A CHILD IN THE MIRROR

Ciccada from Athens, Greece came together in April 2005, after veteran keyboardist/flutist Nicolas Nikolopoulos met with young and promising guitarist Giorgos Mouchos.Starting from instrumental textures and adding lyrics in the process, they had to recruit a singer and finally settled with Evangelia Kozoni.A couple of years later they started presenting their work with guest musicians in several clubs and pubs, until recording a demo CD in 2009.After recruiting bassist Omiros Komninos, the band came to the attention of Fading Records and traveled to Italy to record the debut album ''A Child in the mirror'' at the Effettonote Studio in Milan.Plenty of Italian and Greek musicians guested on this work, highlighted by Yūgen' Valerio Cipollone on clarinet and Mattia Signo on glockenspiel as well as Paolo Ske Botta on electric piano.The album came out in 2010.

Ciccada played a widely unknown style in the Greek music scene (which rockwise was traditionally inspired by the psychedelic movement), a diverse mix of Symphonic Rock, Medieval Folk and Jazz with lovely, refined and polished orchestrations, featuring complicated moves, endless mellow interplays and some beautiful melodies.The sound of the band has been enriched by instruments like sax, cello, clarinet, accordion and reeds, thus their soundscapes are always full of flexible orchestrations and a certain lyrical depth due to Kozoni's presence.The lyrics are written mostly in English, but a pair of tracks are sung in Greek, nothing hurting the flow of the album, as Kozoni's thin, operatic voice make them hardly recognizable, sounding more like an additional instrument.Ciccada sound a lot like GRYPHON, early KING CRIMSON, CAMEL and GENTLE GIANT, lots of melodic flutes in the process, numerous proggy twists on Mellotron, Hammond organ and electric piano and some very good electric explosions on guitar along with sporadic entries into jazzier patterns.The huge presence of guest musicians and the long list of additional instruments make Ciccada sound like a mini Chamber Folk orchestra at moments, always performing under progressive arrangements.No particular highlights, all tracks are really nice with evident retro leanings of the Classic Prog variety and a touch of light R.I.O. vibes.

I am quite shocked to see a Greek band playing this specific style.Really cool symph-influenced Prog Folk with dominant flutes and keyboards and several interesting orchestrations.Strongly recommended, even more if you love any of the aforementioned bands/influences...3.5 stars.