Among Flesh And Divine
ASIA Small is a French Progressive rock band, led by two Turkish scholars and settled in Paris: Setrak BAKIREL (Vocals, bass & guitar) and Eril TEKELI (Flute, bass & guitar). Their music reveal influences this sort of as KING CRIMSON’s “In The Courtroom Of The Crimson King”, JETHRO TULL’s “Stand Up”, Target, or JADE WARRIOR’s 1st albums. Their outstanding Progressive rock is deeply mixed with rythms and atmospheres from traditional Turkey’s new music. “Crossing The Line” (1979) and “Between Flesh And Divine” (1981) are generally regarded as as a single of the best global good results for the style. Lovely themes, sturdy and first, are intricated with delicate preparations, improved by a nostalgic and soulful singing. Flute’s nervous and airy elements underline guitar’s raucous or lyrical notes. A melancholic and often furious songs, with texts generally composed in English (And Turkish at times). To be rediscovered !
Checklist Price tag: $ 19.35
Value: $ 13.ninety
The United States in Asia by Robert G. Sutter (2008, Paperback)
 | US $8.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Wednesday Feb-15-2012 10:56:40 PST Buy It Now for only: US $19.99 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Come across A lot more Asia Merchandise
January 27th, 2012 at 4:31 pm
only the name is minor,
The second and better of the two releases by Asia Minor, Between Flesh and Divine barely misses a beat while still demonstrating inventive genius. This is basically progressive rock with a strong symphonic bent and undertones of the Turkish origins of its members, as well as a jazz-fusion element. While lessons learned from the early King Crimson and Camel school are on display, Asia Minor’s ethnic component and seamless shifting of moods transcends those influences. A word on the vocals – they are very well sung and will recall Andy Latimer to some degree, although the singer is more of a natural than Latimer. The lyrical themes seem somewhat dark, in keeping with the swirling melodies captured on flute and lead guitar with ample string synthesizers. The only complaint is that the album should have stopped before the last track, a plodding instrumental that is mercifully short and adds nothing to the project. Rumor has it the group started a third album in 1986 but it was abandoned. Oh where are those tapes? In the meantime you are likely to be only too happy to make do with this consummate progressive rock release.
Was this review helpful to you?
|January 27th, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Mellow late period prog rock,
This French band recorded this great album during July of 1980 at the Grand Armee studio in Paris. Given the overtly progressive nature of the music on the album and the date of the release, it is amazing that the album ever saw the light of day. In fact, the band never did find a record label and ended up not only releasing the album themselves (in December 1980), but also designed the cover. As a former member of a prog band that had to resort to the very same thing upon the completion of our debut album in 1999, I certainly feel their pain.
The musicians on this album include Setrak Bakirel (voice, guitars, bass); excellent drummer Lionel Beltrami; Robert Kempler (synthesizers, Hammond organ, electric piano, bass guitar); and Eril Tekeli (flute, guitars). There is a fairly high quality of musicianship on this album and the pieces feature great ensemble work and individual playing along with very nice vocals (in English with a slight accent). The drummer is particularly exceptional, although the flute work is also outstanding. The guitarist favors clean tones and I heard brief sections where he uses what sounds like a Roland jazz chorus – it’s a very nice tone I might add.
The music itself is also very good and more or less fuses the approach of Camel with the synth heavy soundscapes of fellow French band Pulsar. I would even go so far to say that bits and pieces of the spacier sections of British prog band U.K. show up here and there (especially on Dream Yell). There are however, occasional melodies and asymmetrical meters taken from traditional Turkish folk music (courtesy of Setrak and Eril) that spruce things up a tiny bit (Dedicace is a particularly good example of this). This may be good news for those of you that find the combination of classic British prog and heavy synth work largely “played out”. The six pieces on the album range in length from 3’00″ to 7’45″.
This Musea reissue is pretty good and provides a load of informative liner notes along with pictures of the band scattered throughout.
Recommended.
Was this review helpful to you?
|