MASK

The Foundation is the project of Ron Lammers who began to write some prog rock music in the late 90's but the project was put on hold until 2020 when he bought a proper keyboard. "Mask" is a concept album based on an autobiographical story. It's a chronological representation of human life. It starts innocently when we are born.

The music is heavily influenced by Neo-Prog bands and also some bands of the 70's like Pink Floyd on the opener "Before the Dawn". "Birth" has a Camel influence on the guitar work. "Climbing Mountains" shows some nice vocal harmonies. The production is crystal clear with each instrument nicely mixed including flute and some nice bass lines from Gijs Koopman of the band Cliffhanger. I guess he is still using the same bass and the Taurus pedal to sustain the tone. The music is melodic symphonic prog with plenty of instrumental sections. You can hear many influences from the Neo-Prog bands; Kaos Moon, Pallas for example. It's rarely on the heavy side except in some passages in the song "Blind to Reality" and in the first part of the song "Despair" with a metal style. The keys have their moments, especially in the title track and the last track "Future". We can hear in the quality and the excellent production of this album that it can only come from someone with experience in the record business. Recommended!