Camelias
Garden come from Rome and began life in 2011 on the initiative of
multi-instrumentalist and composer Valerio Smordoni. In 2013 they
released a début album on the independent label Altr0ck/Fading
Records, You Have A Chance, with a line up featuring Valerio
Smordoni (vocals, MiniMoog, keyboards, piano, Harmonium, acoustic
guitar, Tambourine, Taurus Pedal), Manolo D'Antonio (acoustic and
electric guitar, classical guitar, ukulele, backing vocals and Marco
Avallone (bass, percussions) plus some guests such as Francesco
Favilli (drums, percussions), Carlo Enrico Macalli (flute), Andrea
Bergamelli (cello), Eliseo Smordoni (bassoon) and Giovanni Vigliar
(violin). Their influences range from pastoral, symphonic prog to
modern folk and West Coast echoes, from Genesis and Camel to Fleet
Foxes and Midlake. The artwork in some way describes the content of
the album, a colourful musical watercolour dealing with the dreams
and hopes of childhood.
The
opener “Some Stories” is a dreamy, melancholic ballad based upon
guitar and piano while violin and flute embroider delicate melodies
all around the soaring vocals. It conjures up a sense of nostalgia
for a lost innocence and leads to the beautiful mini suite “Dance Of The Sun / The Remark / Dance Of The Sun (Birth Of The Light)”
where dark and light colours are used to paint a strange musical
tableau about the circle of life and a spiritual rebirth.
The
music of the delicate, folksy “The Withered Throne” reminds me of
tin men riding nameless horses through sunny deserts while the
lyrics depict the end of a wondrous love story with its legacy of
broken hopes and wasted flowers. The following “We All Stand In Our
Broken Jars” is an instrumental piece that starts softly with a
strummed acoustic guitar pattern and reaches its climax with a nice
finale in crescendo with vintage keyboards in the forefront.
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| Camelias Garden 2013 |
Next
comes “A Safe Haven” a dreamy instrumental track for piano solo
that leads to the light “Knight's Vow” that depicts the vows of
an immature child who spends his time waiting for his dreams to come
true by dreaming all day long. Then comes the acoustic “Clumsy
Grace” that features some nice soaring harmony vocals and portrays
the shy feelings of a little boy who falls in love with the immature
beauty of a little girl.
The
long, complex “Mellow Days” recalls Genesis and evokes cold
winter days passed waiting for better times, rainbows in the sky and
songs by the sea. The following “'Til The Morning Came” starts
with vocals a cappella, then acoustic guitar and vocals draw flowing
hopes escaping from a broken jar and a stream of growing thoughts. It leads to a reprise of the first track of the album that closes the
circle. It's time to wake up... “Now boy, stop to chase the wind /
Your life flows / You're hidden between the stories of someone across
the stars / Some days you're fighting the evil / Some days you're
begging a chance beyond the galaxies far away...”.
Well, on the
whole I think that this is a good album, although it didn't really
strike a chord on me, but I'm sure that this band will do better in
the future. Anyway, have a try and judge by yourselves...
You
can listen in streaming to the complete album HERE
Camelias
Garden: You Have A Chance (2013). Other opinions:
Raffaella
Benvenuto-Berry: Although derivative in parts, and occasionally a
tad repetitive, devoid of those sharper edges that might make it more
attractive to fans of more experimental fare, its soothing, mainly
acoustic nature will offer a lot of listening pleasure to those who
like their melody untainted by overt mainstream pretensions. Blending
nostalgia with a subtle touch of modernity, You Have a Chance is a
solid first showcase for a band that shows a lot of promise for the
future, and another intriguing find from the ever-reliable AltrOck
team... (read the complete review HERE)
Steven
Reid: Quirky though it may be, the wonderful illustration on the
cover of the debut album You Have A Chance from young Rome band
Camelia's Garden suggests something gentle, involved, innocent, yet
oddly sinister, and so this album proves... Camelia's Garden have put
together an album full of captivating songs which have both an
immediacy and a long lasting appeal, leading you to both want to play
it repeatedly on initial acquaintance, while still drawing you back
for more once that first impression has become something more
familiar... (read the complete review HERE)
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