CHROMIUM

Canadian instrumental trio from Quebec. Unfortunately I had not had a chance to listen to their first album yet, but this one (a second and last so far) is excitingly good. All three musicians are highly skilled instrumentalists, but technical skills of their leader and bass- guitarist Donald Fleurant are just superb. He plays 4, 6, 7 and 12 string basses, and does it on such high technical level, that it's just unbelievable. The album consists of 12 instrumental pieces, including one by J.S. Bach adapted for 7 string bass by Fleurant. It's difficult to describe their music in terms of sub-genre this guys belong to, as they are mixing different genres quite well, but I would call it Progressive rock with symphonic elements and touches of fusion. Certain moments can remind about Djam Karet, sometimes their sound reminds of Bozzio-Levin-Stevens or Kopecky, but all in all their style is quite unique. It is a great album to listen to, and the only thing which prevents me from giving it full 5 stars score is that the compositions, being short, are IMO slightly underdevelopped, and not giving the impression of an album as of one whole entity, but rather of a random selection of various bits and pieces of musical ideas, no matter how rich and fresh they are. Neverthless this album is very interesting and enjoyable, and can be undoubtfully considered as an excellent addition to any prog music collection (well, certainly to mine!)

Talisma is pretty popular among Ukrainians!!! :-)

OK, as Eugene has already said , this is instrumental Sympho/Fusion album,which contains extremely melodical and complex compositions clocking from 55 seconds to 6 minutes - pretty short, but varied and interesting.Guitars and the whole music are definetely inspired by Fripp and KC, there are no rip-off or clone-like attitude - this is example of hidden influence, which may become obvious only after few listenings.

This is THE FIRST INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM I EVER REVIEWED (except GYBE's albums), and it is a solid 5-star product.I just have nothing to complian on!!!Flawless and highly recommended!!!

For their second album Talisma have definitely managed to kick things up a notch. Another collection of short intense instrumentals is offered up. Just a percussionist as a guest on three songs.

There's a streaming version of the opening track, Qwhat, currently posted on this site, and that's what got me hooked on this band. I just happened to play it one afternoon when the cleaning crew was at my office. (They vacuum and I usually pause what I'm listening to and find something streaming on the internet.) My jaw practically fell to the floor and I knew I had to have it. I ordered both Chromium and Corpus right away. Fortunately and unfortunately, they are a fairly new band and have a short discography. Anyone who thinks prog is dead needs to check these guys out. Chromium really is a masterpiece of progressive music. It incorporates elements of many prog sub-genres. Be prepared to go on one hell of a musical journey.

Qwhat starts off taking you all kinds of places musically, heavy and intense.

Dementia's a nice medieval sounding track, reminds me a little of Akkerman's Tabernakel at the opening, then it gets more electric and the music speeds up. Then things get rather spooky sounding before the song ends as it began.

Leviosa another wonderful track packed with changes. Dark bits, rocking bits, twisted interwoven bits, heavy bits.

Chromium reminds me a bit of Djam Karet, and I must say as a big DK fan, these guys do instrumental prog better. Also sounds a bit like Discipline era King Crimson.

Nebuleuse is a synthesizer solo that sounds like its name.

Nuclide, dark heavy jazzy.

Inversion, another DisciplinCrimsonic composition.

Mobius, think of the strip, think League of Crafty Guitarists with just two guitarists, maybe even early Steve Tibbetts.

Tribajigue, short and sweet jiggy prog.

On Cumulus, they mellow out considerably at the start, but not for long, after about a minute the music gets really intense, ending once again on a mellow note.

Hindi, as you might expect, has an Indo-Prog flavor to it.

Double, which wraps up the album, is actually a cover of a Bach piece. Starts out with solo bass, then after a pause, becomes a bass and synthesizer duet.

What an amazing set of music. It's music that you really want to sit down and listen to with your undivided attention. This is not an exaggeration, if Talisma isn't already, they are well on their way to becoming one of the greatest trios of progressive rock.

This very good Canadian band offered us again a fine album with the release of "Chromium". Somewhat similar to their debut "Corpus" in a way.

The overall mood is strongly KC oriented: their music is complex but not too technical (although the guitar play is quite frenetic at times). The great opener ''Owhat'' is definitely playing in these territories and it is a real killer. It is of course difficult to confirm after such a flamboyant start.

With such a title, ''Dementia'' is a weird track: it takes off quite gently and then bubbles into a crazy and jazzy explosion. The good feel is prolonged during ''Leviosa''. I bet that if you would submit this song to KC fans, they might well believe that this is an unreleased song from the masters. Same virtuosity, same oppressive and heavy feel. Scary as well.

There are little information related to this band over the net (I got half a page of info on their label's web-site: Unicorn through Google Canada) and I wonder if they tour or not. It would be highly interesting to discover them live, although their sophisticated music probably need a lot of production since they are only three to play. To reproduce these sounds, they couldn't do that on stage with only the three of them.

Anyway, the fine experience lasts for about the whole length of the album. I have never been a KC die-hard fan, but ''Talisma'' is more accessible to my ears, even though their music here is fully instrumental (which was almost the case for their debut as well).

If you like intricate music with some jazzy feel, the title track opens its arms and welcomes you. You are where you need to be. The discreet keys work in the background might well be submerged by the powerful guitar, it still adds a lot of body.

As KC in their early days, there are as well full symphonic moments available (even spacey in this case). The beautiful ''Nébuleuse'' is even TD oriented! I would have wished it to be a little longer though! Some nice feel as well for the sweet, but technically complex ''Inversion''.

A track as ''Cumulus'' is also welcome to break these heavy lines at times. Again, some Floydean passages for a brief moment. The band investigates some Eastern sounds during the well named ''Hindi''. It is a highly dynamic and inspired piece of music which almost closes this album. This honour belongs to the madrigal ''Double''.

Four stars for this interesting album. This band would deserve more exposure IMHHO.