CELESTIAL CITY

JEREMY began playing piano at age six and bought his first guitar at age thirteen. He grew up and became a musical genius. His 2nd release "Celestial City" is the 2nd album for Kinesis and his 16th all in all. Just like his previous album "Pilgrim's Journey" from 1995 it's all-instrumental, and the music is very close to that album too. His music is somewhere between New Age and '70's progressive and symphonic rock. The music is a mix between CAMEL, GENESIS, The MOODY BLUES, MIKE OLDFIELD, PINK FLOYD, TANGERINE DREAM and VANGELIS. His emotional guitar playing is reminiscent to Steve HACKETT, Andrew LATIMER and Anthony PHILLIPS. All-instrumental albums can quiet often get very tiring, but JEREMY has got the ability to write beautiful and memorable melodies. Therefore he can grab the listeners attention throughout the entire album. The highlights on this album is the 10-minute "Invisible War", the 15-minute "The Door" and the GENESIS inspired "Celestial City". This is a classic instrumental symphonic prog album.

While Jeremy's dreamy guitar leads are reminiscent of Oldfield and Hackett, the overall effect of much of this work is not that far from that of his fellow countryman Yanni. I do not really mean this as a put down. Yanni has over the years produced some noteworthy meditative new age music as well as some more up tempo pieces in that genre.

I am not sure if progarchives has a new age classification (I would guess not), but I would suggest that art rock is not really the ideal pigeonhole for Jeremy, but rather electronic music. In addition to the above named, I hear reminders of Asturias, Kitaro, and others of the mellower but emotive variety in that genre. I would have preferred that more of the tracks be grounded in some way rather than always floating, but enough good playing and appealing compositions and arrangements do emerge to save this one from the reject pile, in particular "Soaring", "Laser Love", the acoustic "Hour Glass", and the medieval "King's Court" all have a transportability that is not just to the inner, but also to imagined outer worlds in time and space. "Celestial City" is also a pleasant closer. Unfortunately, the two longest cuts are very meandering and do not satisfy as an overall work, in spite of some good moments.

Those who want to rock will not salute this, but fans with an interest in the mellow and contemplative may find enough to enjoy, although I daresay that better albums have been produced in this style. 2.5 stars rounded down.

"Celestial City" is a voyage into mellow space, a sonic universe where sweeping synths and soaring guitars coalesce into a sympho-electronic maelstrom that can, for the hardest rockers, give the impression to be a New Age kind of a gig. Well, not quite Yanni as one PA reviewer mentioned but close. The sheer density of the electronics signal a kinship with Austrian composer Gandalf (who happens to have a solid veneration for Steve Hackett), the bliss-out rave flights of early 90s Elektrik Teepee Hawkwind , some obvious Hillagisms, a dash of Kitaro but the closest would be Bjorn Lynne's spaciest recordings (The Void, Colony etc.). That this is labeled as non-committal background music is quite unjust as the textures and moods constantly vary from track to track while remaining firmly in the contemplative realm of electronic prog. There are some standout cuts here that transcend the blah, such as the 10 minute extraordinary excursion "Invisible War" in particular is most expressive with fabulous rays of synthesizers, bolts of fiery lead guitar and even resonating tubular bells, obviously travelling to the classic ultra-instrumental Oldfield dominions. The cosmic orchestrations are peerless wonders of amazement and provide the platform for some incandescent guitar expressions, that one ideally suit a good sci-fi movie and successfully add dimension and depth to the panorama. The very short "Wonderful" does get a little wimpy though, as the lightweight piano sets the table and yields to the sober guitar solo that has a strong Latimer-flavor. "Soaring" reverts to the contemplative introspection that ultimately defines this disc, with a rambling effect-laden guitar sortie that winks close to Hackett's electric style and does so perfectly. What's great here is that it stays nice and terse, coming in as a 4 minute jewel. "Laser Love" is another extended epic 8 minute showcase, bringing in some odd percussion, a colossal fanfare theme playfully symphonized by the array of Moogs, Rolands, Yamahas and ARPs (you would almost swear Tony Banks is guesting). This is pure electronica with severe Genesis overtones; see if you can guess which one! The whopping and relentless guitar solo is animated to the hilt and displays an urgent sense of "celestial" euphoria, a truly memorable piece of cosmic rock. "Cocoon" is oddly a tad dull, a bit like the famous movie of the same name. It just labors without direction, pretty much according to the rather "cramped" title! Strong hints of Vangelis come creeping through on the piano-led "Butterfly", some slithering synth warblings combine with synthetic percussion sounds that create a sense of childish bewilderment yet ultimately nothing here is convincing. The ultra-acoustic gem "Hour Glass" recalls Anthony Phillips while adding some luxuriant string washes that recall the legendary Classical Gas by Mason Williams. "King's Court" is equally pastoral and bucolic, very analogous to the previous piece but with a more medieval intonation. The massive 15 minute "The Door" is certainly a highlight piece, containing all of the above influences and ingredients, all welded together within a tight composition and a gigantic melody that will undoubtedly please the "epic"urians. Dripping synthesized tears, intrepid piano swagger and an elongated guitar intercession make this piece palatable but has a missing "je ne sais quoi" that would have tipped this into the bravo fold. Perhaps a little sweaty grit and subsiding anger would have been better suited for distinction sake; it's just too darn pretty! "Zion" does recommend a more experimental direction but it chooses to meander peacefully within wispy soundscapes , thrusting guitar notes only with venerated timidity. The finale is the title cut, which has a sturdy Genesis feel that I see as a bit pointless, veering very near plagiarism again. "Celestial City" has like many beautiful metropolitan expanses, a few bland neighborhoods but remains a pleasant enough cosmic journey, for the Pilgrim or the Progger. I will be generous because Jeremy seems like a real decent fellow to boot. Pencil in right between Phillips' "Slowdance" and Gandalf's "Gallery of Dreams" for next Sunday morning. 4 fluffy clouds

The first Jeremy album I ever listened to was pretty bad so I had no hopes when I put this album in my CD player. I soon discovered that I was wrong.

In cases like Celestial City, it is great to be proven wrong. This album is a showcase of understated, but still a big sound music. It is based on Jeremy's guitars in addition to tangents. What really sticks out on Celestial City is Jeremy's guitar solos. They are simply awesome. If you are a budding guitarist, this is one of the albums you should get. Then listen & learn. The rest of can just try to collect our jaws again from the floor. Which is not easy.

The music is still based in new age music and symphonic prog aka Camel and Enid. The music is floating around without offering any contrasts or texture. Which is exactly my main gripe with this album. This album is like a bird without teeth. Hence it is not an excellent addition to anyone's else than a budding guitarist's collection. But the music here is still good and it is a very relaxing album, excellent for late nights or the catnap after coming home from work. I struggle to fully keep my attention on this album though. Seventy-three minutes is twenty minutes too much for this type of albums. Hence my stars.

3 stars

In 1996 Jeremy Morris re-released his guitar-oriented album ''Invisible'' on CD, after having pressed it on cassette in 1990, and the following year he returns with a second album on Kinesis, ''Celestial city''.This time he was helped by Mark Morris on drums, synths and piano, the rest of the instrumental armour was handled by Jeremy himself.

From the dreamy, fairytale cover of ''Pilgrim's journey'' we come to this one, which is much more spacey, additionally the keyboard duties of Mark Morris showcase a slight stylistical turn by Jeremy on this album.It's again another all instrumental work, but this time refered as balanced ''between TANGERINE DREAM and CAMEL''.I definitely confirm this statement.''Celestial city'' is the perfect title for a work full of orchestral electronics and multi-layered, cosmic synthesizers, that won't travel alone, they are always accompanied by Jeremy Morris' soft and emotional touch on guitar and the marching drums of Mark.The result is somewhere between EM and Neo Prog with certain retro vibes, PINK FLOYD are another group to spring to mind listening to this album.Beautiful compositions, rather lacking flexibility, but offering lots of amazing electronic backdrops, well-arranged synthetic soundscapes and brilliant guitar tones in the vein of Andy Latimer, David Gilmour and Steve Hackett, quite often having a slight Neo-Classical aura.This one sounds even pretty cosmic and fairly cinematic at moments, maybe even more compared to Jeremey's previous albums and, while being more of a trippy experience into atmospheric soundscapes, more bombastic passages are not absent either.

Great composer this Jeremy Morris.A sufficient mix of electronic and spacey textures with more classic, progressive sounds.Cathartic music, warmly recommended.