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Maryson - Master Magician I

Artist:	Maryson
Title:	Master Magician I
Label:	Music Is Intelligence WMMS 092
Length(s):	57 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1996
Month of review:	06/1997

Line up

Hein van den Broek - lead vocals
Chris van Hoogdalem - guitars and backing vocals
W.J. Maryson - keyboards
Henny van Mourik - bass
Rob Boshuijzen - drums and percussion

Tracks

1)	Jyll's Theme I - Thornland	2.23
2)	The Legend Comes Alive	4.54
3)	The Third Road	3.17
4)	A Farewell	2.18
5)	In The Ghostfields	1.52
6)	Doubts	5.40
7)	Sohar	2.29
8)	Rad's Song	4.03
9)	On The Run	4.10
10)	Sperling	3.39
11)	The Song Of Arfeandel	3.22
12)	In The Hyurgish A-d	9.38
13)	A See Of Tears (Esled's Elegy)	2.32
14)	The Day Comes Like A Desert	2.24
15)	Your Darkening Eyes	4.09
16)	Jyll's Theme III - Wearonoc'h	0.50

Produced by Davide Piai and W.J. Maryson

Summary

While visiting concerts and festivals I always try to find bands and people willing to let me review their music (the more the merrier) and this is an example of a band I ran into even though they did not themselves play there. Before I heard it I had already seen some positive reviews in for instance Harmonie. W.J. Maryson is the pseudonym of Wim Stolk a writer of fantasy novels in what seems the Tolkien style. Now a CD is released based on his book Master Magician - Sperling, and so not surprisingly it is a concept album.

The music

On the one hand much of the music on this album sounds like a soundtrack with a strong emphasis on keyboards and atmosphere. Not every instrumental is just a spheric combination of sounds as shown by the first track on the album, the peaceful, melodic Jyll's Theme part I - Thornland.

Half of the tracks (and together much of the CD) are vocal however, the first being The Legend Comes Alive that is an introduction to the story. The sound of this melodic and can be likened to Camel in their mellower moments (Harbour of Tears). The next track The Third Road is a bit too mellow for my tastes, mostly the vocal parts. The guitar saves the track somewhat.

The song continues into the sad A Farewell, while The Ghostfields is merely a collection of spooky sounds and dripping water.

Doubts starts rather slowly, but when the guitar enters the stage it takes a turn for the majestic. The vocals are good here, with interesting inflections singing, but still telling a story. The vocals remind me a bit of the vocals on one of the track of the Lamb, but I can't remember which. Sounds rather conspiratory. The keyboard parts on this track sound orchestral and majestic and the addition of a choir only adds to this. The drummer lets go of himself for a time and the vocalist comes back at the end with a harsher, desperate voice. Very good track.

After Sohar we get to Rad's Song. This is a rather sweet song with vocals approaching those of Peter Gabriel. The music is mostly acoustic with some (synthetic) accordeon. In On the Run the guitar of van Hoogdalem and Hein's raw vocals feature mostly. An attractive track. Sperling is a melodic instrumental with tapestries of synths and nice guitarwork, while The Song of Arfeandel is a piece for choir only. The long In the Hyurgish is a rarity in that it contains both atmospheric and melodic instrumental parts. The melodic parts are extremely nice with melodies on keyboard punctuated by guitar licks and although very melodic it has the necessary rough edges.

A Sea of Tears can be compared easily to Strangers on a Train. The lament The Day Comes Like a Desert is also rather sad and is based on vocals and piano. The next one is more powerful, but also a little melodramatic. Again, the vocals are expressive, but the vocal melody isn't very striking. Fortunately the guitar solo does a lot of compensating.

At the end, Jyll's theme recurs.

Conclusion

This is a melodic concept album with as basic ingredients the guitars, the vocals and of course the synths. The album is based on a fantasy story written by one of the members of the band who is also responsible for much of the music. The tracks can be divived into three categories: the atmospheric instrumentals (e.g. In the Ghostfields) , the melodic instrumentals (e.g. Jyll's theme, Sperling and In the Hyurgish) and the vocal tracks (usually the longer tracks on the album). The album is rich in arrangment with even some orchestra and choir and on the whole it is a rather satisfying album with nice melodies and pleasant and sometimes captivating (Doubts, In the Hyurgish) to listen to. Musically the album can be compared to The Key Trilogy by Strangers on a Train. On the other hand, the sound of Maryson is warmer and richer and I also like the vocals better. It is true however that especially some of the vocal parts are a little too accessible for my tastes.