AS THE YEARS GO BY

90's Symphonic progressive rock band who cross both neo and classic prog genres in this excellent album. I remember 5 years ago when this album first came out contacting the band as I was so impressed with their 90's symph - prog effort. Now here I am 5 years later finally getting around to a brief synopsis of this tasty little Italian gem. With sculptured and pastel keyboard landscapes, guitar and bass are juxtaposed with rich emotion and energy. Songs are generally on the longer side of life (7-11 mins) and are well written and recorded. In many ways this band have a similar approach to bands like FANCY FLUID and FINISTERRE to give some context. Overall an album which I have really enjoyed "as the years go by".

Again produced by Beppe Crovella in his Synergy studio, of course Circle Of Fairies has been using some of the man's equipment so yes you can hear some familiar sounds. Compared with Secret Cinema however, this band is more guitar oriented which is a showcase for Luigi Ametta. What is amazing with this band is that they have a girl drummer in the person of Elisa Pilotti. I think she is the only girl playing this kind of music ... in the world (apart from Ars Nova of course)!

As The Years Go By is the band's first CD succeeding the demo Twilight which emerged in May '93. Starting off very classi-cal on piano, Requiem gets close to the feel of Pink Floyd's E-choes by using the se-quencer on the synths whilst the guitar is played in a repetitive way. Singer Carlo Biorcio tries to sing like a cross between Fish and Geoff Mann. Check out Crawling On The Floor and you know what I mean. What is lacking, however, is the sound in his voice to convince us about what he's singing about. My Camouflage could already be found on a rare Italian compilation tape but can finally be heard without the tape -hiss. The song starts out with acoustic guitar before becoming more rhythmic and incorporating some strong Wakeman flavoured synth parts. Towards the end there's a strong chorus which nicely blends with Ametta's guitar.

When compared to other Italian prog bands you could say that Circle Of Fairies has more of a contemporary feel in its music. You can hear some Twelfth Night, Abel Ganz and Chande-lier influences; the music is more rhythmic, there's more of a rock sound so I guess this band could do well live. The band should try their hand on more melodic structures though so they can create songs which stick to the mind. Meanwhile let's give them the credit they deserve.

Reviewed by: John Bo Bo Bollenberg, April 2001 on ProgressiveWorld.net

Circle of Fairies is one of the forgotten and unnoticed symphonic/neo prog bands from Italy from the'90's. With one album rleased in 1995 named As the years go by issued by Vinyl Magic, this band captures the revival of prog in the '90's, bringing a good album, but overall something is missing. Is someting between symphonic prog in some parts melted with neo prog arrangements very much in same cathegory lets say with another italians band from hte '90's Fancyfluid or Secret Cinema. The album has some long pieces who are the best from here the last two The troubled wake and the title track clocking around 12 min with nice passages and quite good druming of female Elisa Pilotti. The album overall has some energic moments with keybords and guitars who are quite ok but in places is to much talking moments and less instrumental passages. The voice of Carlo Biorcio is ok, but I think is not on par with the rest of the musicins. All in all a good one, but far from being something of a real intrest, the album is produced by omni present italian musician Beppe Crovella, who is responsable for helping another dozens bands from that period like Secret Cinema, Romantic Warriors, Mosaic, Tower , maybe this band as same sound as these bands. 3 stars. Nice cover art btw. They disbanded a year later gone into oblivion.

A complicated story surrounds this band from Torino, which started in 1992 when longtime friends and bandmates Luigi Ametta (guitars) and Carlo Biorcio (vocals) decided to form a Progressive Rock group.They were surrounded by keyboardist Gianfranco Milone, drummer Roberto Marongiu and bassist Massimo Molinaro and released the demo ''Twilight'' in 1993, including tracks of Hop Frog, an earlier project of Ametta and Biorcio.Soon Marongiu and Molinaro left to be replaced by Elisa Pilotti and Piero Pedicini.The band was signed by Vinyl Magic and recorded the debut ''As the Years Go By'' at Synergy Studios in Torino between September and December of 94' under the guidance of Beppe Crovella, eventually released in March 95'.

Drawing influences from the Neo and Symphonic Progressive Rock legends of the time, Circle of Fairies produced an album of melodic and atmospheric soundscapes and with an intense lyricism at moments along with an alternation between romantic and dark atmospheres.Actually the first half of the album is very good with hints of MARILLION and ASGARD displayed all over the compositions, which are pretty nice, filled with fiery synths to go along with great vocal work and ROTHERY/HACKETT-ish guitar textures.Some beautiful piano parts and lush organ/Mellotron waves give the arrangements a vintage feeling.The later two compositions, which are also the longer ones, both clocking at 11 minutes, contain some nice moments, but sound quite overstretched with some extended ideas and a smoother mood overall.Still they remain at a decent level with plenty of symphonic-oriented themes, shifting moods and a good vocal performance by a singer, who recalls the style of FISH.

Unfortunately the next year Circle of Fairies disbanded, leaving behind a Fan Club live tape entitled ''Dancing in circle'' and the promo cassette ''Postcards from the asylum'', containing some demo songs.Luigi Ametta went on to form a solo project under the name Castalia in 1998.

''As the Years Go By'' is a good example of 90's Neo/Symphonic Prog by a band with a talent to transform their ideas into atmospheric and challenging music, but lacking the God-sent inspiration of the biggest names of the genre.Recommended overall.