Artist : Kaprekar's Constant

Album : The Murder Wall

Release Date : 25-03-2022

Added : 13-04-2022

The English of 'Kaprekar's Constant' delighted us with their latest album 'Depth of Field' in 2019 and 2022 sees the release of a new studio recording, 'The Murder Wall', which is a concept album chronicling six stories of attempts to ascend a one of the most difficult mountaineering routes, the north face of the Eiger. We are therefore taken on a journey that describes the trials encountered by these renowned mountaineers who have faced this mountain with all the tragedies endured but also all the victorious outcomes. Musically, they continue in symphonic progressive rock tinged with folk which brings us back to the beginning of the 70s in the movement of formations like 'Barclay James Harvest' or 'Renaissance' and we can also mention projects with recent albums like 'Moon Halo', 'Jonas Lindberg', 'Rick Miller', 'This Winter Machine', 'ILLUMINAE' or 'Lee Abraham'.

We are therefore embarked on a beautiful and dense progressive journey for an hour and a quarter with 17 relatively short compositions for this style of music because the longest exceeds 7 minutes by a few seconds. Making a title a title wouldn't be of much use, because, if from the start, you adhere to the sweetness of 'Prologue', there is no reason for you not to like the sequel because everything is put implemented throughout the album to offer us luminous and refined titles filled with poetry. The vocal duo 'Dorie Jackson' and 'Bill Jefferson' bring a remarkable delicacy and sensitivity to all these stories which unfold beautiful melodies that we immediately appropriate. We are won over from the first listen by the melodic jewels such as 'Tall Tales By Firelight' with a beautiful saxophone solo by 'David Jackson', the beautiful ballads 'Failure Takes Care of Its Own' and 'Years to Perfect ' with a remarkable song of 'Judie Tzuke', 'Victorious' which celebrates the success of 1938 in a joyful atmosphere or even 'Third Man Down' which takes us on a beautiful peaceful symphonic journey. Each artist brings his stone to the building and we can highlight that 'David Jackson' who was one of the artists at the origin of progressive rock with 'Van Der Graaf Generator' in the early 70s, continues at 74 to charm us with its delicious flute and saxophone accompaniments. I will also add that their first studio recording 'Fate Outsmarts Desire' from 2017 which did not allow to hear the two longest compositions 'Blue Bird' and 'Houdini' is also available now with a new spotify link here. In short, the best thing is to let you press the play button to enjoy these very beautiful compositions to listen quietly to the headphones on your ears and 'The Murder Wall' will undoubtedly be an album appreciated by all amateurs peaceful and relaxing progressive rock like the references cited at the beginning of this review...

Line Up / Musicians

David Jackson (Saxophone, Flute, Whistles), Mark Walker (Drums, Percussions), Bill Jefferson (Vocal, Choirs), Dorie Jackson (Vocal, Choirs), Mike Westergaard (Piano, Keybords, Choirs), Al Nicholson (Guitar, Piano, Keybords), Nick Jefferson (Bass, Keybords) + Gueste : Judie Tzuke (Vocal)