MODINHA

Some time ago my good friend Erik de Beer from LIFE LINE PROJECT asked me why I never reviewed "Modinha", my reply was simple, "The first time I listened it, didn't liked it, so some day when I listen it carefully, I will review it". Well, after several months I placed the CD by mistake in my car stereo before a travel, so I had the chance to listen it repeatedly during the 12 hours drive from Lima to the mountains and back.

To be honest, each time I listened it, found that "Modinha" is some sort of acquired taste, each time I played it, found it better, so by the end of the trip really liked the album a lot, not in the level of "Beyond Time" but still a great release.

The album starts with Modinha, a sober and Neo Classical oriented track, with some pompous moments that Prog lovers enjoy so much. Apart from the usual ability of Eric in the keyboards , I have to mention the excellent performance by his sister Elsa, who adds a brilliant flute plus the accurate bass of Iris Sagan.

Joy is a fluid and frenetic track that gives no time to breath with tireless keyboards, restless guitar and excellent drumming, the radical and frequent changes are a plus for those of us who enjoy complex music, reminds me a bit of Rick Van Der Linden to whom is dedicated..

Dark Procession begins softer and more dramatic, but us usual we can't expect they won't change repeatedly, so after a minute the changes begin, from fluid and fast to slower with an impressive Moog performance. Not as good as the previous tracks, but still an interesting piece.

Stampede as it's name indicates, is another frenetic song where the drums & percussion hammer constantly while Jody Van Der Gijse offers a memorable guitar performance, combining distorted passages with fluid ones and Iris Sagan is again solid in the bass.

The Chase is another opportunity for Elsa de Beer to demonstrate her skills in the flute on a track that serves as an introduction for Modinha Jazz-Intermezzo, a pleasant piano based fusion between jazz and classical music, very beautiful piece.

Keeper of the Keys is another absolutely frantic track in the vein of "Joy", only that this time reminds me of ELP's excesses with a jazzy fugue, a track that contrasts with the heavier and more guitar oriented start of Subjective Object, that as expected in this bands moves to a jazzy passage and returns to good old Rock & Roll at the end.

It's the turn for my favorite song, the dramatic Sonho, an incredibly beautiful Neo Classical piece in which Dineke Visser makes a heartbreaking oboe interpretation, not particularly complex or elaborate, but the combination of piano, flute and oboe works for me.

Another Dayride is once more an ELP oriented track that morphs into sime kind of soft fusion, if it wasn't for the percussion I would consider it a highlight of the album. With this I don't say that Ludo de Murianos is a bad drummer, by the contrary, he's very good and accurate, but the choice of percussive instruments is a hit & miss.

Modinha - Oracao is a short and beautiful acoustic interlude that prepares the listener for Night on the Freeway, a soft and fluid piece that would sound better if the cowbell wasn't used. But a guy like Erik de Beer can't wait too long to make a display of his speed and skills with the keyboards, a great combination of organ, synths and solid percussion.

Quasar is also a keyboard driven song , but again the problem with the percussion appears, what a poor choice of instruments and abuse of cowbell. Thanks God is followed by the Baroque (Vivaldi) oriented intro of Modinha Final at track that starts wit a soft flute and ends band giving all what they have and short "Tarantella" inspired closing, a great finale for the album.

The version Erik sent me has an extra track called Song for Lara, melodic and beautiful but is obvious it's not part of the original conception of the album.

There are albums that you like instantly, like love at first side, but others that you dislike and progressively grow on you, this is the case of "Modinha", an outstanding release (with a few minor flaws in the percussion), that deserves no less than 4 stars.

One of my favourite keyboard dominated albums. Those who get high on fat analogue Moog sounds old style should take a listen to this instrumental Life Line Project album. The album even contains a song dedicated to the memory of the late Bob Moog.

LIFE LINE PROJECT, a project built around keyboard-wizard Erik de Beer, are presenting us an album containing 15 instrumental compositions with a maximum length of 7:37. Don't think the music is skipping from one musical subject to another, because the album is kept together by a beautiful central theme, called Modinha, which seems to be in the style of a Brazilian sad song.

This theme is returning in at least five of the songs presented, starting with a beautiful symphonic "Inicio" with a beautiful Moog whistle as a main melody instrument. A jazz piano version is presented with the Jazz Intermezzo, containing a splendid piano improvisation over this melancholic Modinha theme. The most elaborate version is undoubtedly the Modinha- Final, which starts with a solo flute, soon extended to a flute/oboe & piano trio, to be followed by a full band progressive rock version and which ends in a folk based acoustic orgasm, featuring a mandolin solo sustained by a medieval drum, a harpsichord and a throbbing bass.

This is a very keyboard orientated album, but there are also two lead guitarists featured and don't think that they are drowning in the keyboards, just listen to the twin solo's in songs like Joy and Dark Procession. Guitarist Jason Eekhout is also responsible for the two only compositions that aren't written by Erik de Beer: the jazz-rock orientated composition "Subjective Object", perhaps not the most brilliant composition on the album, but giving enough proof of the skills of Jason and the fantastic "The Chase", one hot minute of instrumental fury presented by the flute, two guitars and an acoustic piano.

Every now and then the electric wizardry is interrupted by short interventions by the two woodwind players (Elsa de Beer on flute & Dineke Visser on oboe) to supply us with an oasis of peace and introspection. The oboe dominated "Sonho" is perhaps one of the finest compositions on the album.

My favourites (as a seasoned Moog freak) on this fantastic album are "Keeper of the Keys" (dedicated to Moog), "Quasar" and "Another Dayride" with great interplay between Moog and Hammond.

A must for keyboard lovers!!

Oscillator11

I noticed on their website, that LIFE LINE PROJECT offered their first official released album "Modinha" at a reduced price, so I decided to take the risk. I wasn't disappointed. In fact I was pleasantly surprised by this sparkling instrumental album. An incredible beautiful theme has been chosen as a sort of leitmotiv throughout the album. A languishing melody over a beautiful Brazilian/baroque sounding chord progression (Modinha), turned into a piano-jazz piece, into a classical guitar piece, returning in improvisations and finally played as a folk- metal song, is first presented as a beautiful symphonic piece performed by a very melancholic sounding synth. Songs like "Joy" evoke the best Emerson, Lake & Palmer, while "Dark Procession" is a sombre and brooding piece, dominated by the Mellotron. The twin guitar solo's in this song are absolutely amazing. Throughout the album there is a strong jazz-rock influence. Just listen to songs like "Stampede", "Another Dayride" or "Quasar". "Subjective Object", one of the two only compositions by guitarist Jason Eekhout, sounds a bit stiff and strained, perhaps due to a too tight click track following. "Keeper Of The Keys" however shows us a completely unchained rhythm section, providing a heavy foundation for the incredible virtuosities of keyboard-player an principal composer Erik de Beer on his Hammond and his Moog. In fact the Moog solo's on this album will please many an ELP fan, because Erik can easily compete with the best Emerson and his Moog sounds fat and analogue as ever. A haven of peace is reached in "Sonho" a touching composition with some fantastic oboe playing by Dineke Visser. "The Chase" is a weird, but virtuoso acoustic composition for flute, classical guitar and piano. My favourite is undoubtedly the "Jazz Intermezzo" with some great and beautiful piano soloing by Erik de Beer. In "Modinha-Final" LIFE LINE PROJECT once more hit us with everything they have got, ending the album with in true musical orgy of sound. The bonus track is a somewhat romantic variation on a theme from Erik's keyboard method, nice but not exactly revolutionary. "Modinha" is an album worth checking out. I had great fun listening to this little known album, so I think 4 starts are well deserved! Whistler.

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.

An extremely keyboard orientated album by the Dutch LIFE LINE PROJECT. If you like your Moog sound fat and seventies', this is an album to check out. Completely instrumental and built around the keyboards, played by Erik de Beer, this album offers agreeable melodic rock. Erik seems to be influenced by his fellow country man Rick van der Linden, although Erik doesn't borrow from classical composers like Bach. There is in fact one song "Joy" dedicated to the memory of the late Rick van der Linden. Apart from the overwhelming keyboard parts, there is also room for woodwinds like the flute and the oboe, "Sonho" being one of my favourite tunes on the album. Every now and then Erik makes way for the well played guitar parts of Jason Eekhout and Jody van der Gijze in songs like "Stampede" and "Subjective Object", one of the few songs on the album composed by Jason. Also a perfectly played classical guitar in "Modinha-Oraçao". Songs like "Keeper of the Keys" and "Another Dayride" are a true orgy of Moog sounds I liked a lot. The production of the album is not perfect, the drums sounding a bit rough, the guitars a bit too sharp-edged and if you take a look at the cover you will see that the money to finish the production wasn't abundant. An album I liked a lot!! Guy.

The Life Line Project was founded in 1988, the name points at the fact that Erik was a teacher who had to arrange a lot of music that was not really his cup of tea. So he started to make his own music that was "his life line project to symphonic rock". Erik writes in the booklet of Modinha (a Brazilian sad song) that the title is the central theme, it changes throughout the album from classic to folk to jazz to metal.

Well, during the years I got a good contact with Erik, as a reviewer of his albums for several progrock magazines, from his very first efforts in the Nineties. But due to a severe illness he got, and other priorities of mine we gradually lost contact, since 2008-2009. Recently I contacted him at Facebook, so after 10 years, I was very glad to hear that his physical illness situation has been stabilized. And that he enjoys drumming jazzrock with his students and recording prog with all kinds of ukuleles (from piccolo and bass to a custom build Les Paul). His latest official CD was the acclaimed Armenia (2013) but I would like to go back in time and have a look at his album Modinha, from 2009.

Listening to Modinha I notice that a lot of the 15 compositions contain fluent rhythms featuring bombastic Hammond organ runs and fat Emersonian Moog synthesizer flights, supported by a propulsive rhythm-section, especially the drumming is very energetic. I was not surprised to read that Erik wrote two songs as a tribute to two legendary names in the progrock history. First Keeper Of The Keys, a tribute to Bob Moog: spectacular Moog sounds, swirling Hammond and swinging piano. And Joy is a tribute to Rick Van Der Linden: it sounds like "ELP meets Europe" with bombastic keyboards and fiery electric guitar.

Along that bombastic ELP/Trace inspired sound, Life Line Project also delivers a lot of variety.

A wonderful build-up from classical (guitar and Grand piano) to jazz in Modinha - Jazz Intermezzo.

A pleasant electric guitar/flute duet in The Chase.

Warm classical guitar (in the vein of Steve Hackett) in the short piece Modinha - Oracao.

Sparkling piano in Song For Lara.

And and a captivating blend of classical and progressive rock in Night On The Freeway.

Also interesting is the use of the distinctive oboe in the dreamy Sonho : wonderful strings and piano and a Roxy Music-like oboe sound. And in Modinha - Final : one of the highlights on this album with beautiful flute play by Erik's wife Elsa, cheerful mandoline and an exciting vintage keyboards sound. And I am very pleased with Jason Eekhout his powerful guitarwork in songs like Dark Procession (heavy guitar play), Stampede (biting wah-wah), Subjective Project (fiery runs) and the exciting track Another Dayride (howling guitar). In my opinion his contributions give Life Line Project their music an extra dimension.

If I compare this new album with the more amateurish recorded music he made in the Nineties, I conclude that Erik's music and recording have very much matured. With the CD Modinha the Life Line Project has delivered a pleasant and varied keyboard oriented progrock album, with a very melodic and accessible sound. I am sure it will please progheads who like vintage keyboards and a blend of symphonic rock with classical - and folk music.

My rating: 3,5 star.