Mysterkah - Fresq

Year of Release: 2002
Label: Cyclops
Catalog Number: CYCL 121
Format: CD
Total Time: 68:08:00

The main difference from a lot of current prog bands is the fact that the French trio of Mysterkah is lead by the female keyboard player and singer Yleah White. Her English is perfect, her vocal output is of a very high calibre whilst her keyboard parts nicely blend with Alec Hudson's guitar parts. In a way "The Mutant" makes me think of Arrakeen. The vocal lines for "Misanthrope" seem to have been "invented" after the music had already been written, making them hard to fit into the musical context. Yleah's voice reaches a classical height during "The Immortal" fusing wonderfully with the strings. Especially her second voice delivers nice harmonies sometimes reminiscent of Saint-Preux.

With "Millennium" it becomes clear that the music of Mysterkah is constructed by stitching together long elaborate solos in order to finally wrap it all up as a song. But where's the soul? Where's the sense of composition? Where's the craftmanship? Where are the strong melodies on which the songs should be built? In the end I have been listening to over 68 minutes of meaningless solos that are glued together in the hope to form a song. Only "Finale" merits to be called a decent composition. I would advise Mysterkah to try and compose more compact songs and maybe add a fourth member to expand the musical spectrum a little more. I would also love to hear a guitarist who is more to the point rather than the "show off" who is on offer here. No doubt the possibilities are there but maybe Fresq came a little too early in the band's history.

Tracklisting:
Prelude/The Mutant (7:06) / Misanthrope (8:28) / The Immortal (7:50) / Cryosis (9:08) / Millennium (8:23) / Broken World (9:56) / The Survivor (5:58) / New Day (8:31) / Finale (7:19)

Musicians:
Yleah White - lead vocals, keyboards, whistle
Alec Hudson - guitars, bass, backing vocals
Xavier Richard - drums, percussion

Discography:
Fresq (2002)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin FR

Added: October 13th 2002
Reviewer: John "Bobo" Bollenberg

Artist website: mysterkah.chez.com
Hits: 2136
Language: english