SAD CYPRESS

When this German symphonic one-off was produced in 1979, keyboardist Ulrich Sommerlatte was 65 years old, which at the time was quite unheard of, given many of our heroes were still in their 20s. Now, in 2013, the first wave of prog artists who are still with us are in their 60s and we are ok with that. Oh the cruel irony!

"Sad Cypress" arrived too late to have a chance, with a retro sound even at the time, but I doubt whether they would have found much success 5 years earlier, because the sumptuous keys and arrangements are let down by coldly calculated compositions and an inexorable heaviness of heart. Even worse are the English vocals sung with a thick German accent that even I cannot tolerate, and I am usually most forgiving in that department. The worst of these are, unfortunately, on the album opener and nothing can wash it away once the first soupcon is flung forth. It also suffers from the most mawkish of lyrics, another area where I am normally lenient. Luckily, matters do improve on all fronts, but, as I implied, "At this very moment" shouldn't have made the cut, or should have been buried somewhere in the middle or end, preferably as a hidden track.

Not suprisingly, the best mustered here is instrumental. "Time Traveller" is quite lovely and reminds me of the more virile contemporaries ZOMBY WOOF. Two other long tracks, "The Great Tower" and "Barbara" boast more appealing passages and more of a balanced feel, where the keys seem almost whimsical at times, a worthwhile counterweight to the general seriousness. Most of the other pieces have their moments but in the end they add little fodder to the canon of late 1970s German symphonic rock that was still smoking heavily at the time, especially relative to what was transpiring in America and the UK.

This is recommended to those who enjoy that classic vintage keyboard "sound" of the period, but I doubt even its most devout apologists will endow it with classic status or regard it as valuable enough to poach.