album reviews
album review
Silver
Lining - The Inner Dragon - 2006
“A
concept album with fantasy lyrics and strong symphonic touches”
Indelspeen was a band which
toured in the Lyon region during the eighties. Formed by Nicolas
Mourachko (guitars) and Pascal Indelicato (piano & keyboards),
it featured Antoine Van Limburg (drums), Pierre
Moissonnier (bass & vocals). Indelspleen is
dead now. But the two founders are still alive and kicking: with Thierry
Sportouche (Anoxie's lyricist), they formed Silver
Lining in 1998. Pascal Indelicato,
the main composer, is specialized in symphonic orchestration: he wrote
several works among which "Résurgence" which
blends synths with classical music. He thus played several tracks for
a symphonic orchestra live. He is a sound engineer and has a recording
studio ("Music Labo"). At that time the band also features
Michel Mourachko (bass), Annie
Morel (violin) and Alain Descombe (drums).
The band plays as guest at the Ange concert
in Vesoul (700 persons), in Lyon with Cortiane and
with Exsimio (an outfit from Chile). They
record a limited edition EP (4 songs) for that occasion. Alain
Descombe (drums)
leaves the band in March 2003. In April 2004, Musea releases "The
Inner Dragon", Silver Lining's debut
album recorded in Pascal’s
studio. In September 2005, David Pelade (drums)
rejoins Silver
Lining.
The band plays as guest at the Ange concert
in Lyon. Acid
Dragon magazine releases in March 2006 "Lyon
Hearted",
the DVD of this concert. In November 2006 Silver
Lining plays
as head liner at the 10th edition of the Dutch Progfarm
festival with Yesterdays,
Flamborough Head, Also Eden, Splinter and Ghiribizzi.
Thierry Sportouche - Voice;
Nicolas Mourachko - Guitars, Backing vocals; Pascal
Indelicato - Piano, Keyboards;
Annie Morel - Violin; Michel
Mourachko - Bass
With:
Serge Tziganov - Fretless Bass; Alain
Descombe - Drums; Jimmy Oihid - Oriental Voices
With “Fall” the
CD opens with nature sounds and a beautiful classical piano part before
the synthesizer joins and the first narration part is told by Thierry
Sportouche. “Overture” starts
with a aggressive rock guitar before the whole band joins with melodic
sympho. The first thing you will notice is that there is a violin, played
by Annie
Morel, in Silver
Lining's music that makes the difference. The sound reminds me
of Takashi
Kawaguchi from the Japanese band Outer
Limits. This piece seamless goes
into the first long track of the album “Opaline” which
starts again with a piece of narration. Then you will surprised by the
wonderful melodies of Silver Lining's music
where orchestral keyboards, violin and guitar are stealing the show.
Beautiful soaring melodies played on electric guitar and violin. “Opaline” develops
into a great sympho piece which is diverse and the tension works to a
sort of climax. In “The Morning Dew” every
band member gets the time to play some solo's. The interaction between
the guitar and the violin makes the music special.
“Castaways” is an uptempo
sympho piece and at one point the name of the also French band Arrakeen came
to my mind. Title track “The Inner Dragon” is
the second of the three long compositions on this album. The band shows
a lot of power in the first minutes. Then the beautiful melodic parts
are returning. The sound of guitar player Nicolas
Mourachko reminds me in this song again
of Sylvain Gouvernaire of Arrakeen.
In “The Desert Gates” Nicolas
plays a wonderful melodic guitar solo. “Lovestalgia” has
besides the sympho also some folky influences. After the short intermezzo
“The Feast” with acoustic
guitar, the CD closes with the third long track called “Finale”.
The band shows again their powerful sympho and the delicate and melodic
parts on violin and guitar.
“The
Inner Dragon” of
French band Silver Lining is a remarkable
debut album. Silver
Lining is making beautiful melodic symphonic rock. The violin
makes their music even more diverse. One of the big surprises of 2006.
If you like soaring guitar and violin solo's in your prog you won't be
disappointed by this wonderful album.
Douwe Fledderus - February 2007
- Musea
