Dr. Coenobite - Castles In The Air


Year of Release: 1994
Label: Monastery Records
Catalog Number: CP4CV1994
Format: CD
Total Time: 55:31:00

In 1992, Dr. Coenobite came out of the blue with a superb debut called My Habit. The fact that he played all of the instruments himself gave him the nickname of Oldfield of the lowlands. Here he strikes back with this release and with the extra help of guitarist Joost Cornelissen plus the vocals of Nynke Kooistra. As is so much the case nowadays, the drums remain the sound out of a little computed box. Unfortunately!

"Living In A Castle Of Sand In A Desert Storm" offers us some superb guitar playing on top of some medieval sounding keyboards. "The Garden Of Spirits" is very much a classical piece with the real feel of an orchestra, in fact very Gandalf-like in certain parts. Another gem is "Last Spring" with some brilliant Oldfield-inspired guitar playing by Dr. Coenobite. Also Hackett-fans will be happy to hear this CD because of "Airborne On Clouds": a nice blend between acoustic and electric guitars. "Orcana" has once again the vocals of Nynke Kooistra and again I have my doubts. Especially when you hear her sing the word "wind" especially wrong so it can rhyme on "mind"! I mean how naïve can you get? This is even extra underlined with "Back To Reality," a track which lasts 0:00! Coenobite surely has talent but he still has a lot of growing up to do. Musically he has a lot of good, clean, adult ideas but the end result is ill-treated because of a schoolboy attitude. What I don't like at all is the bigheaded approach of the entire project. A guy making a CD in his bedroom (or his Monastery as he calls it) and appointing a Project Manager in his own Coenobite Productions is a bit too much for my liking. I wonder when the shareholders will get their investment back?


Tracklisting:
Living In A Castle Of Sand In A Desert Storm (6:36) / Mother Earth & The Circle Of Life (6:16) / The Garden Of Spirits (10:04) / Last Spring (5:56) / The Flyer (5:14) / Airborne On Clouds (5:04) / Orcana (7:43) / Castles In The Air (7:53) / Back To Reality (0:00)

Musicians:
Dr. Coenobite - electric guitar, acoustic and classical guitars, bass, piano, flute, synthesizers, drums, percussion, computers
Joost Cornelissen - heavy guitar solos
Nynke Kooistra - vocals

Discography:
My Habit (1992)
Castles In The Air (1994)

Genre: Other

Origin NL

Added: May 8th 2001
Reviewer: John "Bobo" Bollenberg

Artist website:
Hits: 2442
Language: english

  

[ Back to Reviews Index | Post Comment ]