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BEYOND DREAMS
I first came across Galleon earlier this year on Marc Brasse's concept CD 'The Reading Room' for which the band recorded a great song with wonderful rich instrumentation. I have not been disappointed with
'Beyond Dreams'...
This is Galleon's fourth album - the band formed in 1985 as an experimental three piece called Aragon.
The name Galleon was adopted in '89 and their initial release in '93 was entitles 'Lynx'. After several changes of personnel, 'Heritage & Visions' came out in '94, 'King Of Aragon' in '95 and 'All European Hero' in '96.
The band are: Göran Fors on bass and vocals, Dan Fors on drums, Ulf Pettersson on keyboards and Sven Larsson on guitars.
The CD opens with the throbbing bass note that introduces 'Before The Sunrise', the longest track on the album at (9.09, which is gradually superseded by the melodic instrumental backing track and the vocals.
This is a fairly up tempo number in which all of the musicians play a full part and as the song progresses a variety of influences are evident ... a good start.
Drum and bass provide a strong rhythm beginning to 'Let Us Be Amazed' (8.58) ... this suddenly stops and is replaced by the sound of a gentle piano and a short but stunning guitar piece.
After the first vocal section the sound subtly alters, becoming much more atmospheric and eastern in flavour. Around the mid point of the track is an instrumental section that explores a whole range of differing sounds - haunting keyboards, bass and drum rhythms, unsettling synths - before the vocals recommence. Later, some lovely guitar work can be heard behind the final verse of this song. Galleon have packed a awful lot into this track and yet it seems to fly by!
'The Ballad of Fortune' (7.55) is a mid paced song with a catchy guitar hook and a strong keyboard presence. This piece has great rich sounding instrumentation throughout and I defy you to sit still while
listening to it.
The shortest track of the album is 'The Dream' at 3.09. This is a slow instrumental piece with suitably dreamy synth sounds behind which you can hear all sorts of sound effects and short bursts of guitar work
and it runs straight into ...
'Dreamland' (8.19). Suddenly the music comes to life with some bouncy up-tempo piano playing which subsides slightly to accompany the rather nice vocal track and between the verses effective use is made of the
guitarist. As the song moves on the sound gradually strengthens, becoming richer and fuller towards the final intense sung verse ... a great song.
'Parasite' (8.07) has heavier rocky feel with excellent strong instrumentation throughout from all of the band supporting Fors' great vocals ... rocky but very melodic.
The last track, 'Sailing On By' (6.25), is a gentler piece which is still very melodious.
As with all of the tracks on this album the instrumentation is superbly arranged and played; lush sounding without going over the top.
I've played this CD a lot and I just don't tire of it - I can happily listen to it several times on the trot! This should appeal to all those who enjoy very melodic progressive rock music like Rush and/or Pendragon.
Marisa 8th November 2000
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