Wednesday 3 June 2015

Perelandra (Eden, 1980)

Prog rock is a very articulated musical universe. Among all the constellations it includes, Christian prog is one of the less known by the general fandom, apart from some international stars as Neal Morse, for example, or dedicated projects by the likes of Rick Wakeman ("The Gospels", to name one of his best efforts in this field). The main risk with the great number of "minor" Christian bands is, of course, a diminished importance of music to the advantage of lyrics and their religious message. This is not the case with Eden. This German band released an excellent album titled "Perelandra" and based on the famous SF novel by C.S. Lewis, luckily better known for his "The Chronicles of Narnia" series.

"Perelandra" is how the Martians call the Earth according to C.S. Lewis.

This is the title song of the album and it is an excellent example of the lushing sound of Eden. You are immedately taken by the huge variety of instruments (the pesonnel of the band sums up to 10 musicians in this record) and the well done vocal harmonies. But there's more than this: the keyboard and guitar solos, the acoustic passages and the excellent themes are also to be considered. Last but not least, I highly recommend Annette Schmalenbach's pure lead vocals: it's difficult to find a sweeter version of German language...

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