EPIDAURUS

Let me hasten to add that even the band's debut fell somewhat short of high end jewelry status, but it offered enough moments between elegant instrumentals and Christiane Wand's vocals to be accorded due reverence for their contributions to that creative epoch. Here we have a lazy pop cum disco album with occasional symphonic and electronic arrangements that at best ("Tonight", "October 1919") remind me of countrymen P'COCK but not even to that level, and at worst (pretty much everything else but especially "Seed in Your Heart"), would not pass for filler on RENAISSANCE's awful archive album "Songs from Renaissance Days", which was basically an album of also rans. If one might occasionally be inclined to hum "By the Wayside" or "without You", that's just more in the realm of self immolation than anything resembling a compliment.

So here we have it, a species which should be endangered, an album with essentially no audience and no redeemability, and cruel punishment of a band's modest legacy.

Well, I was trying to find something good on this, but it's so hard. Cheap melodies (strong melodic element actually, but not a good one), almost to the point where it becomes very annoying.

2(-), not good, it really isn't worth of adventurous listener's attention, only for historical purposes and/or if you want to hear something unchallenging, easy-listening music.

I love the fact that there are no guitars present at all and if you're a fan of the Mellotron - you're luck's in here - as there's loads of it. Mind you, the setting seems to be stuck on choir and strings. The mighty Moog is also utilised in large chunks. There's also a fair bit of flute too which sounds nice. For such an unknown band on an obscure label, the production throughout is actually pretty good.

A real pity, as this is an album that could have been so much better if the band had managed to find a less irritating singer who didn't sound like 'Benji Mouse' from 'The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. Her voice was probably intended to sound angelic, but to me it's torture noise from the depths of hell... The good news is that there's only vocals on two tracks.

"Actions and Reactions" The album wastes no time launching directly into phenomenal symphonic rock waters. Various keyboards provide a smooth ride buoyed by a capable rhythm section. Over sparse instrumentation, the operatic female vocal enters. The synthesizer solo is accomplished though repetitive.

"Silas Marner" Wind and twelve-string guitar, soon joined by a lonely flute, create a mythical piece of music. The synthesizer is a fantastic addition. It picks up tempo and changes face, introducing organ, strings, and those operatic vocals. Stark Mellotron returns to listener to the bleak, windy twelve-string opening with flute flourishes.

"Wings of the Dove" Dirty, clicking organ in 15/8 gives way to Mellotron-drenched piano. Various keyboards take turns in the fore, including Mellotron, organ, piano, and a wicked synthesizer. The rhythmic changes keep the piece fresh.

"Andas" Austere piano opens the fourth track as experimental synthetic sounds take over abruptly. It leaps into a style and sound similar to early Yes, augmented by Mellotron, wild synthesizer, and flute. The piece takes discordant excursions I don't particularly care for, but otherwise, it is a very strong example of symphonic rock.

"Mitternachtstraum" The final piece maintains a steady bass line in 5/4 time with various keyboards swirling around it. For the most part, I am reminded of Camel.

This is another of those hidden gems that we find all of a sudden, that's the precious thing about progressive rock, it does not have limits, and there is plenty of music to discover. So with this album, I, once again, found interesting and well composed music from a band that I didn't know anything. The name of this, their debut album is "Earthly Paradise" and it is the only of theirs I know, but I have read that their second album lacks of creativity and challenging moments, so I believe with this record is enough.

A relatively short album reaching 32 minutes, with only 5 songs oscillating between 5-7 minutes, making a total time of 32.

It kicks off with "Actions and Reactions", and since the very first note we can imagine the music's destiny, I mean, it goes towards the symphonic realm, which is very clear when you listen to that amazing keyboard sound, of course I must mention that I has mellotron, so that gives an extra point. Later female vocals appear, with a unique style, and a minute later the keyboards return faster and challenging, really interesting mix of Eloy and Genesis. Then vocals appear again and the song calms down a little bit, the textures created as background are also well placed, an excellent song.

"Silas Marner" is the longest track and starts very different from the previous one, this time with some wind sound, a soft acoustic guitar and a delicate flute sound. A minute later synths appear with a different sound, but keeping the same atmosphere until minute 3 when drums enter and the song turns faster and a bit psychedelic. Vocals enter (good, but not my favorite vocals), mellotron prevails and a symphonic oriented sound shows the road to delight. The last part is the same as it began, wind effects, acoustic guitar and flute, pretty cool.

"Wings of the Dove" is another keyboard oriented track, but this time the mood is a bit nervous like a movie scene, you don't know what's happening and what's next, this song is great because it maintains you there expecting the next offer, there are several mini changes within this instrumental song, the drums are always great very well placed and the keyboards make it extraordinary.

"Andas" begins with some piano and all of a sudden a weird synth sound which turns spacey and even weirder, making the sound of a robot or something. Later the song changes and makes a rockier sound with guitars, nice bass sound and constant great drumming, but this is just in order to change again and due to the synth sound reminding again to some space or psychedelic act, such as Eloy. The drums are excellent, and the flute addition helps the track getting a new identity, great instrumental song without a doubt.

And last but not least, we have "Mitternachstraum" which supports the idea of labeling this album as a symphonic-psychedelic; you will notice it clearly in this song due to the synth elements, which provoke some great background effects that will be perfectly listened with god headphones, here, we can understand they were also influenced by some krautrock pioneers such as Tangerine Dream, great way of ending an album.

This is an excellent album, as I said, another hidden gem worth discovering, and absolutely recommendable, my final grade is 4 stars.

Enjoy it!

The quality of their material is quite uneven too, jumping from prog to electronic to pop without warning. It lacks direction and personality, as many tracks seem to be done by a different bands at times. Some songs are nice (October 1919 and Between The Lines, for instance are fine pop tunes, the former kind of a Genesis instrumental circa 1978 and the latter reminds me of Renaissance around the time of Song For All Seasons). But sometimes they just blow it (Seed Your Heart is just terrible).

Conclusion: you better listen to this record before you even consider buying it. Although - for my taste - not a complete disaster, it is nothing like their promising, symphonic and very good debut in 1977. Two stars.

Production is very good and clear, the arrangements are excellent and the melodies are catchy. It has no fillers anywhere, and the only bad part of it is the short running time (a little over 30 minutes). Unlike many 70´s instrumental works, this one has no self indulgence or any excess: the music is always captivating and grabs you from the very start.

A very nice surprise. Thanks to Gatot, for his review sparkled my interest. Every symphonic prog fan should listen to this album. Highly recommended.

This "Earthly Paradise" was recorded in mid 1977 and was considered as a studio project only. AS the sleeve mentions, the recording took two days: 25 and 26 June, 1977 and the mixing was done next day 27 June 1977, recorded at Hermes-Tons studio, West Germany. The music is a classic in terms of symphonic prog territory, where it had dynamic musical progressions and fine arrangements. In general, the album featured a beautiful, and sometimes it seems pretentious, with catchy melody, long sustain keyboard work that creates "symphonic" nature.

I am sure you will be amazed hearing the first track "Actions And Reactions (7:01) where a blast of long sustain keyboards work dominate the music overlaid by ambient female vocal. It's hard to deny that symphonic prog do not like this track. The next track is in fact much more ambient with intricate and atmospheric keyboard work augmented beautifully by flute-work, played by Peter Maer. "Silas Marner" (7:50) brings us to an upbeat symphonic music with stunning keyboard rhythms section and solo. It reminds me to band like Pulsar. What really impress me is when the album reaches track 4 "Andas" (6:15) where I can find the style of Ozric Tentacles is very obvious.

I highly recommend you to have this album, especially if you favor symphonic prog, it's a MUST have for you. The recording quality is also great. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW (i-Rock! Music Community)

The music consists in high use of analogue synthesisers and Mellotron all sustained by strong rhythmic parts(the music is very similar to Eloy, Genesis and even Tangerine Dream). The first two songs is with female voice (a very beautiful and representative one). The last three songs are instrumental, and for me the last two, perhaps Mitternachtstraum is the best (excellent keyboard parts). Basically, the result is very good. I must say that the lack of electric and acoustic guitars didn't create a hole in the compositions themselves... the songs are purely based on drums and keyboards and all you can do is to realize the great music the five members did in 32 minutes (this is my single regret...they could add a few songs on it...). Anyway, you should take a trip to the Earthly Paradise...

It's hard to rate 5 stars, but I still recommend this album as an excellent one for a progressive music lover!

Anyway, my favourites are the three last songs, the instrumentals. Wings Of The Dove, Andas and specially Mitternachtstraum are full of excellent keyboards sections a la Banks, most of the time very proggy and epical perhaps Mitternachtstarum is closer to some kraut stuff but floating and very rhythmical. Definetively the best sonf of this album.

No surprises here but five decent prog songs from the 70's, specially for Genesis and female prog vocals fans...