GALADRIEL

An extraordinary album of reverence and nearly-religious respect coming out of Spain, an uncommon combination of the pastoral sides of both YES (especially Wakeman and acoustic Howe) and GENESIS (all of the extraordinary diverse skills and sounds of Mssrs. Phillips, Hackett, and Rutherford) fronted by a most unique vocal talent in Señor Jesús Filardi.

SIDE 1 - "The Day Before The Harvest":

1. "Lágada" (8:59) Prog Folk?! Ecclesiastically-inspired devotional music? Not what I was expecting! Very delicate, pastoral soundscapes open this song and proceed to kind of lazily meander across the countrysides, first with vocal and later with electric guitar lead. At 2:15 the music switches to more of a YES pattern with fast-strummed acoustic guitar with Moog-like synthesizer, organ, and electric guitar working their way within and between vocal sections. Odd staccato vocal "da-da-da"s in the fourth minute before a Moog-like solo. Hackett-like guitar and Wakeman- sounding keyboard work with English choirboy-like vocal textures. Interesting! Then violin and wonderful multiple voice harmonies in the eighth minute. This Jesús Filardi is quite a vocal find! (19.5/20)

2. "Virginal" (2:26) pure Hackett-era multi-guitar Genesis bliss! (5/5)

3. "To Die In Avalon" (10:00) opens with weird sound and weird vocals over classically-oriented piano flourishes but leads into a sparsely populated middle section with some cool piano versus Robert Fripp-like electric guitar interplay. This turns into a little more pensive time keeping in the fifth minute. Then piano takes it solo for a jazz- and-classical styled solo for the sixth minute. Peter Hammill meets Doroccus and Keith Emerson to form an early version of After Crying. Interesting and unexpected. (18.5/20)

SIDE 2 - "The Year of The Dream":

4. "Limiar (Winter's Request)" (1:26) two arpeggiated electric guitar chords are soon joined by drums and bass and keys, all performing a kind of polyrhythmic weave for the song's duration. (5/5)

5. "Landahl's Cross" (20:04) an early-GENESIS-styled epic with quite the strong BABYLON-like sound palette. The creative instrumental inputs are quite inventive and unique--like no one else in prog. How can one deny the extraordinary freshness of these compositions? Not a perfect or always fully-engaging song, but a definite piece of quality. (35/40)

Total time 42:26

The vocalist, Jesús Filardi, with his English Choir sound and style, is truly an exceptional and noteworthy talent--one who's style and sound is, in fact, unlike anything I've ever heard in progressive rock music except for the Scottish singer Matthew Corry of the 2018-debuting band EMPEROR NORTON from York. The music is highly sophisticated and complex, with extraordinary musicianship and quite confident and highly creative compositional skills.

I can only surmise that these musicians were both classically trained and highly skilled before forming this band and that they worked long and hard honing these very unusually complex songs before trying to set them to vinyl. It is unfortunate that the sound recording and engineering is not up to the levels of high quality set by the musicians and to which they deserved. Still, I feel so blessed, as if I've just entered a sacred monastery in which progressive rock music is the highest form of devotional homage.

A-/five stars; despite the poor sound engineering I consider this a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music as well as a truly unique and masterful debut album. I have to say, without question, that I consider this an "essential" album for prog lovers to hear--a listening experience that absolutely represents all of the experimental eclecticism imagined by the original "prog rock" artists of the 1960s and early 1970s.

A forerunner album I'd say. Perhaps the most interesting, innovative and shocking prog album of the 21st century until now. It breaks not only rules, laws and traditions of neo-prog but also of prog in toto. It does not meet the requirements and standards as of 1970s' so of 2000s' prog, and it's difficult to say if Calibrated Collision Course is far below or far above those standards, so unusual it is and so irregularly it sounds. All that the album consists of is made wrong. Every moment, every feature seems erratic. Something similar to hard prog in Blind Hostage - but it's a wrong hard prog. Something reminding fusion or even blues in Leap Of Faith - but it's a wrong fusion. Something... no idea what exactly, something unfamiliar but intuitively erratic in Calorie Street. Some jazzy moments in a few tracks - but again, no one should compose and play jazz prog in such a manner, it's a derivative jazz prog. A wrong, distorted quotation from The Who's Tommy in Press? Sure!. And finally - a wrong epic. Every next bar in 20-minute As Big As Bang is unexpected, and if it brings no discomfort, that's just because every bar is full of strange beauty. Of something that may be called harmony of chaos. The entire album is one big Zone Of High Risk. The risking one is of course Jesus Filardi who, as a composer, explores the areas where no musician ever invaded before. Some people say that probably it would be better if those areas still remained never invaded. Some call Calibrated Collision Course chaotic and unpleasant for ears. I don't try to dispute with those people, this all is very individual. But when I first listened to the album, I was permanently thrilled to solve this 58-minute musical charade. And now, after 9 years, the charade still remains a charade and its solution is every time new. If the 4th album from Galadriel is not an embryo of some new paradigm for prog music, then it is at least a one-time marvel.

The music of Galdriel finally made some noise back in late-80's, selling over 2000 copies and with Musea showing an interest to sign the band.This way ''Muttered Promises From an Ageless Pond'' saw a CD reissue in 1990.In the meantime the band with a re-constructed line- up led by keyboardist Jesus Filardi started rehearsing on the new album in Madrid.The album was ready before the summer of 91', but Galadriel suffered during the recordings from serious come's and go's almost in every position.Eventually ''Chasing the Dragonfly'' was released in March 1992.

The strong YES influence remains the band's driving force both in the vocal and guitar department, while Galadriel insist on creating smooth, delicate arrangements over a more complex and progressive material.The violin is more evident in the instrumental parts, the guitar work lies somewhere between the technical view of STEVE HOWE and the more melodic side of STEVE HACKETT, the keyboard work remains steadily in the background creating some ethereal dreamy soundscapes, while Filardi's voice sounds exactly like JON ANDERSON.The style follows the vein of the previous album, somewhere between Neo Prog and light Symphonic Rock.However the huge changes during the recordings seem to have hurt the band badly.''Under a Full-Colloured Sky'' is just a New-Age piece of uninteresting music, the rest of the tracks rely heavily on Filardi's voice, the instrumental parts are limited to smooth and careful interplays while the melodies are a bit pale and unmemorable.The compositions follow constantly a down-tempo, almost hypnotic at moments and only when the members are in full collaboration one can see the full potential of the band.

While things were going the right way for Galadriel regarding their marketing and distribution, musically the band made a step backwards with some less-inspired musicianship and a mediocre composition level.Even this way a couple of early tunes are easily compared to their decent debut and enough to make the album recommended for Neo-Prog fanatics...2.5 stars.

Galadriel's debut album finds them tackling an intriguing neo-prog blend of the softer sides of Yes, Genesis, and the RPI scene (as represented by PFM or Locanda Delle Fate). Given just a mildly better production job, this album might have been gorgeous - as it is, its beauty is evident but obscured. Divided into two halves, The Day Before the Harvest and The Year of the Dream (Summit and Nuncia del Noche are bonus tracks added when the album was issued on CD via Musea), the album evokes the medieval pastoral tones of Trespass-era Genesis.

The best tracks on here are probably the opening Lagada, on which Alfredo Garcia provides an intriguing guest performance on violin which really helps the band distinguish their sound from their influences, and the following Virginal, an impeccably performed classical guitar piece from Manolo Macia and Manolo Pancorbo which is reminiscent of two cloned Anthony Phillipses performing with each other. The album's epic, Landahl's Cross, gets points for ambition but seems to draw a little too much on Marillion's Grendel for comfort. The bonus tracks include a short Spanish language song and a 10 minute piano and vocals piece which seems rather slapped together.

On the whole, the band have an intriguing sound, and Jesús Filardi's singing voice is genuinely evocative - it helps that he makes the wise choice not to try to emulate Peter Gabriel, Jon Anderson or Fish but sings in his own individual style - but I can't give the album as high a score as I might because the album suffers so badly from its poor sound quality. Those particularly keen on a neo-prog blend of Yes and Genesis may find themselves willing to look beyond that, as I am, but equally I couldn't blame anyone who finds it not worth the effort of getting into.

EDIT, APRIL 2013: Aaaah, go ahead and take another star, Galadriel. Although I can't justify giving the album full marks - Landahl's Cross still drags a little in the middle - I can't deny that somehow it's managed to get heavy rotation on my music player and there's this certain magic about it which I can't in good faith deny. It's definitely an album which delivers more than the sum of its parts, and with repeated listens its haunting themes really do start working their magic on you. I will say, however, that this is based on trimming the two bonus tracks from the end of the album (though my general reviewing policy is not to factor in bonus tracks anyway).

Galadriel began in the late '80s as a classic symphonic band from Spain. Despite its limited production values, Muttered Promises from an Ageless Pond is a classic. With some changes in the line-up, and vocalist Jesus Filardi taking a more dominant role, the band released Chasing the Dragonfly; a perfect blend of their symphonic sound with modern touches. Even more line-up changes yielded the thoroughly modern-sounding Mindscapers. And then there was a long silence that was finally broken in late 2007 with Calibrated Collision Course.

Only Jesus Filardi (vocals/keyboards) and Jose Bautista (bass/keyboards) remain from earlier incarnations of the band, but they are fleshed out by a number of musicians including Jean Pascal Boffo on guitars and Andy Sears (from Twelfth Night) on backing vocals. It's also interesting to note that Simon Heyworth mastered the disc (his credentials include not only many mainstream releases, but also a number of releases from Anthony Phillips).

From the first track it's obvious this is a continuation of the styles explored on Mindscapers ? very modern-sounding aggressive prog rock, with many layers of aural textures that make for fantastic earphone-candy. "Blind Hostage" opens the album on a strong note, and with backing vocalist Andy Sears there is more than a little in common with some of the stronger late-period Twelfth Night material.

Many of the themes Jesus explores on this (and the previous) album are technology and consumerism and their dehumanizing effects on society. Sometimes he takes a light- hearted stab at these themes like on "Calorie Street". Other tracks, like "Leap of Faith" and "Press?Sure!" and "Consumer Satisfaction" are more serious diatribes. The epic track "As Big as Bang" covers a lot of ground, from the original primordial Big Bang to man's invention of firearms.

Personally speaking, it's great to hear Jesus Filardi singing again. I believe he has one of the best voices in progressive rock today. This new album showcases it well with its slick production and ear-candy textures. If you're new to Galadriel, the songs may be a little too eclectic, and there may not be enough of the more traditional prog clichés to be a clear winner. But just give it time; the album will grow on you!

I would like to recommend this album, but it's difficult for me. Actually, the music is superb. All the members of the band are skilled on their instruments, the musical ideas are brilliant, the sound is clear, but ... that voice ...

It's a pity. Someone ought to tell Jesus Filardi that he is a very good musician, a good composer and a good bandleader, but as well that his voice is simply hideous. But no, he keeps on being determined to sing, and I disagree with the reviewers who suggest that Filardi's voice is Jon Anderson-esque (¡for God's sake, poor Jon!). It's not "compressed", but it's absolutely "tiring". It's, actually, unpleasant, and when you are listening "Chasing the Dragonfly" and you are enjoying the music, suddenly that annoying voice appears and the house of cards collapses ...

On the other hand, and if you are able to overlook that voice, CTD is a good album, well balanced in themes and rhythms. 'The Gray Stones of Escalia", "Passport to Tora" and "Senshi" are fantastic, and, for me, there are more resemblance with Marillion or IQ than with Yes or Genesis (so the "neo prog" moniker it's OK) . "Alveo (Bolero)" would be great if the band leave out the vocals. How can you "sing" in a bolero? (can you imagine Ravel's Bolero with an operistic voice or Greg Lake singing in Trilogy "Abbadon's Bolero"?).

To cut a long story short : if the album were instrumental, I would give four stars. But, sadly, it isn't : two stars.

Strange album, I have owned it for 18 years now and I still hesitate to make a statement if it's good or not.

Galadriel's debut "Muttered promises from an ageless pond" was retro-symphonic, evoquing the soft side of early Genesis and Yes, but it was immature and very poorly recorded. After that the band lost several members most notably keyboardist David Aladro and guitarist Manolo Macia whom I believe were the most competent in terms of musicianship and responsible for that Hackett-Genesis & Yes feel. Consequently the style here is completely different: the skilled-fingers playing leaves room to more quiet and atmospheric playing, and the band brings in a lot of guest musicians for the solos and other complex parts, suggesting that they lacked the competence themselves. The only linking thread with the debut is the distinctive voice of Jesus Filardi, who if we are critical we may say that he continues to sound a bit as a Jon Anderson wannabe. The problem is that his singing style is so calm and lazy that he seems to slow down the music themes themselves. Someone said that it's as if "he's trying to make us all fall asleep" and while this is obviously an exageration, I get the point.

On the positive side, the production is very good with great attention to details, and the music does not fall into the easy trap of cliché neo-prog or other relatively easy styles. The music is a strange and quite original mix of classic prog, neo-prog, world music, new age and eclectic. The total result is maybe closer to Eclectic than to what we understand as Neo.

"Senshi" starts very softly but picks up some tempo blending pop-neo-prog-new-age in a style similar to some modern Yes, in the middle it has a guitar solo sounding like Pat Metheny and some spanish guitar and cajon.

"Passport to Tora" is a short instrumental, basically a guitar solo on a bed of supporting instruments, a bit Hackett-like. Simple but pleasant.

"Alveo" is a bolero. I'm not very fond of boleros but it's a sort of musical curiosity and it has some nice moments.

"Under a full-coloured sky" is more world music, with sitar, melodic percussion and spanish guitar.

"Merciless tides" is a very curious track, difficult to describe with some odd beats and key changes and a soft middle section. Quite interesting from a musical point of view, unusual and eclectic.

"The gray stones of Escalia" is the suite, clocking at nearly 19 min, but it fails to deliver. It starts interestingly and intriguingly, immersing us in a slow epic pilgrimage accompanied by very good vocals, but it takes very long to reach anywhere, instead of picking up to some clear point it keeps lingering in soft world music lazy moods. It's not until over 9 min that it gets some energy but then it's in the form of an unconvincing pop-rock section. It softens again to a nice promising soft bridge section, only to end up again in a disappointing finale borrowed from standard Neo-Prog motives.

Not bad but not good enough. I have no problem at all with soft calm music, but when music does not have energy it should supplement it by feeling and emotion, or by sheer musicianship skills, and this album does not have enough of any. Interesting enough not to deserve 2 stars but not more for my taste, although more eclectic minds than mine may appreciate it more.

This debut album from the spanish Galadriel has flaws and I can understand reviewers who will not give it more than 3 stars. I will be generous with 4, by virtue of its good ideas and some competent playing, because I can sense a lot of goodwill put in it, because it features a musical style which I really like, and finally to record some difference with it's follower "Chasing The Dragonfly" which I find worse and yet not so bad as to deserve 2 stars. So if I give 3 to "CTD" I feel like I have to give 4 to this "MPFAAP".

Although tagged in PA as Neo-Prog this album is clearly symphonic, a blend of early Genesis soft Hackettian passages, soft classic Yes and some Emersonian grand piano fragments. By extension from all these it can also remind of some PFM or some of the works by Citizen Cain. Clearly retro-symphonic as you see, mostly soft, ethereal, lyrical, fantastic and mythical, you will not find hard rockers like "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" or "Get'Em Out by Friday" here. I think they blend enough influences as not to sound a clone of any in particular. And certainly this is not standard Neo-Prog.

The worst with this album is the production. It was recorded in several sessions spanning a period of nearly 2 years, in different studios with different engineers and 2 different bassists (one of the two guitar players had to take over the bass for some tracks after the original bassist quit), and most likely with very limited resources. The result is that the sound is muddy and dark, more like a decent demo than like a proper official album. I think it was originally released by a spanish label and later on reissued by Musea adding the last 2 tracks, and it's a shame that they could not take the occasion of the Musea deal to re- record the whole thing with better means. Although some might say that the positive side of it is that is sounds like a real vintage obscure record from the early 70's!

Other possible criticisms are that in the long songs the different fragments do not always flow naturally enough into each other, and although sparkled with good stuff, the compositions lack that final leap from "promising" to "great".

Perhaps the most distinctive element is the voice of Jesus Filardi whose high pitch combined with the reverb applied may remind slightly of Jon Anderson, although the intonation is a mix of Jon's lyrical approach with the more theatrical style of Fish or Gabriel. The guitars are mostly Hackett-like but include some Howe-like flavours especially in some solos, while the keyboards are more in the PFM school. The bass and drums are average- low, not helped by the mentioned poor recording quality.

The lyrics are in english except for the last track and unlike in many other spanish bands, they are really well written and Filardi's pronounciation is good. An example of the goodwill put in this record despite the limited budget is that although the booklet does not include the lyrics, the CD came with a piece of photocopied paper with not only all the english lyrics but also spanish versions of each, which are not literal translations of the english ones, they tell the same underlying story but written in a totally different way, as proper lyrics written from scratch in spanish and not simple translations. It was clearly made by typewriter, cutting with scissors, glueing and photocopying.

The first 3 songs are collectivelly grouped as "The Day Before the Harvest". "Lagada" shows from the start what are we are going to find here: Hackettian soft Genesis from period "Trespass" to "Selling England" with some Yes and other early 70's influences. It features some guest violin fills which give it a welcome distinctive element.

"Virginal" is instrumental, a beautiful delicate duet of acoustic guitars, again very Hackett- Rutherford-like.

"To Die in Avalon" is again in the style of soft early Genesis although some guitar fragments may remind also of early King Crimson and there's a competent piano solo which could have been Keith Emerson.

The next 2 songs are grouped as "The Year of the Dream". "Limiar" is another short instrumental of Hackettian atmosphere, not bad but nothing special either.

The we have the 20 min suite "Landahl's Cross" which is another melting pot of vintage symphonic prog influences: early Genesis, lyrical Yes, King Crimson, Marillion's Grendel and so on. However this is not the great track you might expect by its lenght, it feels disjointed and lacks definition.

The last 2 songs are (or so I believe) the ones added in the Musea release. "Summit" is very good with a fantastic atmosphere reminding a bit of Genesis' "The Fountain of Salmacis" and another great Emersonian piano solo.

The album closes with "Nunca de noche" with lyrics in spanish, played in clean guitar arpeggios and the vocal melody. A nice uncomplicated song.

Recommended if you like this style of music, as long as you do not expect a masterpiece like Foxtrot and as long as you are a bit forgiving about the muddy production. Best songs for my taste "Lagada", "Virginal", "To Die in Avalon" and "Summit". Their next album is much better recorded but they lost the two main musicians David Aladro and Manolo Macia and changed their musical direction .

Oh my. Something went really, really wrong when this album was created. Or perhaps this fine Spanish act suddenly decided for a major shift in sound, now trying to reach out to a truly avant-garde audience. It's not an album that will have a broad appeal, that is the one undeniable fact about this production.

Shifty, fragmented compositions with some passages firmly placed in neo-progressive territories and other with distinct jazz and funk tinges to them, some mainstream-oriented escapades with more of a genereic pop expression to them as well. Nothing new or innovative, but nothing truly bad either. The passages with instrumental layers residing somewhere in between harmonic and disharmonic are much more problematic though - neither fish nor fowl as far as I'm concerned. Add in a lead vocalist with a voice like Peter Gabriel seemingly trying to sing in the same manner as Jon Anderson (on a lower register obviously) and bombastic backing vocals used both way too often as well as outside of most normal perceptions of when they are appropriate, and the end result is taxing, and not in a good way.

Some folks will love this stuff, but it is a release that will appeal to a very select few. And I'm not amongst those charmed by this experiment, obviously.

This is an excellent album from Galadriel. Far better than the previous one Mindscaper. Galadriel definitely made a step in professionalism and quality (of factor ten!).

Compositions are intelligent, emotional and well executed. The presence of Andy Sears at the backing vocals leads to sophisticated, futuristic and beatiful colors that you don't hear in prog usually. The epic "As Big Bang" is absolutely stunning, and if it doesn't disserve the traditionnal amount of complex measures required by lots of proggers. Anyway, you will find here incredible vocal harmonies and nice textures (that rivalises in quality and freshness with Ritual ones). The last song "Consumer Satisfaction" is simply beautiful and instantly stays in mind. Galadriel also add some fresh jazz fusion to its abilities, for the best, and mix it with some Peter Gabriel last period textures (and far better!).

While lots of bands are composing "automatically" their epics, Galadriel never forgot emotions. For fans of Peter Gabriel, Flaming Lips and new stuff. To me one of the best album of 2008 (and there are lots!).