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GOODBYE TO DUSK FAREWELL TO DAWN

The Amber Light

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The Amber Light Goodbye to Dusk Farewell to Dawn album cover
4.09 | 33 ratings | 7 reviews | 21% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 2004

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. A New Atlantis(4:54)
2. Tartaros (8:12)
3. Devil Song (3:40)
4. Gangsters (6:54)
5. The Drowning Man in My Hands (7:37)
6. Hide Inside (5:05)
7. Clock Hands Heart (14:21)
8. New Day (13:18)

Total Time: 64:01

Line-up / Musicians

- Louis Gabbiani / vocals, keyboards, guitars
- Jan Sydow / guitars
- Rabin Dasgupta / basses
- Peter Ederer / drums

Releases information

CD QuiXote Music QXT CD 22 (2004) Germany

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THE AMBER LIGHT Goodbye to Dusk Farewell to Dawn ratings distribution


4.09
(33 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of rock music(21%)
21%
Excellent addition to any rock music collection(52%)
52%
Good, but non-essential (21%)
21%
Collectors/fans only (6%)
6%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

THE AMBER LIGHT Goodbye to Dusk Farewell to Dawn reviews


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Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by diddy
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars So this is the band that called a lot of attention in germany during the last few months. The four guys from Wiesbaden/Germany can be found on several german prog websites or magazines and made it to some "suggestion of the month" titles on these sites. They are said to be THE new hope for german prog and are right on track to prove this point.

"Goodbye to dusk, farewell to dawn" is their first official album and was released in February 2004. I bought it after their concert wich took place 5 minutes walk away from my home, one practical point about newcomer bands. Unlike their EP "As they came they slightly disappeared" wich was limited to 300 copies, this album is available world wide and until now, very successful.

And this happened not by accident as you will see in the further progression of this review. The first track seems to begin where the late TALK TALK ended, a lot of world weariness, fragile piano and atonal sound, far from it, as you will hear after two minutes. You get sustained guitar lines with lot of reverberation as well as powerfull drumming. After it, the song ends just like it started with the exception that now an acoustic guitar plays the part of the fragile piano. The next song "tartaros" is a song that sounds a bit like Radiohead but fortunately with less "lamentational" vocals with powerful and mellow moments, beautiful. "Devil Song" has nothing to do with its title. What you get here is a soulful ballad dominated by acoustic guitar besides muted keyboard layers. The next song "gangters" is a highlight. Every proghead will love this one. Unlike "Devil Song" this track has a lot to do with its title. A lot of rythm changes, odd time signatures besides jazz like parts and english, respectively spanish singing. You really can imagine some gangters sitting around a table at times of the prohibition, nice. But the highlight for sure is the ending where you get VdGG like saxophone breakouts, awesome. Afterwards it gets quite mellow, almost elegiac and dolorous. Lonely piano or guitar tunes accompany with the melancolic chant. But "The drowning man in my hands" never gets boring it's just very melancolic. "Hide inside" is brighter and faster slightly reminiscent of Porcupine Tree. Now two longtracks follow. The first one begins like TALK TALK but not as odd but likewise soulful. The song raises continuously to an fulminant ending with choirs and organ just to to die away purely acoustic with guitar. The last track starts with the same instrument and also features the same pattern, mellow melancolic moments exchanging with loud and heavy parts. Luis Gabbiani sings italian on this track, very nice.

Conclusion: A felicitous debut. You will identify their impacts but they manage it to have their own sound and avoid beeing a copy of any band (a destiny that I have to chalk up many other bands). Their music is often described as "New Artrock" but I think that this term restricts them a lot. Yes, it sounds like Radiohead, Porcupine Tree or Talk Talk but they also feature parts sounding like VdGG or early Genesis. But it doesn't mean that they have no own sound, it's just a comparison to give you an impression.

What remains is the awareness that good music and good bands don't necessarily have to be from metropolitan cities like New York, London or Berlin. Also the province (in comparison to the named cities) offers great musicianchip and talent. I'm sure that we will hear more from this great band. 4 Stars, but they're very close to the 5 (Their EP "As they came they slightly disappeared" would get 5 stars because it's even better)!

Review by hdfisch
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Although such bands like RADIOHEAD (at least the later releases) or TALK TALK are normally not that much my cup of tea, I have to agree in most points to Diddy. Yes the voice reminds sometimes to that one of Thom Yorke, but I've to say as well, fortunately less melancholic and moaning and the fact that Luis Gabbiani is singing in three different languages is adding up some own and unique touch moreover. My favourite track is "Tartaros", it's very nicely done and does not have lengthy slow parts which I don't like so much personally. "Devil Song" is quite mellow as well, but nice to listen and not very long. The next track, "Gangsters" is the weirdest and most divers one on the album with a quite tough beginning passing over to swing/jazz type part with Spanish lyrics and finishing with an awesome and weird saxophone breakout. Really a great progressive song with a slight touch of VDGG but nevertheless a rather unique one. "The drowning man in my hands" is a bit too slow after the last track and is taking out some energy and continuity in my impression. The next track "Hide inside" I find not bad but not very outstanding as well. Despite being very passionate for lengthy tracks, I have to say that "Clock Hands Heart" is almost too long and lacks a bit diversity for a 14 min - track. The last one, a lengthy track as well is very nice with Italian lyrics and offerering well-composed alternations between slower and faster parts, but still too little diversity for timing I think.

As a conclusion I'd like to say that the album is a quite notable full-length debut. Although offering not too many highlights for my personal taste, I still would call it a good addition to any collection and therefore I'm giving it 4 stars. But I don't agree to Diddy in that point that it almost deserves 5 stars, since one could not call it necessarily a masterpiece. For sure there are still great things to be expected by these guys!

Review by Prog-jester
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars A Modern Prog Masterpiece!!!

THE AMBER LIGHT can be described as mixture of PORCUPINE TREE and RADIOHEAD with a bit of Post-Rock.It's probably the best Modern Psychedelic Prog band,and it's also a perfect choise for Prog Newbies - The Ambers are melodical,professional and emotional.Still can't get why they are Prog-Related: they're Pure Prog!!!

Songs of the album differ from each other a lot: opening mellow "A New Atlantis" changes to nervous Floydian "Tartaros".Touching acoustic ballad "Devil Song" drifts into "Gangsters",the wildest track of the whole record (imagine a mixture of James Bond's score with KC's Schizoid Man)!!!"The Drowning Man in my Hands" is the most post-rocking track here - melloww and meditative,my favoritest,probably!"Hide Inside" sounds just like lost RADIOHEAD's hit - Yorke must work for ages to create something related!Two closing epics,"Clock Hands Heart" with awwesome psychedelic mid-part,and "New Day" (Italian lyrics!!!) ,show the band's ability to create long but no way boring tracks - they'll never let your attention go!!!

Highly recommended for those who don't believe in Modern Prog - this record will make you a huge fan of it!!!

Review by Mellotron Storm
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars 4.5 stars .What an incredible release by these young men from Germany. The music is so emotional, reaching deep into the heart. And for me the vocalist is the key, his vocals can be so gentle and fragile, to theatrical and strong. Mostly sung in English with some Spanish and Italian added to the mix with excellent results.

We get things started with "A New Atlantis" which begins with 2 minutes of reserved vocals accompanied with keyboards. The mellow atmosphere is broken by some loud drums and guitar (sounds great) which have a Post-Rock vibe. The fragile vocals return and so does the atmosphere as the drums leave and the accoustic guitar replaces the keyboards from earlier. "Tartaros" features some light keyboards as things build. Vocals stand out here as well. Check out the lyrics ."...stumble through the wilderness you create". An emotional track and one of my favs. "Gangsters" has theatrical vocals, nice guitar riffs, throbbing bass and some cool sax and keyboard work.

"The Drowning Man In My Hands" is my favourite. We have these gentle vocals sounding similar to Thom Yorke from RADIOHEAD (just not as mournful) for about 5 1/2 minutes. A piano melody enters the scene that creates beauty, drums start to pound, then the vocals burst forth like the sun through the storm clouds (my favourite part on the album), then suddenly it's over. So moving. These guys have been mentioned as sounding like SIGUR ROS, and I think it's a combination of the way they let things build and the beauty they create. "Hide Inside" is another preferred song for me. It's difficult to explain how emotional this song makes me. "Clock Hands Heart" is similar to "The Drowning Man In My Hands" in that it slowly builds with vocals and guitar to start (lots of atmosphere) and then intensifies to drums, guitar and vocals, followed with an organ solo before it ends as it began. "New Day" is sung in Italian with lots of mood shifts. A Post-Rock flavour 8 1/2 minutes in.

What a start to these young guys careers. I just don't know how they are going to top this.

P.S. : I originally rated this at 4 stars but here I am 4 1/2 years later still moved by this album. It may not be perfect but it is a 5 star album for me.

Review by evenless
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars This album was recommended to me by Prog Reviewer sinkadotentree (John Davie). Since we have quite a similar taste in music (Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, Green Carnation, Sylvan) I decided to buy it straight away, without any regrets!

The Amber Light is 4 man band of guys just over 20 years of age. That they are quite young is simply amazing, because their music sounds so "mature". It's like you are listening to a progressive rock band with years of experience! And Louis Gabbiani's voice is simply perfect to fit the music. Very clean and velvet-like voice with the absence of any "German accent", which is maybe due to the fact that he's Italian? I really can't tell, because his English also doesn't have any "Italian accent" either. Some lyrics are even sung in Italian, giving a real international feel to it all.

All songs are simply beautiful, slowly in build up, usually with keyboard/piano intro and later on accompanied by guitars, drum and bass. Usually ending up in great melodies and great choruses blending all instruments really harmonic. The only "misser" on this album IMHO is the track "gangsters", which is quite a bit noisy and seems more like an experimental jamming session reminding me of King Crimson's "Moonchild", or Paatos' "Quits", which I both really hate. (Sorry Paatos, sorry KC)

Like John I also really like the following passage in "Tartaros", which might be one of the best track of this album; "Stumble through the wilderness you may. taking all the things that you create, stumble through the wilderness you may. diggin' all the things that you create".

"The Drowning Man In My Hands" is another epic of this album. Making the build-up really slow makes you enjoy the bombastic ending even more! I love the part where the strong melodic piano kicks in (05:30) accompanied by Louis' chorus "We travel trough the light". Wow! Simply marvellous!

Another great track is "Clock Hands Heart". Very delicate dreamy song. Lasting over 14 minutes it lacks a bit of diversity though.

All and all THE AMBER LIGHT is a very promising young band making excellent progressive rock music that will appeal to fans of SYLVAN, RADIOHEAD, PORCUPINE TREE and RIVERSIDE, but is not really comparable to anyone of them! The create their own "AMBER LIGHT" sound!

I think this album almost deserves 5 stars, but the track "Gangsters" on it deteriorates it a bit. As I also just read on their website that they have almost finished a new album I will rate "Goodbye To Dusk Farewell To Dawn" 4 stars, leaving space for some improvement.

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars It's my understanding that The Amber Light majorly restructured their sound on their second album, Play, which makes me wonder what on Earth they were thinking. Goodbye to Dusk, Farewell to Dawn has a wonderful sound which draws on a range of prog styles to present a dreamy melodic rock soundscape which hits an excellent balance between accessibility, nostalgia and originality. Imagine if H-era Marillion had been locked in a room with a pile of post-rock albums - more song-oriented stuff like The Album Leaf, perhaps - and were then turfed out and ordered to play a set in the style of Pink Floyd; the end result might sound a little similar, drawing as it does on textures from Floyd's heyday, Marillion's Marbles-era brilliance and the borderline between post-rock and indie rock. Intriguing stuff, in short.
Review by kev rowland
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Reviewer
3 stars This is the first full length album from German quartet The Amber Light. This is music that is built more on soundscapes and the use of emotion than many standard prog epics. They appear to be interested in Radiohead and possibly Pineapple Thief but I have to confess that for me the jury is still very much out, as I can't make up my mind whether this is a good album or not. I enjoy the gentle acoustic 'Devil Song' which has some delicate touches and is always building yet restrained, but some of the others just don't really work for me. There are two songs at over thirteen minutes long but I have found it hard to get excited about these either. They are supposed to be the new future for German progressive rock ? of that I'm not too sure.

Originally appeared in Feedback #80, Sept 2004

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