While the remastered album 'Barclay James Harvest and Other Short Stories' from 1971 has just released, I discovered the project 'ESP Project' created by multi-instrumentalist 'Tony Lowe' in 2015 and if I'm talking about 'BJH', it's good because Tony's atmospheres are very close to those of the English to which he adds elements of progressive drawn from the 70s. All of his discography around the ESP project already has 4 albums with first of all 'Invisible Din' in 2016, '22 Layers Of Sunlight' in 2018 (under the ESP 2.0 project name), 'Three' of January 2019, 'The Rising' of October 2019, that is to say the production of the last 2 years because it is the turn of 'Phenomena' to see the light in 2020.
From the start, with 'First Flight', I found myself in well-known sounds because the first part takes us into a refined and quiet atmosphere of the 70s with of course this obvious parallel with 'BJH', then, the second part is much more progressive and attacks shores close to what the 'Floyds' could do in the late 60s. With 'Before Saturn Turned Away', the sweet melody rocks us in the first part and the central part atmospheric continues in this progressive rock à la 'BJH' with a memorable final melody in a slow tempo, then, 'Telethesia' is slightly more energetic while keeping a heady melodic frame while keeping in the middle of the title sound disgressions with among others , an imposing Church organ and a beautiful keyboard solo. Follows 'Fear Of Flying' with variations in tempos and certainly the most catchy track and also contains in the second part of the track a remarkable instrumental section preparing a magnificent final with yet another addictive melody then 'Living In The Sunrise' begins in an atmospheric way but is ultimately the track that releases the most a sense of urgency with its fast rhythm until a much quieter finale returning to a captivating melody. With 'Sleeping Giants', the quiet strength of the first part of this title is reminiscent of a mix between 'Sorrow' than the 'Gilmour' period of 'Pink Floyds' and lines melodic close to 'BJH' and the second part is much lighter a bit like a 'Alan Parsons', then the album ends with the 9 minutes of 'Seven Billion Tiny Sparks' which highlights the progressive side and sums up the album well with everything we could find there : beautiful melodic lines and remarkable imaginative and refined sections. In general, if we do not pay attention, the titles are quite long, between 6 and 9 minutes but this does not harm in any case because there is no weariness in listening to these timeless melodies because each has its very imaginative instrumental section, often several captivating melodies with always remarkable vocal performances of the excellent 'Damien Child' whose interpretation is always very right and in perfect harmony with the atmospheres of the compositions.
In summary, 'Tony Lowe' with his project 'ESP Project' releases a very pleasant album to listen to and which takes us back to a calm and refined progressive with influences from the beginning of this style of music and melodic lines close to ' Barclay James Harvest 'which destines' Phenomena' to an audience who loves melodies filled with serenity which allow to decompress after a grueling day... | |
