Evensong/Fantasia Lindum

Artist: Amazing Blondel
Label: Beat Goes On
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 2

EAN: 5017261206268
ASIN: B0001ZXMK4

Release Date: 2004-06-10

Related Categories:

British Folk

| Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

General

| Folk | Styles | Music

Folk Rock

| Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock

| Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Pavan
St. Crispin's Day
Spring Season
Willowood
Evensong
Queen of Scots
Ploughman
Old Moot Hall
Lady Marion's Galliard
Under the Greenwood Tree
Anthem
Fantasia Lindum: Prelude and Themes: Song/Swifts, Swains, Leafy Lanes
To Ye
Safety in God Alone
Two Dances: Almaine/Bransle for My Lady's Delight
Three Seasons Almaine
Siege of Yaddlethorpe

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Customer Reviews:

Gorgeous pastoral music.......2007-03-04

I first heard of Amazing Blondel when Island released their 40th Anniversary compilation CDs in 1999; Blondel were featured on Vol. 3: Acoustic Waves 1968-1975 with the gorgeous "Pavan," which is the leadoff track on Evensong. After listening a few times, the song really grew on me, and I knew I owed it to myself to check out this group. I can tell you now, it's well worth the effort.

Amazing Blondel were formed in late 1969 when John Gladwin and Terry Wincott left the heavy rock band Methuselah, after working an acoustic set into that group's performances and finding it went down well. Pursuing their muse, they recorded an album for Bell Records, Amazing Blondel & A Few Faces, which was more a sort of general acoustic folk-rock and on which they had the assistance of a number of well-travelled British session musicians (among them Big Jim Sullivan and Clem Cattini). A couple of tracks on that album hinted at the Elizabethan direction their music would take next, when Eddie Baird joined them during 1970. At the suggestion of Andy Fraser from Free, they scheduled an audition at Island Records, which apparently had showed some interest in them; they played "Spring Song" for Chris Blackwell, and when they finished, he asked them how much of an advance they wanted. They got enough for a new PA and a new equipment van, and they set about recording Evensong, of which "Pavan" and "Spring Song" are some of the highlights. This is beautiful acoustic music, on which the three men play between them a total of 40 instruments, and this was their modus operandi in performance as well as in the studio. (In fact, it was no secret that getting all those instruments in tune often took as much as 5 hours, and on the occasions they failed in this task, they didn't perform.)

This lovely pastoral mood continues on Fantasia Lindum, which is dominated by the 20-minute title suite. "Fantasia Lindum Suite" was an exception among the side-long epics of many progressive and folk-rock albums of the late '60s and early '70s, as it was not a formless jam or pointlessly noisy but a well-constructed piece of interrelated short songs that evoke 15th Century England to lovely effect. Other highlights of this album include the comforting "Safety in God Alone" and the martial-themed "Siege of Yaddlethorpe" which closes the album. Like Evensong, pure magic from first notes to final fade-out.

Blondel would continue this trend with England (1972), the final chapter in this Elizabethan trilogy; if you can find it, by all means, snap it up. Terry Wincott left after that album, and Gladwin and Baird recorded Blondel, having dropped the "Amazing" from their name ("Blondel" was the name of King Henry VIII's favourite court musician); that was their final release for Island, finding them moving in a more rock-oriented direction and on to other pastures with DJM.

Evensong (1970) and Fantasia Lindum (1971) represent the pinnacle of Amazing Blondel's recorded work. Beat Goes On has done a fine job of putting these two albums together on one CD; they are truly of a piece, the digital remaster is flawless, and the price is right. Don't miss out on this one!

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