Ambrosia

Already the view of the band's cast suggests that Dierk Peters takes ambrosia's own, unconventional paths. With his sextet, the award-winning vibraphonist and composer creates a multifaceted musical language that unites song-like and interesting melodies, diverse harmonies and changing atmospheric shades.

On their final album, Ambrosia forsakes the airbrushed AOR sounds that defined Life Beyond L.A. and One Eighty in favor of a strong, rock-oriented sound. They are aided in this aim by a gutsy production from James Guthrie (a producer better known for his work with groups like Judas Priest and Pink Floyd) that takes the group to a new level of sonic firepower. Songs like "For Openers" and "Still Not Satisfied" reverberate with a newfound sense of rock & roll muscle: The drums kick, the basslines throb, and the guitars and Hammond organ wail with abandon. Even Ambrosia's trademark ballads benefit from their newly beefed-up sound: "Feelin' Alive Again" features the airy harmonies and delicate keyboard shadings expected from this style of song, but it also gains an added sense of dramatic weight from Burleigh Drummond's thick drumming and piercing, emotional guitar solos from David Pack.

After achieving moderate success with their self-titled debut, Ambrosia decided to up the ante by going for a bigger, more symphonic sound on this follow-up outing. To achieve this goal, they enlisted Alan Parsons, who mixed their first album, to produce and Andrew Powell (arranger for the Alan Parsons Project) to do full-blown orchestral arrangements on a number of the tracks. The resulting album lacks the careful fusion of pop and prog elements that characterized Ambrosia, with songs tending to fall into either progressive or soft rock categories.

Ambrosia's third album (and first for Warner Bros.) is more commercial and less conceptual than their first two releases, Somewhere I've Never Travelled and the self-titled Ambrosia. The album opens effectively with the title track, which is about life, or the lack thereof, in Los Angeles. The better songs on this album, including the title track and the top ten single "How Much I Feel," were written and sung by lead vocalist/multi-instrumentalist David Pack. ~Allmusic

Ava ha scoperto a proprie spese cosa significa avvicinarsi troppo a Torin, l'oscuro quanto magnetico re delle fate. La glaciale maledizione che colpisce chiunque lui ami l'ha quasi uccisa, e ora la ragazza vaga nel selvaggio regno Unseelie, territorio della regina Mab, e -a quanto pare - sua terra di origine. Le corna che le sono spuntate, infatti, non lasciano spazio al dubbio: la vera natura di Ava è demoniaca, e questo fa di lei una nemica di Torin e della sua stirpe. Il sovrano dagli occhi di ghiaccio, però, non ha alcuna intenzione di rinunciare alla donna che ha catturato il suo cuore e non esita a seguirla alla Corte dei Dolori, dove - se venisse scoperto - lo attende una macabra esecuzione. Perseguitati dalla crudele Mab e dai suoi mostruosi soldati, Ava e Torin si troveranno a combattere non solo per il loro amore, avverso a ogni destino, ma per la vita stessa. Mentre ogni giuorno trascorso insieme potrebbe essere l'ultimo, dovranno rimanere uniti più che mai, ma stando molto attenti… perchè la dannazione è per sempre.

L'avventura raddoppia! Fra le nuvole dell'Olimpo, si nasconde un mistero! Chi sono Nettare e Ambrosia, i due piccoli coppieri degli dèi? Riusciranno a scoprire da dove vengono e perché sono stati abbandonati? Contiene due storie: Nettare e Ambrosia e il mondo oscuro e Nettare e Ambrosia e la magia di Medea.

For various legal reasons, no Ambrosia recordings were released on compact disc in America until 1997's Anthology, and while it's an imperfect collection, it does offer a reasonably thorough overview of the group's career. It only briefly touches on the band's early art rock records, choosing to concentrate instead on their early-'80s soft rock hits like "Biggest Part of Me," "You're the Only Woman," and "How Much I Feel." As a result, dedicated prog rock fans will find this collection inadequate, but for most casual listeners, it will contain everything they need and then some, since the disc is padded with three new songs that are pleasant but unremarkable. ~Allmusic