arK - Wild Untamed Imaginings

(CD 2010, 54:29, ProgRock Records PRR 820)

The tracks:
  1- Boudicca's Chariot(5:15)
  2- Coats Of Red(4:36)
  3- Flagday(3:28)
  4- New Scientist(5:47)
  5- Hagley(4:53)
  6- Gaia(4:28)
  7- th Deadly Sin(5:03)
  8- Change Part 2(5:28)
  9- So You Finally Made It(5:16)
10- Kaleidoscope(4:35)
11- Nowhere's Ark(5:41)

arK Website        samples        Progrock Records


In 1986 arK - written as Ark then - started as a band and over the years a lot of musicians joined and left the band. In 1991 Ark had established its 'definite' line-up, consisting of Peter Wheatley (guitar), Anthony Short (vocals, flute), John Jowitt (bass guitar), Steve Harris (guitar synth) and Tim Churchman (drums). The music on this new album is a mix of folk rock, hard rock and progressive rock with obvious characteristics from bands like IQ, Jadis, Arena and Frost*. The music is ever so British, which is mainly due to the sound and the atmosphere of the album, which is rather distinctively unbalanced. So, you have a couple of great songs like Boudicca's Chariot, 8th Deadly Sin and Change Part 2, a couple of rather boring songs like New Scientist and Hagley and some mediocre tracks like Coats Of Red, Flagday and Kaleidoscope

Especially the so-called folk rock songs like New Scientist and Hagley are extremely tiresome with lots of flute and dreadful vocals. It's almost unbelievable that a great song as 8th Deadly Sin and the aforementioned tracks are played by the same band... Wild Untamed Imaginings is an old-school, rather old-fashioned prog rock album which will appeal to fans of the above-mentioned bands. However, beware of the rather strange songs, which are definitely not my cup of tea. Listen very carefully and decide for yourself; that would be my advice!

Read the interview with John Jowitt

*** Martien Koolen (edited by Peter Willemsen)
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