MILLENIUM (POL): Tales From Imaginary Movies (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Ryszard Kramarski is a very busy and prolific man. Not content with managing the Lynx studio and the label of the same name, resurrecting the Framauro project or delivering some conceptual albums with his solo Project, the keyboardist finds the way to release a 17th album with Millenium, his original band, while going back to the concerts which, for the first time, brought him to perform outside Poland.

After "The Sin", previous album centered on the seven deadly sins, "Tales From Imaginary Movies" takes us on the tracks of David L. Sunders, imaginary son of the equally imaginary David Sunders who was the hero of the album "Vocanda", who tries to be enrolled in one or the other future movie production in order to become a superhero. The opportunity for the band to take us in an imaginary stroll narrated by its new singer, Dawid Lewandowski, not necessarily unknown to our ears because being the male voice of the last Riszard Kramaski's Project (albums published in two versions, one with female voice, the other in male mode).

Musically, what can we expect from a new album of Millenium ? Not much new will say some, and it is true that for about twenty years and from one production to another, the variations of style are clearly minimal. Where Dawid Lewandowski shows an enormous presence in concert with a beautiful variety of intonation and power, his voice is here relatively softened by a velvety production which makes him lose slightly of his originality, but which leaves him however any latitude to vary the ambiances. Thus, his extended tessitura and his warmth regularly appear throughout the eight compositions in which he intervenes, the introductory track being completely instrumental, driven by the guitar supported by somewhat pompous keyboards which give the whole a very solemn turn.

As for the rest, we find a very classical neo-progressive rock, mostly declined on a mid-tempo rhythmic sometimes clumsy ('A World Full of Spies'), within which the guitar of Piotr Pionka takes the lion's share, as much for producing melodic lines always so magnificent as during numerous solos, the one that closes the album with its big rough riffs being not the least successful.

The orchestration which supports the whole is rich, ample and balanced, each one remaining in its place without taking too much importance, and the quality of realization and production is as usual very neat. The tracks follow one another without any dead time, with some dynamic bursts ('A Comedy of Love') and the 49 minutes of the whole pass quickly, plunging the listener in a good cocooning.

Millenium is clearly not to be classified in the list of the bands with the infernal technique and the overflowing imagination of inventiveness, which will make turn the back to the amateurs of originality at any price. But for those who like to stay in a certain comfort zone, "Tales From Imaginary Movies" will lead them once again into a universe that is certainly well marked out, but so pleasant to apprehend that we would already dare to ask for the next sequel. - Official website

MILLENIUM (POL)

TALES FROM IMAGINARY MOVIES

LYNX

PROGRESSIVE ROCK