Marco Bernard – The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (2023)
Artist: Marco Bernard (The Samurai Of Prog)
Album: The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up
Genre: Crossover Prog
Label: Seacrest Oy
Year Of Release: 2023
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
1. Overture (6:14)
2. Never Never Land (11:24)
3. The Lost Boys (10:20)
4. The Home Under the Ground (9:54)
5. The Pirate Ship (Hook or Me) (10:37)
6. The Return Home (6:59)
7. Lunar Boy (7:57)
Personnel:
– Marco Bernard / Shuker basses
– Octavio Stampalìa / keyboards
– Brody Green / drums
– Steve Hagler / electric guitar
– Marc Papeghin / French horn, trumpet
– Steve Unruh / vocals, flute, violin
– Alessandro Di Benedetti / keyboards
– Ruben Alvarez / electric & acoustic guitars
– Kimmo Pörsti / drums
– Sara Traficante / flute
– John Wilkinson / vocals
– Mimmo Ferri / keyboards, additional guitars
– Beatrice Birardi / xylophone, bongos, tambourine, doumbek
– Gennaro Piepoli / acoustic & electric guitars
– Marco Vincini / vocals
– Andrea Pavoni / keyboards
– Cam Blockland / vocals
– Carmine Capasso / electric guitar
– Adam Diderrich / violin
– Audrey Lee Harper / vocals
– Daniele Pomo / drums & percussion
– Marco Grieco / keyboards, electric guitar, backing vocals
– Matthew Parmenter / vocals
– Hans Jörg Schmitz / drums
– Marcel Singor / electric guitar
– Oliviero Lacagnina / keyboards
– Marek Arnold / saxophone
– Rafael Pacha / classical guitar
– Charles Plogman / electric guitar
– Riccardo Spilli / drums
– Giorgio Mastrosanti / Telecaster guitar
– Juhani Nisula / electric guitar
– Bo-Anders Sandström / vocals
Yes, this is practically 100% The Samurai Of Prog album, despite what’s reading on the cover. The TSOP moniker was originally founded by the bassist and producer Marco Bernard, so it’s not a big deal anyway. That said, this is a pretty strong TSOP album, although also very typical and thoroughly familiar in style. Almost all collaborators — as before, the compositions are by an international cast of prog keyboardists — are familiar from earlier albums, and the fairy tale based concept continues the recent TSOP tradition which has, just within 2-3 years, seen interpretations of e.g. Gulliver’s Travels, Grimms’ tales and Robinson Crusoe. Sir James Barrie wrote his play Peter Pan in 1902, and the adventurous story has become a household classic of children’s literature and the whole popular culture. The liner notes (both the foreword and track-by-track) emphasize the message of keeping alive the child within us all.
What’s on offer musically is the usual TSOP stuff: excellently produced, 70’s rooted symphonic prog, Foxtrot era Genesis being the most obvious influence. Vintage keyboard sounds, Gabriel-ish vocals and plenty of additional classical instruments. ‘Overture’ (Octavio Stampalia) is a great instrumental opener in which Steve Unruh shines on flute and violin, Marc Papeghin on French horn and trumpet. ‘Never Never Land’ (Alessandro Di Benedetti) features the vocals of John Wilkinson. Very fine, roughly 11-minute prog piece, as is Mimmo Ferri’s ‘The Lost Boys’ too. The theatrical dialogue parts (between the characters of Peter Pan, Wendy and the lost boys) on ‘The Home Under the Ground’ are a bit irritating, but at least this approach is not over-used on this album as it was in the first Grimm-based album.
‘The Pirate Ship’ (Marco Grieco) is sung by the Peter Hammill -reminding Discipline frontman Matthew Parmenter. Oliviero Lacagnina’s ‘The Return Home’ is the other instrumental and has a charmingly rich arrangement. The final song ‘Lunar Boy’ (Marco Grieco) is sung by Bo-Anders Sandström from the Finnish Genesis tribute band Rock Theatre. Summa summarum, as I said above, the vocal department is this time very Gabriel styled throughout the album, and for me it’s a minus. Several other TSOP albums have a wider and fresher spectre, hence this album won’t become a favourite of mine. Nevertheless, as an individual work this deserves four stars, even if the listener has for some time had a feeling that TSOP keeps doing similar albums at too fast pace.
~ Review by Matti, progarchives
