Short Reviews [Framauro - 2023 - "Alea Iacta Est"]

The words "alea iacta est" are credited to Julius Caesar, and means the die is cast, and is the title of the closing (and longest) song on this album which followed on just one year from the return of the name. It is the same line-up as before, except for the addition of Michał Kramarski who sings with his father on "Like Father Like Son (Part 1 Father / Part 2 Son)", but in a rather more pleasant manner than Cat Stevens and "Father and Son" and very different indeed to Harry Chapin in "Cats In The Cradle". There is a much stronger feeling of Seventies rock on this album than there was on 'My World Is Ending', with punchy guitar and the band starting to feel their way into a separate identity from TRK Project. If one ever wanted to know what inspires Ryszard then just play "My Beloved Songs" where he names songs which mean a lot to him such as "Nights in White Satin", "Mockingbird", "Stairway To Heaven", "Brothers In Arms", "Space Oddity" and so many more. This is not a new invention, BJH did an excellent job with "Titles" on "Time Honoured Ghosts", but there they used the titles to create the lyrics and here Ryszard brings them in to show how much they mean to him. There is a very strong use of dated keyboard sounds on this release, which along with the musical approach take them back into the Seventies and the hard rock/classic rock/ progressive sound as opposed to being a straight out prog band, and certainly a long way from the Neo sub-genre which is how they are categorised on PA. "Painter of Souls" starts on acoustic guitar until the rest of the band come in and we get quite a Floydian guitar line while "Lost In Music" has rippling piano and feels much more like Camel in nature. In some ways this album is quite different to the "debut", yet also very related and definitely sees them moving away from mainstream prog when they feel the muse takes them in a certain direction. 2022 saw albums from Framauro, TRK Project and Millenium while 2023 saw this album and another by TRK Project, so the guys were hard at work but never to the detriment of the music as this is yet another fine release which needs to be investigated.