilation. Also included on this album is a track recorded for "Destination" but not included on it.

In a further effort to ensure that this project was considered authentic a fine selection of former members of the band were brought in for these recordings on a guest basis. We are not told explicitly that those ex-members play again on the tracks they were originally involved in recording, but it would seem to be a reasonable assumption to make.

In an obvious effort to emphasise that this project will lean towards the band's prog credentials, the set opens with two of their epic tracks; "Poseidon's creation" ("Ocean") and "The apocalypse" ("Silent cries..") both of which run to over 11 minutes.

There are plus and minus points to the collection as a whole. On the plus side, there is no doubt that these recordings are technically superior to those on the original albums. Remastering and remixing could however done a lot to improve them too. The general sound of the tracks would have been much more contemporary when the album was released in the early 1990's, but today that updating is less apparent, since things have moved on again in the intervening period. The main downside is that the tracks are taken out of context. Having a quarter of the "Ocean" album is all very well, but that album really demands to be heard as a complete whole. To do so means reverting to the original recordings for the other 3 tracks.

The previously unreleased track "Spirit in chains" fits in reasonably well, although it comes from a different era to the other tracks, and as such has more of an AOR feel.

Not an essential acquisition for those who have the original albums, but this will be of interest to devotees of Eloy, and is a useful way for those unfamiliar with the band to get a taste of what they are about.

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