| Artist: | Compilation |
| Title: | Harbour Of Joy |
| Label: | Mellow Records MMP 299 |
| Length(s): | 68+66m minutes |
| Year(s) of release: | 1996 |
| Month of review: | 01/1997 |
| 1) | Evolution - Never Let Go | 6.21 CAM |
| 2) | Glass Hammer - Air Born | 6.29 MM |
| 3) | Cast - Another Night | 4.41 MM |
| 4) | Phil Beane - The Sleeper | 5.52 RD |
| 5) | Fonya - Medley First Light, Rain Dances, The White Rider | 10.04 RD2,MIR |
| 6) | Strange New Toys - Down On The Farm | 4.06 BRE |
| 7) | Algebra - Song Within A Song | 8.19 MM |
| 8) | Aton's - Drafted | 4.17 NUDE |
| 9) | Zauber - Elke | 4.32 RD |
| 10) | Casino Des Images - Tell Me | 2.39 RD |
| 11) | Fonya - Eye Of The Storm | 3.31 ICAN |
| 12) | New Credo - Medley Friendship, Little Rivers | 7.39 SG,D&D |
and a little hope, Migration, Hopeless anger Disc 2:
| 1) | Mysia - Pressure points | 6.44 STAT |
| 2) | Prowlers - First light | 6.55 RD |
| 3) | Notturno Concertante - Ice | 6.42 ICAN |
| 4) | Finisterre - Nimrodel | 9.35 MIR |
| 5) | Nostalgia - Long goodbyes | 6.01 STAT |
| 6) | Louie Mastro - Rain dances | 2.30 RD |
| 7) | Raindances - Rhayader | 7.34 SG |
| 8) | Galahad - Lady fantasy | 11.41 MIR |
| 9) | Louie Mastro - Fritha alone | 1.59 SG |
| 10) | Consorzio Acqua Potabile - Harbour of tears | 6.46 HAR |
Abbreviations of album titles are given behind the track lengths.
Going them over one by one: Evolution - Never let go: the unobtrusive vocals of mr. Senior fit well to the music, but this rendition is although not flawed, it has no fire. Glass Hammer - Air born: a very similar version with rather mellow vocals and the original sounds in a way more majestic, but this one has a very nice tension building pace quickening at the end. Cast - Another night: the mexican band Cast delivers a rather rocking and up-tempo version of Another Night, which shows a song with a lot of variation and a very busy rhythm section. The song is brought with some more extravert passion than the original version and this is especially notable in the vocals. Phil Beane - The sleeper: nothing much seems to have been done here, at least it sounds very familiar already. It sounds very jazzy and in fact that is what Camel seems to me: a very melodic jazz rock band. Nice that he plays everything himself. Fonya - Medley First light, Rain dances, The white rider: this medley features two songs that are also found on these CDs separately. The first part is played a little too quick and nervously for me. Also the rhythm section is a little too pronounced. Rain Dances is hard to go wrong with and the last part is a bit rougher. Strange New Toys - Down on the farm: is a song that can IMO be much improved. Still the song was and is still a joke, although STN have managed to make the real nice part of the song, the intro, go to waste. Algebra - Song within a song: the intro to this song does not sound familiar so I assume they added a nice piano prelude. The vocals, the high ones, are not a very good idea, but the accordion gives a nice touch. Aton's - Drafted: a strange version, sung strangely and also badly and a bit disjointed musically. It IS rather percussive. Zauber - Elke: starts with nice oboe accompanied by Glockenspiel and then flute sets in. Not your regular progressive outfit this, instrumentally. Very peaceful. Casino des Images - Tell me: well sung track by Manuela Morara. For the rest a quiet track with only keyboards and later on sequencer, making it into a song similar to TD's Tyger or London. Fonya - Eye of the storm: a bit cheesy IMO. Too much concentrated on the nice melody and too little on the well, the fact that it should actually say something. New Credo - Medley Frienship, Little river and a little hope, Migration, Hopeless anger: is very contemplative track with a number of instrumentals combined, which in the end turns out to be more involved than seemed at first. In fact this doesn't really sound much like any of the separate tracks and works as an entire track.
On the second CD Mysia - Pressure points: it seems that might have covered the live version, because I know this track shouldn't be this long, but it all sounds very familiar, although the acoustic part at the end sounds rather new. Prowlers - First light: a rather original sounding version I have to admit. Lots of bass there and nice tension building. Rather hectic. Notturno Concertante - Ice: lots of piano in the beginning although it is nice they play it too quickly (in the beginning) and also it lacks the emotion the original does have. It just doesn't go deep enough. Finisterre - Nimrodel: also includes some Pomp and Circumstance and lots of flute and mellotron. The band shows a rather mature approach to the music. Nostalgia - Long goodbyes: rather a weak version. Louie Mastro - Rain dances: a synthetic and bombastic version of Rain Dances and a good one too. Raindances - Rhayader: nothing much to say here. Galahad - Lady fantasy: rather similar to the original. But it's a great track. Louie Mastro - Fritha alone: nice piano version Consorzio Acqua Potabile - Harbour of tears: live Harbour of Tears has more balls than on CD, where I found it a bit too mellow. Anyway, lots of instruments on this one, including bagpipes, oboe and tinwhistle. The vocals are quite good and he sings a lot less passive. The instrumentation is a little chaotic.