ALCHEMY

This was my venture into the obscure sub-genre indo/raga-prog. It was an interesting one indeed. After hearing it, I am definitely interested in getting more albums by them. Their music is hard to describe. It's an acoustic blend of percussion and string instruments (violin, viola, and cello) with some oboe and recorder thrown into the mix. It definitely has an ethic and world-music feel to it and is an early example of such kinds of music.

Each track sucks the listener in and keeps their attention throughout the track. Each one is certainly entrancing and may seem at first hard to get into, but once you get into it you are hooked. The minimalism featured here is acoustic, which is even more unique. Most famous minimalist musicians are electronic artists (e.g. Eno's ambient work). Each track seems to flow to the next nicely.

An album like this is not necessarily essential, but deserves attention among prog fans. Anyone who is looking for a nice blend of various acoustic, minimalist, raga styles should look no further. Having not heard any other albums by the band, I cannot say how this one compares to them. However, this is still an interesting document of prog history (indo/raga) and deserves some listening. Three stars, well worth a listen.