The life of a music reviewer is one of unprecedented wonders. Take Persephone's Dream, an American female fronted band whose new CD, Pan: An Urban Pastoral, is already their fifth release. I had never heard of them before and I still call myself an expert in prog rock music, phoeh..! But I will make up for lost time by searching out the band's previous releases, because I was very pleasantly surprised by this concept album. In our undying commitment to our readers I have tried to find out what it was about, but no avail, I couldn't get more information on it. Never mind, after all it's the music that counts and that is excellent, very varied but always with a heavy prog undertone. The female and male singing alternates in a rather pop musical manner which works quite well. Think about the Dutch progressive rock band Kayak as a good example! However, the highlights for me are the instrumental sections, like the opening gambits of the first three tracks, which sound very nice. The second half of the CD is slightly less interesting, because the musical opera traits are getting the upper hand, but based on the first half I would say: Persephone's Dream, welcome to my life. ***+ André de Waal (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
