(Neo-Prog / Progressive Rock) Gerard - 4CD, 1983-2013, APE (image+.cue), lossless

In the Eighties NOVELA was a pivotal Japanese band that gradually turned from heavy progressive into hardrock. Their keyboardist Toshio Egawa left NOVELA to start his own band with a bunch of musicians from which guitarist/vocalist Yukihiro Fujimura was the most important. The first two albums "Gerard" ('84) and "Empty Lie, Empty Dream" ('85) are masterpieces with Toshio Egawa (his mother was a piano teacher) as the Japanese answer to the great keyboardplayers from the UK: he has the androgyn looks from Eddie Jobson, the elegant virtuosity from Rick WAKEMAN and the bombastic approach from Keith EMERSON. An attempt to a description is "a harder-edged mid-GENESIS". Their third LP "Irony of Fate" ('91) was a good effort to create a more original sound but sound less symphonic. That's probalby why GERARD's next album "Save Knight by the Knight" and the mini-CD "Evidence of True Love" (both '94) were presented as Toshio Egawa's GERARD. It contains strong and impressive synthesizerplay but the songs are a bit too predictable. In '96 Toshio Egawa's GERARD returned in the world of progrock with new musicians: Atsushi Hasegawa (bass), Masuhiro Goto (drums) and the hugh Canadian singer Robin G. Suchy. Their strong and compelling album "The Pendulum" ('96) is still highly acclaimed and their next album "Pandora's Box" ('97) is also OK. Then the singer left and down to a trio GERARD released "Meridian" ('98), "Live at Marseille" ('98) with the BANCO cover "La conquista della posizione erretta", "The Ruins of a Glass Fortress" (2000) and "Sighs of the Water" (2002).

The albums "Gerard" and "Empty Lie, Empty Dream" contain all the elements that makes progrock worth listening: good vocals, beautiful keyboards (soft piano, heavy organ, sumptuous Mellotron or flashing synthesizer runs), moving and biting guitar play, a strong and tight rhythm-section, spectacular breaks and alternating compositions with a lot of tension and variation. The longer tracks contain a captivating building up, culminating in moving interplay between guitar and keyboards. The new line-up in '96 impressed with a dazzling rhythm-section as a foundation for the splendid keyboard pyrotechnics by Toshi Egawa, especially when GERARD became a trio after the singer left. The magnificent CD "Meridian" was a special edition with old songs in new versions, loaded with spectacular Eddie Jobson-like synthesizerplay, often so sharp that it sounds like a biting guitar! Altough "Live in Marseille" is great with exciting and spectacular music GERARD gives the impression to run gradually out of ideas, the music sounds less captivating and less creative on "The Ruins of a Glass Fortress" and "Sighs of Water". They need some fresh blood, for example a singer or a guitarplayer, like in the first line-up.