Detailed Reviews [Hyacintus - 2003 - "Fantasia en Concerto"]

Hyacintus (Argentina) - 2003 - "Fantasia en Concerto"
(49 min, Viajero Inmovil)

Prolusion. "Fantasia en Concerto" is the second album by the Argentinean project, Hyacintus. The first one was released in 2002 and was >reviewed on Progressor as well.

Synopsis. All of the odd tracks on the album are parts of the united Terra Hoxe suite, subtitled as Orchestral Fantasy in Do-major and composed by the man behind Hyacintus, Jacinto Miguel Coral, especially for this album. All of them represent a pure Classical Music performed by a symphonic orchestra (with the addition of electric guitar solos on 3, 13, & 15) and are brilliant despite their brevity. Nevertheless, I would prefer to have the suite in its original, monolithic form on the CD. But well, such is the author's conception of the album, and it isn't the task of the present reviewer to contest it, especially since some of the even tracks are much in the same vein. Generally, all the music on "Fantasia en Concerto" is classically influenced, and what is more, all of the even tracks are stylistically uniform as well. In short, the stylistic picture of the album is exceptionally consistent. The music is very effective and is a rather unusual, but definitely unique synthesis of Modern Symphonic Art-Rock and Classical Music with the slight prevalence of Rock-related textures in the first half of the album and vice versa in another. Here, the main soloing instruments are synthesizers, piano, electric guitar and bass and varied, real and unreal, string instruments, while the parts of classical guitar play a significant role only on Desir de Liberte (10). By the way, this composition especially striking reflects the essence of the album, its mixed, somewhat classically modern nature. The last track: Queren Eres tu (16) also has some specifications. This is the only song on the album and it features excellent heartfelt vocals. However, all the instrumental arrangements here are done within the framework of the album's predominant stylistics as well. Of course, it would've been better if there were more real string and chamber instruments on the album. On the other hand, the possibilities of modern synthesizers are so wide that it is sometimes hard to immediately recognize whether it's a real orchestra or a string ensemble. As usual, programmed drums may turn purists away from the thing, but not me. In any case, the compositional and performance aspects of this music are of a high quality.

Conclusion. The hero of this review is a slight, yet, noticeable improvement over the first Hyacintus effort. In other words, those who enjoyed "Elydian" will be highly pleased with "Fantasia en Concerto". Of course, the album is destined exclusively to the lovers of Classic Symphonic Progressive.

VM: February 9, 2004