Trollheart

Title: Autumn Symphony
Format: Album
Written by: Fabio Zuffanti
Performed by: Hostsonaten
Genre: Progressive Rock
Year: 2009
Acclaim: Unsure, but probably zero. Hostsonaten are not quite what you'd call a commercially successful band.

I've only quite recently got into Italian prog rock band Hostonsaten, but everything I've heard so far I've really liked. This album forms part of their Season Cycle Suite, which includes Summereve, Winterthrough and Springsong. Like most of the band's output it's the baby of Fabio Zuffanti, and includes a full lineup of musicians with cello, oboe, flute, trumpet, classical guitar, violin and even bagpipes! It is of course a musical rendition of or ode to the third season. Soft drumming is joined by a thick bass as we enter “Open windows to Autumn”, some very nice basswork indeed and then sax slides in very smoothly. Quite jazzy in its way I guess, touch of soft funk there too. Clarinets and oboes with what sounds like cello coming in too. Suddenly stops and clarinet and bass take the tune, violin joining now as we head into the last minute. A nice solid ending and we're into “Leaves in the well (including Riverbank prelude)" which opens on a soft piano and violin before acoustic guitar gets into its stride, creating a very pastoral progressive rock feel, very early seventies Genesis or Rush. Electric guitar slips in, counterpointing the acoustic in a kind of way that makes me think of Sky. Really nice solo now on the electric guitar, bringing it back to a more Genesisesque model, quite haunting and sad.

Yeah, the electric guitar really drives this song, with some keyboard choral vocals and some nice flute as the piano returns there at the end, taking us into “Out of water” and bringing in soft violin and cello in a really nice, relaxed melody, then in the midsection there's some backwards masking and jazzy piano as that bass from the opener returns, and the clarinets and oboes set up something of a flurry, though they disappear as quickly as they arrived and we're left with the violin and piano to take us out. Darkly lush synth then rolls in as the electric guitar with I think some sort of effects pedal rises too and “Nightswan 1” begins. Dropping back then to a more relaxed, gentle melody and bringing in some flutes and piano and then that bass shows what it can do. There's no point in me naming names here, as there are about fifteen players taking part, but suffice to say they're all great at what they do, as we move into “Nightswan 2” which rides along on a sprightly flute line with some really nice acoustic guitar backing it. Heavy keyboard then joins in with choral vocals and electric guitar gets involved too.

Cello and violin then take centre stage for “As the night gives birth to the morning", and we hear for the first time trumpet, running off a slow solo against high-octave synth which certainly gives the impression of the sun rising. And now we get those bagpipes, which to be fair are not too intrusive. Not an instrument I like personally, they always seem to be too harsh and loud for my tastes, but these are gentle enough while still having that punch about them. Another sedate trumpet solo, after which we hear a kind of distant chant, like something Arabian perhaps. A lonely clarinet finishes the track and leads in “Trees in November” as again a more jazzy overtone descends, breezy and uptempo without being in any way fast. Finishes on some nice classical guitar.

“Elegy” then is the only track with any kind of vocals, supplied by Simona Angioloni, whom we met on The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Chapter One. This short track seems to be just piano and her voice (though there may be some sparse violin in the background), and she doesn't so much sing as just use vocalise, but it's very effective. We end on “Autumn's last breath/The gates of winter”, beginning with a single piano line then some cello before Simona reprises her vocal performance, though it seems to be a very small contribution indeed, and the piano and cello take over the piece, creating a dark, ambient, sad piece, with I think trombone coming in, the same basic melody all through but it really works, especially when percussion and clarinet come in and add their voices. Beautiful ending.

Things I like about this album :

Pretty much everything really. I love the way the music paints, without words, a scene of bleakness and cold, with yet the remembrance of the departing summer still fresh in the mind, and the cold blast of winter not yet upon us. It conjures up visions of blowing leaves skittering along with a dry, crunching sound on the ground, branches of trees being slowly stripped of their finery as if winter were a thief or needed to survive the cold and was robbing nature. I love the breath of cold wind, not yet freezing, that whistle through those branches as the lights in house windows go on earlier, the days shortening and the nights getting longer and darker. I love the instruments used, the textures created and the overall ambiance Zuffati weaves over the slowly changing landscape. In short, I love it all.

Things I don't like about this album: Nothing.

Rating:

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