CARISMA - A Musical History

This time out, I turn the page over to Larry Daglieri, who posted this article on the Perpetual Motion board recently. Because this band has been getting good reviews for their hard to find disk 1825 (which Larry has reviewed) , I thought I would share Larry's thoughts on the now defunct band.

I want to first thank Claus Jensen and Pat Gravino for being gracious enough to offer their early Carisma discs to me. Although neither one are really worth owning or going out of one's way to find, for a collector like me, it's special to add these discs to my collection. One more reason why this board is so great.

Carisma is an indy band from Denmark, who released 3 CDs to our knowledge. It is difficult to figure out which one was released first, because the band does not put publishing years on their discs. I am assuming that two of the discs that had the same singer are the most recent releases, so I will call the order like this:

In a Moonland (6-song EP)
New World (3-song EP)
1825 (full length disc)

In a Moonland is a melodic, light hard rock release with a "poppy" sound to it. It's got an upbeat feel to it, almost happy most of the time. It's got a nice production, and at times I wish they would have made 1825 sound somewhat like this as the drums are clean and guitar doesn't have that “electric” sound to it and the bass isn't as boomy and muddy as on 1825. I doubt that anyone would even consider this music worth listening to today, as it's terribly dated, and could have been on some light rock radio stations about 10 years ago. It gives you a great idea of where this band was before 1825. They were obviously a radio oriented band back then; I can't pinpoint the year, but if my memory serves me correctly, I think this was released in 1992 or thereabouts.

New World sees the band changing singers, and the bass player Kare Amelung takes over from the previous release. Interestingly enough, the production is terrible on this disc, making me think that this was released before In a Moonland, but I'm going by the change of singers to give me the release date. This music is even poppier than on In a Moonland - and sounds even more primitive, still giving me the impression that the band released this one first. I'm sure Claus or someone from the Denmark area can give a more accurate account of the release dates. The second song, "Fly Like An Eagle," sounds like it could have been a demo for a song on 1825, and this gives me the impression that this was the direction the band wanted to head in. It's melodic, almost with that proggy feeling that 1825 has. With a better production, and more keyboards, this could have been a candidate for 1825. The guitars are more laid back, and they use more acoustic guitars on this disc. It would have been interesting to hear more of this acoustic approach on 1825 - they have the acoustic guitars electrified and leading the way with keyboards - and I can see the transition from this sound to the 1825 sound. If you listen to the intro to "Wind Dreams" on 1825, this is the sound they have on this disc. What they did was write songs like this, only in a heavier, electric fashion. The last 2 songs on this EP clearly lead into the next phase for Carisma, with the symphonic, gloomy, melodic style that we know and love. I believe that this disc was released in 1994. The last song on this disc, "Time Wasn't Right," is easily a candidate for 1825, and I can even hear some of the same melodies from this song on some songs on 1825.

1825 was released in 1996. The band sought to take their soft, melodic approach and turn it into a more heavy, more proggy sound. 1825, in my opinion, is about to become a lost classic. One of the most beautiful, melodic, gloomy, sad stories written in a concept disc - add in a heavier, punchier sound, more keyboards, and a bigger production and 1825 is the result of the essence of the previous discs. Unfortunately, the guitar and bass production sounds a bit strange in comparison to the previous discs - with the guitar sounding a bit over-electrified, with a tinny sound driving it rather than a crunchy or punchy one. The bass is way too boomy and muddy, especially if you use a subwoofer, but if not, it shouldn't bother you. The singing is also turned up a notch as well, with Kare putting on an emotional, sad performance to match the sad storyline of the disc. If you want to curl up with a good but sad musical story some night, put this one on and hear the beauty. This band thrives on melodies and emotion - and this disc is loaded with both. It won't satisfy any true metal head - but if you don't mind cranking it down a notch and get engrossed in some magic this is the disc to do it.

Sadly - the band has broken up, and probably won't be pressing any more copies of 1825. A couple of years ago, 1825 was impossible to find. When demand became large, the band supposedly pressed 300 more copies and has been holding out for the past couple of years. In a short time, Carisma music will cease to exist and will just be a hard to find item.

When you own a band's discography - and this could be applied to any band - it's interesting to see how a band matures over time, and which direction they wanted to go in with each release unless they pull drastic measures. At the same time - Carisma was unsigned, and you can see how limited their fund were when you see the disc artwork, and how the discs were packaged. The band broke up and headed in many directions, split up over several countries as a matter of fact, and I had been told that the guys gave up the biz shortly after they released 1825 because they knew that they couldn't live on their music.

On a positive note - at least the band did get to release what would probably amount to their "gem," and are giving many of us countless hours of pleasure with 1825, which remains one of my favorite discs. On a sad note - I doubt that the band even knows that their disc has reached as many people as it has, and they seemed to have released the disc to the wind and hoped that it carried their music somewhere, sort of like a message in a bottle type situation, in which they put their legacy in a bottle, and many of us received that message loud and clear without them ever knowing we got the message.

[Later research suggests In A Moonland (1992); "New World (1995); and 1825 (1996/1997)

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Thanks Larry. Some brief notes, unrelated. This week you will find reviews of Yoke Shire's Masque Of Shadows, Hermetic Science's Prophecies, and more in Progressive Music Review. Over in Progressive Voice - Manticora - Roots Of Eternity, Chiaroscuro's Brilliant Pools Of Darkness and others. Aural Odyssey features Him's Sworn Eyes, Frontier's Suture and another new Tangerine Dream release, Mars Polaris

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Published on: 1999-10-04 (2260 reads)