David Minasian - The Sound Of Dreams
David Minasian
The Sound Of Dreams
(Golden Robot Records)
9/10
By Decibel Report - Sep 13, 2020
Being something of a man for all seasons with a primary career in film and screenwriting, Minasian has produced and directed both live concerts and documentary DVDs for blue-chip British prog band Camel and, more recently, for Moody Blues legend Justin Hayward.
As a musician in his own right with stylish symphonic prog tendencies, his cinematic compositional sensibilities have also found him adept at convening the perfect players to affectionately reconstitute charmful progressive sounds of yore.
With top-grade guest artists including Steve Hackett, Annie Haslam, Billy Sherwood, and PJ Olsson all producing ultra-fine performances, Minasian skilfully engages the ear to drift back down the rabbit hole to fetch up on a plateau of cosseting surreal sonic landscapes.
Galloping straight out of the gate, Minasian and The Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward revisit their theme tune collaboration to the motion picture The Wind Of Heaven (prologue) to mesmerically sweep proceedings along with a flourish.
Where the romantic couples with the dramatic, stellar contributions by prog royalty permeate this fine record of note as Steve Hackett delivers guitar motifs redolent of his early solo era with his sublime guitar soaring above banks of choral mellotron on the monumental title track. Underpinned by Billy Sherwood’s busy bass, doyenne of prog-folk Annie Haslam’s still pristine voice heralds forth the epic triptych of linked movements to this album’s enchanting title grouping of songs.
There’s a garnishing of harpsichord, flute, climbing bass, waves of fuzzy guitars, and haunting mellotron throughout, as Faith Love Hope share similarities to a Mike Oldfield meets Sky sound-clash elevating this visionary recording to project the rarified air these musicians live and breathe.
In keeping with the cerulean associations, another Moody Blues connection appears as Julie Ragins delivers a delightful elfish vocal to shine a pearlescent radiant light to uplift Room With Dark Corners.
Further ornamental harpsichord, pomp pipes a-parping, bass pedals, and nylon acoustic guitar converge with serene mellotron to create a fine woven tapestry of sound at the core of this album’s widescreen soundscape. This is evidenced with the conjoining of an awe-inspiring cacophony of electric interplay as Twin Flames At Twilight's magical storybook of sound swoops headlong into a verdant valley of lush instrumentation.
There are many gentle and luminous passages of songs linking the major statements on this record. And with his graceful harmonic tones giving wings to early single So Far Away From Home, PJ Olsson delivers his Parsonic voice to majestic effect on this penultimate track with a performance par excellence.
To bookend this album’s overall apogee of sound-craft and dreamlike adventure in playful sonics, the finale of this progressive opus is a magisterial revisitation of The Wind Of Heaven, this time with Annie Haslam on the lead vocal to softly blow the studio door closed on this stunning collegiate release.
Without a doubt, the breathtaking ambition and transportive effects of this album, not forgetting ever-present musician Pentagram drummer Geof O’Keefe and Minasian’s son Justin, reward the listener on multiple plays and, like any theatrical immersion, is best experienced all the way through in one sitting for maximum effect.
Not so much a trip back down memory lane to the golden age of prog, but an ongoing forward-thinking progressive adventure into rarely charted yet seductively familiar territory.
