Between Flesh and Divine

Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 742630040352
EAN: 0742630040352
ASIN: B00005BIUJ

Release Date: 2001-04-02

Between Flesh and Divine

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| Rock | Styles | Music

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Tracks:

Nightwind
Northern Lights
Boundless
Dedicace
Lost In A Dream Yell
Dreadful Memories

Similar Items:

Crossing The Line
Forse le Lucciole Non Si Amano Più

Album Description

ASIA MINOR is a French Progressive rock band, led by two Turkish students and settled in Paris: Setrak BAKIREL (Vocals, bass & guitar) and Eril TEKELI (Flute, bass & guitar). Their music reveal influences such as KING CRIMSON's "In The Court Of The Crimson King", JETHRO TULL's "Stand Up", FOCUS, or JADE WARRIOR's first albums. Their brilliant Progressive rock is deeply mixed with rythms and atmospheres from traditional Turkey's music. "Crossing The Line" (1979) and "Between Flesh And Divine" (1981) are generally considered as one of the best international success for the genre. Beautiful themes, strong and original, are intricated with subtle arrangements, enhanced by a nostalgic and soulful singing. Flute's nervous and airy parts underline guitar's raucous or lyrical notes. A melancholic and sometimes furious music, with texts mainly written in English (And Turkish sometimes). To be rediscovered !

Customer Reviews:

Mellow late period prog rock.......2006-07-06

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.

French symphonic rock - not to miss!.......2005-09-02

This french band emerged on the progscen late, too late, since they never got the big break they deserved. They left us with two good albums, whereas this is their classic. They have a highly original sound, much due to the fact that there are some arabic infleunces in their music, that blend with the french. Otherwise, this is symphonic instrumental prog of the highest caliber. Very tight and well arranged, almost veering of into fusion territory with its on-the-note class, but they manage to keep it in check. Instead, the long instrumental excursions are inspiring and never goes of into boring jamming or useless noodling. Especially the fluteplayer really shines here, with his long, passionate solos. Many tracks has a very. very moody groundtheme, "Northern lights" and "Lost in a dream yell" all have an almost touch of despair in their sad sound. That makes the album even more haunting and beautiful. The singing is in english with a strong french accent. Some inspiration might come from King Crimson and Camel, but mostly it sounds very original with its late progressive "modern" sound. After having heard the first moments of the first track "Nightwind", you will certainly agree the high class not only of these musicians, but also of this underrated album.

only the name is minor.......2005-01-22

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.

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