TIME OUT

So often with these symphonic rock bands the vocals are the weak spot. You have to listen to more metal orientated progrock to get solid vocals, but then the music lacks the warmth and intimacy, that is the hallmark of true symphonic rock. On "Time Out" however, the vocals are of excellent quality. Leadsinger Marion Stroetinga has a warm voice, you would expect with folk or jazz bands. Her voice blends beautifully with the warm harmonies and fluent melodies composed by Erik de Beer. Those who liked the Mike Oldfield songs featuring Maggie Reilly or female fronted bands like Magenta, will be pleased with Marion's pleasant and sensitive voice.

All music on "Time Out" is played by one man, Erik de Beer. He plays all sorts of keyboards, guitars, flute, drums (electronic & acoustic), the bass guitar and even more exotic instruments like the mandolin & the lute.

As said, the music of LIFE LINE PROJECT sounds warm and melodious. This is true symphonic rock. A song like "All You Need Is Bluff" opens with excellent a capella harmony vocals, before the music enters. It's a great composition, full of tempo and character changes, dealing with the egocentricity of politicians. The sound of the lead guitar is great and reminds us of the great Hackett. The song ends with a completely unchained synth-solo.

Songs like "How I Miss You Now" and "Just A Thought" are more introverted and show us the vocal qualities of Marion at their best. I liked the Spanish guitar solo in "Just A Thought" a lot.

The single version of "Don't Turn Your Back" rocks and has an incredible two hand-tapping guitar- solo in the middle. Again the many-voiced vocals are of excellent quality. "Suzy" is, despite that it is beautifully sung by Marion, one of the weaker songs on the album, like the short instrumental "Free!", which is a bit of a filler. Nice but not spectacular.

Magnum opus on this more than 70 minutes lasting album however is the over 23 minutes taking instrumental 'Behind The Curtain Of Your Mind", preceded by title piece "Time Out", that acts as a sort of prelude. This huge instrumental is like a wet dream for true symphonic rock lovers. It has it all: numerous tempo and character changes, fantastic melodic guitarsolo's, virtuoso twin guitarleads, great synthsolo's, introverted acoustic parts and the greatest massive symphonic themes, all supplied with velvet layered keyboard-parts.

This album, which was originally released in 1995, is recorded on eight tracks only, but the sound quality isn't bad at all. In fact, this is an album to look out for and I think both the singing of Marion and the instrumental capacities of Erik well deserve the four stars.