iO Pages – NL Progressive Rock Magazine – Issue No 194, 09.2024

Swiss band Flame Dream was active as a heavily Genesis-influenced band from 1977 to 1986. During this period it produced five outstanding symphonic rock albums and a sixth with a decidedly less progressive character. By popular demand, the band has been revived, and Flame Dream is even coming out with a new album after almost forty years. Four of the former members - actually also the core of the band - are once again part of the line-up, which is completed by guitarist Alex Hutchings. ‘Only’ six tracks on this album, but four of them clock well over ten minutes. One hour of music, in which keyboardist Roland Ruckstuhl, bassist Urs Hochuli, drummer Pit Furrer and vocalist Peter Wolf, who also plays wind instruments, prove they have not forgotten their compositional qualities nor their instrumental skills. Delicious, keyboard-dominated symphonic rock, with many long instrumental passages, flowing melodies and pleasant vocals. Hutchings' contributions are particularly tasteful, well dosed, never aggressive or overpowering and a wonderful addition to the rich orchestral arrangements. Velvet Clouds, for instance, has a very nice instrumental interlude. The second last part is more uptempo, featuring a duet between synth and electric guitar. The shortest song (still over six minutes) is a sentimental ballad with mainly piano and orchestrations as accompaniment, subtle percussion and a synth bass. Signal On The Shores starts off with polyphonic ‘humming’ but halfway through, this actually almost entirely instrumental song really gets going. Winding Paths, a track of almost fifteen minutes, concludes this particularly pleasant surprising album, in which we can hear snatches of synth-pop à la Howard Jones, inspired by the music of Genesis and Eloy. Again, a long, beautiful instrumental interlude in which especially Hutchings and also Ruckstuhl are allowed to indulge. To sum up, I can only say that this is a welcome comeback from this almost forgotten and certainly underrated Swiss progressive rock band.

Menno von Brucken Fock