Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Gazpacho - Night CD (album) cover

NIGHT

Gazpacho

 

Crossover Prog

4.14 | 666 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
3 stars Let's resist the temptation of saying that this YET another Norwegian neo-symphonic prog band, but the fact is that there are a few now, a phenomenon started by White Willow, then Wobbler, Gargamel (and a few I can't come up with now) and now Gazpacho, although this is their third or fourth album but they only come to international notice now. Unlike the melancholic, dark sombre music of Gargamel, Wobbler, Anekdoten (etc..), musically speaking Gazpacho are a gentle neo prog with strong symphonic tendencies and might be likened to Overhead, White Willow, Ageness, Gallion and so on.

While their type of neo-prog is of a gentle and pleasant brand, it is also fairly unchallenging and accumulates the clichés of the genre, but I must give to the group, they never get too "clonish" or irritatingly "ala sumthin' ". The sextet develops many quiet atmospheres driven by Andersen's keyboards, underlined Vibo's guitar (he's heard Reine Fiske from certain passages on Night) and Kromer's violin. As for the concept of the album, it seems to be axed upon the opening 17-min "epic" Dream Of Stone and the entire nightrip (nicely illustrated by Antonio Cruz). The 6 min+ Chequered Light segues into the almost 10-min Upside Down then into what seems to be the album's most emotional point of the album (the hardest sounding anyway) where our protagonist dreams of his prospective girlfriend Valerie and her friend and a church burning. I am not sure this is it, the lyrics aren't included, but it is partly illustrated in the booklet.

While the music goes through a myriad of tempo changes, ambiances and atmospheres, I cannot say that the group is using the full recording dynamics and the music stays relatively/boringly/safely even. My guess is that after 20 listens, should one make your hear a 20-second sample, you'd still be unable to tell in which of the five songs you're in. and I guess this says it all in terms of Gazpacho's best album to date (if I read the other album's reviews), and therefore it isn't likely to get essential status anywhere on any scale.

Sean Trane | 3/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this GAZPACHO review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.