Somehow, at some point in time (could be any time in the last eight years), I ended up with a copy of this album by Lee Abraham (vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass) and Steve Kingman (vocals, guitars, keyboards, drums). Now, Lee was bassist with Galahad for a period, and I have reviewed one of his solo albums and have heard bits and pieces of others, so thought I’d drop over to his website and get some more information. But, it’s not listed among his solo albums, and there is no mention of it in his biography. So, a trip over to the amazing ProgArchives and the same thing there – although Lee is listed, and I mention this album in my review of one of his solo works, this is just non-existent. This piqued my curiosity, as well as getting me to start doubting my sanity, so I did a search of the web to see if there have been any reviews anywhere or if this was just a figment of my imagination and I had mis-catalogued it somehow. Thankfully I did come across a nice review of this, in Polish, which reaffirmed all I thought about it, but why has this seemingly disappeared from existence?
I have no answer to that, apart from thinking that it’s a real shame, as although there is nothing here that will set the world on fire, it is an album that in many ways is quite beautiful. Engineered by none other than Karl Groom, who also worked with Lee on some of his other albums, this album is solid, mature, and packed full of harmonies and great songs. It is quite keyboard led in many ways, but the focus here is always on producing a solid song, full of melodies and hooks, as opposed to being flash and over the top. Non-one could ever accuse this of being bombastic, yet at the same time it is much more than just simple easy listening. It is music to drift into, something that can be enjoyed at first hearing. It is delicate and restrained, and moves along at its own pace as opposed being driven frenetically. There is nothing to prove here, it is all about the songs and performing them to the best of the players’ ability. A little bit of Jadis here, a dollop of John Wetton there, this music creates a world that I want to inhabit. It’s just a mystery to me that there is so little written about it anywhere.
