Masquerade

PENDRAGON's release of "The Masquerade Overture" represents one of the 90's strongest prog releases yet! This brilliant recording sets new heights for neo-prog acts in terms of complete recordings. "The Masquerade Overture" really does capture the essence of concept-like story line and takes the listener into a completely new world. I love the mix of opera, orchestra and the symphonic tendency of PENDRAGON which seems to work to perfection on this release. There are some nice and tasty guitar / bass parts scattered throughout all of the songs. At several key points I get a strong PINK FLOYD feel, but I may be the only one who gets this? Nick Barrett adds some great vocals throughout which give it that unmistakeable PENDRAGON feel.

This CD speaks more than any amount of words as to the tragic loss music suffered over the early death of conductor, Kiril Kondrashin. "The Masquerade Suite" and "The Comedians" in particular have incredible style and sweep. These pieces which have been for so long relegated to the status of pops concerts level become in Kondrashin's hands the decided masterpieces of colorful writing and wonderful orchestration that they actually are. I must go so far as to say that these interpretations are definitive. We like to think of all the technical advances we have made in the last decades, but the sonics of the original analog tapes make these pieces sound like they were recorded yesterday rather than 40 years ago…

Masquerade are a Swedish rock band established in Autumn 1988. They released their debut album in 1992 and have since released four further albums.

Theatrical metal – that’s how the four Danes of EVIL MASQUERADE have chosen to name their particular brand of music, and they do manage to deliver solid evidence, that also in the country of red sausages, the will to experiment and take great different paths in music is as great as ever…

The St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1967 by Nikolai Rabinovich, Karl Eliasberg and Edward Grikurov and until 1985 was known as the Orchestra of Ancient and Modern Music. Renowned soloists and conductors, including Yuri Temirkanov, Mariss Jansons, Svyatoslav Richter, and many others, have performed with the orchestra. In 1985 the orchestra was enlarged, developing as the Leningrad State Orchestra under Ravil Martynov and undertaking concert tours of China, Japan, Germany, Austria, Mexico, Spain, Finland, Norway, Sweden, France and Belgium. From 2004 until 2007 the orchestra was headed by Martynov’s pupil Vasily Petrenko. The orchestra’s artistic director and chief conductor from 2007 to 2013 was Alexander Titov, who has recorded significant Russian compositions from the period of the Second World War.

JONESY were an early 70's band in the style of KING CRIMSON but with the unusual element of electric trumpet from Alan Bown. Other band members were John Evan-Jones - guitar & backing vocals, Jamie Kaleth - lead vocals & keyboards (including some excellent Mellotron), Gypsy Jones - lead vocals, bass guitar & recorders and Plug Thomas - percussion and backing vocals.