Chronicles I

About as "proggy" as progressive rock gets, Chronicles I is a keyboard satiated compilation from Germany's Eloy, and is a sparkling album from beginning to end. With barely any vocals at all, frontmen Frank Borneman on guitar and Michael Gerlach on synthesizer create atmosphere through sheer electronic mastery on each and every track. Pure keyboard work, at times uninterrupted for minutes, sets the precedent for some dazzling symphonic rock with a bite. The clarity and briskness of the notes emanating from the synthesizers takes the listener by storm, while each cut contains it's own image in itself. The main reason for releasing this album was to give Eloy fans a collection of tracks with an improved sound, since many of their studio albums prior to 1986 suffer from poor production and low dynamics. The music here sounds brilliant, with "Mysterious Monolith '93" and "Silhouette '93" catapulting the crispness of the keyboards to the epicenter of the tracks. Representing their late-'70s and early-'80s era, with tracks from Ocean, Planets, Colours, Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes, and Time To Turn, this "best-of" spotlights the band in the most glorious portion of their career. While much of their music does contain lyrics, isolated here is their instrumental work, overloaded with clean, explosive energy. ~ Mike DeGagne