09-04-2018, 21:25
TONY BANKS ~ Five
![[Image: 220px-Tony_Banks_Five_cover.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d6/Tony_Banks_Five_cover.jpg/220px-Tony_Banks_Five_cover.jpg)
Gosh. Most impressive! Not having listened to any of his classical albums, I had no idea how proficient Mr Banks was in this department. Now I do. Here he enlists the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and choir and Nick Ingman (orchestrations, conductor), and together they have made an album of really lovely, accessible, symphonic instrumental music in the classical vein. I loved it … it’s a celebration of tones and moods with stirring melodies and great big exciting washes of sound nicely balanced with littler ‘airs’ that somehow get to the heartstrings.
The album comprises five movements (go figure
) of around ten-ish minutes each except the fifteen and half minute opener, “Prelude to a Million Years”. The final track, “Renaissance” really conjures up that time of magical reawakening, IMHO, along with a fair amount of pomp and grandeur – it’s quite cinematic - the album generally has something of the feel of a soundtrack actually – an unseen movie for the mind. Funny that there should be another track of similar name in “Reveille”, which literally means a bugle call to wake up.
Gosh. Most impressive! Not having listened to any of his classical albums, I had no idea how proficient Mr Banks was in this department. Now I do. Here he enlists the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and choir and Nick Ingman (orchestrations, conductor), and together they have made an album of really lovely, accessible, symphonic instrumental music in the classical vein. I loved it … it’s a celebration of tones and moods with stirring melodies and great big exciting washes of sound nicely balanced with littler ‘airs’ that somehow get to the heartstrings.
The album comprises five movements (go figure
) of around ten-ish minutes each except the fifteen and half minute opener, “Prelude to a Million Years”. The final track, “Renaissance” really conjures up that time of magical reawakening, IMHO, along with a fair amount of pomp and grandeur – it’s quite cinematic - the album generally has something of the feel of a soundtrack actually – an unseen movie for the mind. Funny that there should be another track of similar name in “Reveille”, which literally means a bugle call to wake up.
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson
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