PERFECT COSMOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE

Excellent space exploratory music which will make your toes curl! Several years ago I heard FONYA's first release and thought it was mediocre. 5 albums since FONYA has finally found the right spot for me! Gentle synth filled space landscapes which are supported by excellent bass and guitar overlays. Along the way FONYA pulls out of the archive a remake of YES' "Gates Of Delerium Live" (From Yesshows) which is superb really. For those not familiar with FONYA, it is essentially a one man operation with all instruments played by Chris Fournier. This album has a very dark and professional feel to it and in my opinion never gets too synthy sounding. Songs a re nice and long and given lots of space to breathe as Fournier takes us into the depths of space. Excellent and well worth the price.

One of the most irritating things is the link some progheads make between symphonic prog and some sort of high-energy new-age music, and Fomya is a perfect example of such musical disaster. Fonya is apparently the pet project of Chris Fournier who plays every instrument on the album, even if most of them seem to be coming out of his cheap synths. Unfortunately this type of "basement solo project" album comes fifteen a dozen, and none are worth anything more than the price of the bus ride to the first used record store to get rid of it. Be it Arrakeen, Iris, Hecenia or Fonya, the 90's are filled with this type of home- made "projects", even down to the tacky artworks on the booklet.

When Fournier says: "Pseudo concept and half-baked ideas" in his liner notes, he is most likely being overly humble and tries to avoid sounding or looking pretentious. But little does he realize that his PCP album is exactly that: "Pseudo concept and half-baked ideas". And that this kind of album is pretentious beyond belief, pompously pushing Emerson and Lake aside to take their prized throne away from them.

Of course, this is always difficult to be entirely honest about such an album without actually hurting the author (Chris Fournier and his immense labour of love he invested in such works) or sounding impolite by using words like laughable, but I do not have the patience to give this kind of project a second listen, because it is not only useless, cheesy, but completely futile, IMHO. Best avoided. Soory Chris, being honest here.

FONYA is the one man project of Chris Fournier. He plays all the instruments although the drums are programmed. Another laid back sort of samey release like the previous album "In Flux".

It's too bad because I like the sound to start out but then I tire of being fed the same flavour, and the drum sound does bother me although that's far from being the make or break with this recording. Again another long one at 71 minutes. I do think this is a step up from "In Flux" and maybe if it was a 40 minute album i'd give it 3 stars. I think too it's a case of having many albums in this style that simply blow this one away. No comparison.

Even the cover of "The Gates Of Delirium" can't pull this one out of the mire.