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Gothic Impressions - PLP 1.
Dresden Lamentation ( 2.07 ) |
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Voted as one of the ten best progressive albums of all time!
2004 anniversary Re-Edition released !
Pär Lindh: Keyboards, Bass, Drums Jocke Ramsell: Guitar Magdalena Berg: Vocals Divad & Mathias Jonsson: Vocals Johan Högberg: Bass Jonas Engdegård: Guitar Stefan Bergman, Pär Lindh & Mattias Olsson: Drums Håkan Ljung: Lute Lovisa Stenberg: Harp Anna Holmgren: Flute Björn Johansson: Guitar, Basson, Tinwhistle, Ensemble Macogall: Choir under the conductor Erik Hellerstedt, Roine Stolt: Guitar
On re-edition release Divad: Vocals
From Black Sabbath to PLP. ¨A step in the right direction.¨
Divad makes a guestappearance as vocalist on New Gothic Impressions
From hundres of stellar reviews we have chosen a small selection of quotes :
This is like Claudia Schiffer on disc: beautiful, beautiful, absolutely beautiful. This is a classic masterpiece !
H.H. Herald England
This could well be a symphonic progrock lover´s wet dream.
Background Magazine Holland
Possibly the best record ever to emerge from the country of Sweden. An incredible powerful and grandiose recording!
Missing piece Sweden
This is a classic masterpiece ! It gets the highest marks 100/100 points.
Rock Report Holland
Gothic Impressions is another album to add to the classics of the 90´´ Superb !
Alan Freeman AUDION England
A majestic work of timeless character. A work of great intellectual power.
Harmonie Magazine France
Excellent ! A highly recommended album.
Art Rock Magazine South Korea
A strong performance on a variety of keyboards with a focused vision that´s rare in prog.
KEYBOARD MAGAZINE USA
This is a CD of superb symphonic progressive music of the highest quality.
Backstage Magazine Holland
A great debut CD !...you will appreciate it from the first minute to the last.
Arlequins Magazine Italy
Absolute Genial ! ! ! !
Carpe Diem Germany
This magnificent suite proofs that it is possible to intergrate classical concepts within the framework of rock without losing the sense of good taste.
Big Bang France
Superb, intense, incredible ! Maestro Lindh is pure talent.
Impressions Magazine England
With his long awaited debut CD Lindh may have created the ¨Brain Sallad Surgery¨ of the 90´s. An album of keyboard oriented progressive music that all others will be judged by. The interplay between the keys, guitar and bass is just AWESOME !
The Lasers Edge USA
Gothic Impressions is an hour of musical orgasm by means of some of the best symphonic rock ever produced.
Progressive world
Elected as one of the ten best Progressive albums of all time! Along with Yes, ELP, Genesis, Pink Floyd etc.
By the Argentinian Progressive Rock Society 1997. At the time the biggest and most wellorganised in the world.
¨... you will find yourself reaching for this CD more &
more...
As I said in the beginning, this is an album which grows on you -
who knows I may find myself coming back at a
later date, and upgrading from the 3 stars, to, well - who knows?¨
Review by Jim Garten
PROG REVIEWER
RENOWNED SWEDISH KEYBOARDIST.
A STUNNING DEBUT ! ! !
HARD ROCK
A Masterpiece!
Metamusica Brazil
Gothic Impressions is a proof that progressive rock can still amaze the listeners.
Fugazi Poland
This is a CD of superb symphonic progressive music of the highest quality.
Backstage Magazine Sweden
Excellent. A highly recommended album!
Art Rock Magazine South Korea
A breath of fresh air ! A progressive keyboardplayer who can really play ! The result is an almost flawless disc. For fans of impeccably played progressive classical rock this is absolutely not to be missed !
ZNR Records USA
Brilliant !
Garden Shed Japan
Gothic Impressions is a real masterpiece of progressive, classical styled rock. Impressive through its massive dark sound, attractive for its instrumental inventiveness in a genre where usually every album is supposed to sound like the previous one. Recommended to broadminded fans of progressive and symphonic rock.
Crohinga Well Belgium
In the six songs on this CD Pär Lindh blends in an unique way musical traditions from the past five centuries with influences from renaissence music, early baroque, Bach, postromanticism, aventgarde, impressionism and from the symphonic rock bands of the early seventies. Sometime changing dramatically between lyrical visions and explosive instrumental parts. A musical innovation - in many ways !
Enköpings Posten Sweden
"Gothic Impressions" is the debut album by Sweden's cult band PAR LINDH
PROJECT and is internationally regarded as a classic. I haven't heard it
before, but thankfully, here is a copy of the CD reissue, which is
dedicated to the 10th Anniversary of its initial release, with new
mixing and mastering. Many musical parts have been reworked, with new
vocals, new drums and lots of new choir added. The booklet was extended
to a 20-page full-color deluxe format and features some new artwork.
Fans of the band, please take that into consideration, though of course,
the review as such is destined above all to novice Prog lovers and those
who still didn't have the opportunity to hear "Gothic Impressions" for
one reason or another.
Analysis.
Just logically, the spirit of Gothic reigns everywhere in this product
of inspiration by the Gothic architecture (rather, culture: in a general
sense). But while the music is mostly full of dramatics, it isn't as
dark as one may think it should be and isn't depressing at all. For many
people, the conception of Gothic associates with obscurity etc, which
isn't that true. To say simply and unpretentiously, the sun was shining
in the middle ages too! In short, the album reproduces a real gothic
atmosphere, just as it must be in my honest opinion.
The contents is nicely compiled: two short, two moderately long compositions and two
epics. Three out of the six tracks: Dresden Lamentation, Gunnlev's
Round and the Night on the Bare Mountain are instrumentals,
and I'll begin with them. Although each of them is directly related to
Classical music, the shorter pieces have almost a pure chamber sound,
with the Mellotron being the only electric instrument used. Due to the
presence of minstrel-like passages and solos of classical guitar and the
specifically delivered female vocalization, Gunnlev's Round has a
more pronounced medieval feel to it than Dresden Lamentation,
which, though, is just a particular. What's more important is that
despite of their brevity, these are complete music works and are fully
integral parts of the album's general palette, which, as many well know,
is striking by its grandiosity. So as to the remaining instrumental,
this is the really compelling rendition of Modest Mussorgsky's Night
on the Bald Mountain. PLP does it better than Mekong Delta.
The band presents the epic as a concerto for
classic keyboard trio and chamber ensemble. No guitars here. (Pär plays all the instruments himself here !)
The songs:
Iconoclast, Green Meadow Lands and The Cathedral can be
described as the classically inspired symphonic Art-Rock of the best
trade, with elements of Opera. In reality, however, there are a few
different manifestations of Classical music, one of which, the organ
music of the Renaissance, takes a particular place on "Gothic
Impressions". Each song is notable for massive maneuvers of a real
Church organ, performed solo and in the context of the band's joint
arrangements as well. Those presented in the beginning of The
Cathedral, by beauty and dramatics remind me of Bach's Fugue in F.
Par really widely uses the instrument here, and this is probably the
first case that I hear a Church organ taking the lead in Rock music so
often and so properly, to say the least. Finally, it needs to be
mentioned that there is not even the shadow of the band's benefactors on
their debut album.
This is an authentically inspired music,
exceptionally original, such as may come exclusively from on high.
Conclusion.
"Gothic Impressions" is one of the biggest gems that crown Symphonic
Art-Rock of the '90s.
If you are a connoisseur of the genre and haven't heard
the album, you'll take it as ambrosia.
Progressor Russia
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