Home Artist links Label link

Shakary - Alya

Artist:	Shakary
Title:	Alya
Label:	Shakary SHK 30324-1
Length(s):	43+44 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2000
Month of review:	[04/2001]

Line up

Scandy - concept, bass, keyboards, some vocals
Lele Hofmann - concept, guitars, keyboards, some vocals
Sandor Kwiatkowski - lyrics, design
with
Walter Calloni - drums
Aluisio Maggini - vocals
Giovanni Galfetti - keyboards
Carlo Cantini - violins
Gabriele Ferro - rhythm guitars
Giorgio Borghini - percussion
Stefano Pista Salvade - trumpet
Alain Scherrer - the man
Katja Vanini - alya

Tracks

CD1:

1)	Sunset	4.52
3)	Time Trap	5.53
4)	Starless Nights	4.35
7)	The First Inquisition	6.10
8)	Pain?	1.41

CD2:

1) Pain! 3.29
2) Sentence 6.09
5) Alya 3.45
6) Babylon 6.16

Summary

From the above line-up a few names might be familiar. Lele Hofmann and Aluisio Maggini play in Clepsydra for instance. This double concept disc has been out for a while, but only recently did I get a copy to review.

The music

Violin opens Sunset in my, in this case, left ear. The somewhat gypsy like music moves to my other ear and is nicely melodic. Then we are in a room filled with talking people and the music really starts by keyboards rising through the floorboards. A tense atmosphere is evoked, a bit in the style of Aragon, the tenseness being enhanced by the dark guitar sounds. The lyrics to this track only come at the end. Ip to that point we have had some very nice symphonic progressive, the vocal part is rather quiet.

The quietness of the vocal part continues in the piano dominated Lost Angels. A sad vocal line, the emotion shining through in the accented vocals of Maggini. A strong voice he has, but if you do not like accents, you are in trouble. The bass and guitar take it from there, but the music stays rather relaxed. The vocal part introduces an Oldfieldian guitar and keyboards a la old Genesis. Some filmic keyboards lead us into the next track. Quite some adventurous stuff here with the violin going out of its head.

Crackling wood and hesitatingly played acoustic guitar we find on the instrumental Starless Nights. Follow-up Seals is almost ten minutes the longest track on the two discs. This is also the most varied track so far and has both very powerful moments, strongly emotional and plodding with references to Hacketts guitar playing.

The titletrack is up next. Some trupmet on this somewhat Asiatic sounding track. The percolatingly played keyboards, the emotional vocals and the warm melodic chorus, make this into a very nice track again.

The First Inquisition has some references to Egdon Heath. Plenty of variation in the vocal part with some vocoded vocal parts. The guitar work is really strong and builds a very tense mood. Very strong track. The final short track is a short interlude before the next disc starts. A strong vocals melody and somewhat sad sounding.

The story in English is not always grammatical. Too bad about that.

Disc two is the answer to the final track on the first disc. It is an instrumental with its first part filled with trumpet. The song has a bit of a world music feel with dark sounds. Later we get into Steve Roach like territory.

Acoustic guitar brings us back to the style we are more or less used to from this band and its sister band Clepsydra. I guess if you need differences, then the music of Shakary is more filmic, this is more a typical story like concept album. Some Marillion like melodic guitar work then enters the picture, and it is time for a little variation. Some contrary sounding rhythms before a melodic vocal starts. The My Friend My Friend is of course also quite familiar.

The Dark Kingdom opens with film music. The singing is a bit disjointed here and the guitar sound has that vibrating effect Oldfield uses. The vocals are a bit like the vocals of Fruitcake, the Norwegian band. A crying guitar, a slow build-up, but somehat disappointingly trite ending.

The furious violin returns, a bit upbeat this one and the Oldfieldian guitar rears its head again. Alya we find also on this second disc, but in a live version. The chorus is the same, but the verses are different.

Babylon alternates urgency with melodic keyboards. A two faced track.

After New Angels we come to the final track, Open Skies which harbours violin and trumpet. A varied closer to this album.

Conclusion

A story involving God, the Antichrist, the Apocalypse and so on. A double album with strong melodic material and grand moments and gestures that many prog lovers are sure to like. The emotional but accented vocals are similar to those on the Clepsydra albums. There are differences between Shakary and Clepsydra, but they are not that strong. Biggest difference I feel is the fact that this is a concept album and thereby less song oriented. Very good.