MODINHA

Erik de Beer brought Life Line Project back to life in 2003 and in a five year span he managed to record a few albums like the short ''Illusion'' or the early versions of ''The king'' and ''The journey''.By the end of the decade he established a solid core for his project with Jason Eekhout and Jody van der Gijze on guitars, Ludo de Murlanos on drums, Elsa de Beer on flutes also with Iris Sagan on bass and Dineke Visser on oboe.Helped by the press, the first trully official release of Life Line Project was the 2008 album ''Modinha'', at a time when de Beer was strongly influenced by the book ''Mar morto'', written by Brazilian author Jorge Amado.''Modinha'' refers to somekind of a melancholic song a blind man was constantly singing throughout its lines.

However ''Modinha'' remained only the source of inspiration for Erik de Beer, as the album contains nice classic-rooted Symphonic Rock along the lines of E.L.P., FOCUS and CAMEL with no particular references to anykind of Portuguese tradition.It is completely instrumental with a balanced level of energy and a deep sense of melody, still there are moments with big time solos performed by de Beer on his synthesizers.His performance though is much more varied than this.Great retro-inspired organ waves, Classical-influenced piano preludes and tons of moog synths stand next to his modern synthesizers, while his delivery ranges from atmospheric and melancholic to bombastic and grandiose.And there is still room for some fine guitar solos and rhythmic parts by the duo of Eekhout and Van der Gijze.The closest comparisons that come to mind are TEMPUS FUGIT and SOLARIS, especially if taking into consideration the few but lovely CAMEL-esque flute parts of Elsa de Beer.A few pieces even contain a bit of jazzy piano lines, showing the direction this project would take in the future.

Nice little gem from the Dutch grounds.Dynamic, melodic and flexible Symphonic Rock all the way.This country gives us a whole new world of decent symphonic-oriented Prog acts.Warmly recommended.