7 OCEAN

Accessible, melodic progressive rock with a strong vintage orientation is what 7 Ocean provides us with on their new release "Son of Sun". And while the compositions may well have been crafted some time back in the day, they have stood the test of time rather well, as far as I can tell. An album that merits a check by those who know and love progressive rock as it was explored in the mid to late '70s by bands such as Camel and Genesis.

No wonder, ''Return under the sun'' has a more natural sound than the band's debut and, as a result, it sounds a tad more convincing and professional of a recording.Of course the material is not up there with the first league acts of keyboard Prog, but it appears to be well-executed with interesting parts and variations, delivered in a set of long suites and mid-length pieces.Additionally it sounds more symphonic and less electronic than the previous release, thus it competes as a focused work within the Symphonic Rock frames.The multi-layered synth parts, which sounded as fillers in ''The mysterious race of strange entities'', are limited to zero and the band performs a light Symphonic Rock with emphasis on keyboards and piano, containing organ waves and a more balanced use of synthesizers, offering some nice violin, flute, electric piano and harsichord notes in the process and sinking deep into the Classical education with all these piano variations and interludes.While the electric guitar is rather sporadic, there is some good presence of the acoustic one on several tracks for a more diverse and rich sound.The overall result is not always memorable, but comes up as a nice improvement, the guys set their direction into the soft Symphonic Rock vein and they did a good job at the end of the day.

Less E.L.P.-sounding and more original than their debut, moving also a bit away from the LITTLE TRAGEDIES references.This would demand a sacrifice by the band, which now sounds less bombastic/grandiose.The album comes as a free download, for fans of keyboard Prog and Symphonic Rock this could be a very good listening.

A trio of bass/keyboards/drums with occasional guitar lines played by Eletsky couldn't sound much different than an E.L.P.-like band and the music of 7 Ocean is actually along the lines of Symphonic Rock with some Electronic orientations and sporadic jazzy moments.They are pretty similar to premature LITTLE TRAGEDIES with a tendency towards organic music with strong Classical influences and big orchestral movements, but they also sound a bit different at some point.That's because 7 Ocean and Eletsky in particular delivers plenty of singing lines (in Russian or Belarusian, I do not know exactly), trying to keep a balance between vocal and instrumental passages.But the result is often far from exciting.Not because of the vocals, which are not bad neither very good, but mainly due to a much synthetic sound, heavily relying on keyboards, effects and samplers, eventually producing a digital, mechanical atmosphere.That's a shame, as 7 Ocean could create some cool soundscapes of Electronic- and Classical-oriented ambiences during the listening process as well as some fiery keyboard pyrotechnics.The second part of the album fortunately containsd some stronger and more natural pieces, like the bombastic and deeply symphonic ''On the threshold'', the short ''Short stories'' with the delicate violin parts and the omnipresent organ or the dense ''Conclusions'' with the everachanging breaks between piano, synths and organ.Not accidentally the more beautiful parts of the album are the ones where the charming sound of acoustic guitar is added for a deeper, more convincing and natural sound.

Glad to see these guys fight back against the previous fate, which caused the loss of their drummer.But I would be even more pleased to see them come back with a more definite, physical instrumentation and less sampling parts.Not a bad album, if you like the early stages of LITTLE TRAGEDIES you will propably like this one as well...2.5 stars.

Accessible, melodic progressive rock with plenty of keyboard textures and a distinct emphasis on melodies and harmonies is what 7 Ocean provides on their latest album "Diapause". The conceptual story explored is one that a Russian speaking audience will have to make up their minds about, but if that detail doesn't concern you overly much and you tend to enjoy classic symphonic progressive rock that has at least half a foot well placed inside a 70's context, this is a CD that should be worthwhile to spend some time with.

It is symphonic, but there are some elements and stylings that show where this music has originated from, especially with some of the traditional folk that is obviously a major influence. If someone had asked me to pick a country of origin without knowing, I would have guessed Poland, and as they share a boundary with Belarus I don't think I could have been accused of being too far away. One quite unusual part of this album is that there are a lot of keyboard sounds utilized that I would have associated far more with the eighties than the present day, and there are times when pop seems to be making it's way into the prog. There are many dreamy sections, and the result is something that in many ways is quite atmospheric and pleasant, while also being somewhat dated. Some of these songs could be used as background music in films, but I don't really view that as a positive in their case.

Seventh Ocean are fond of making mellow compositions, with keyboards, piano and organ being the dominating instruments; and in the segments containing vocals these are given a central place in the soundscape. Guitars are used more sparingly; placed in the back of the mix; and more often than not the acoustic guitar is preferred over the electric. Long melodic segments are a dominating trait in all compositions here, with keyboards and organ underlining most segments of the tunes with symphonic textures. The songs are light and floating, sometimes with spacey elements, seldom or never with hard or harsh elements. The end result is music easy on the ears and soothing for the mind. The main negative aspect of this release are the all Russian vocals, which might limit the appeal of this album slightly.

Fans of light and melodic symphonic rock with a 70's feel to it might want to check this one out.