Dreamfire: Atlantean Symphony

First released in 2012, Atlantean Symphony is an instrumental album that you’d guess is conceptual in its willingness to paint pictures of Atlantis. This sparkling reissue comes completely remastered, with new artwork, a reworked track and a bonus cut. And when I tell you that the new addition is “The Rains Of Castamere�, a cover of a piece originally found in Game Of Thrones, you’ll get a strong idea of what Dreamfire is all about.

Although they are billed as a band, in reality Dreamfire is a one man outfit, Osirion the individual responsible for what is an entirely keyboard created affair. A master at building deep, sweeping swathes of sound, the cinematic music that makes up the Atlantean Symphony often features gentle burbling water, downpours of rain, or gushing torrents. This is moody, atmospheric and brooding music and the journey often feels like a bleak one with very little light at the end of its tunnel. Unfortunately, for the first two thirds of this album, it is also a decidedly dull affair with little going on and even less to differentiate one piece from another. Much of it feels like the sort of music that would play as you enter a visitor’s attraction, with restrained crashes underpinning broad musical sweeps. It’s all painstakingly pieced together, and painstakingly uneventful. Things do perk up as the tale builds towards a conclusion and yet even here, as waves lap against the shore, you aren’t really whisked into the world being created. The imagination all too easily allowed to wander off completely and seek its own amusement.

I’m not really sure of the motivation behind adding a re-recording of “An Epitaph In Engraved Water�, but it says much that initially I didn’t even notice its quick repetition on this reissue, so similar is everything which comes before it. And that includes the Game Of Thrones piece. Now I may be the only person left on planet Earth who hasn’t seen the show and has little inclination to do so, but without that connection, while the synth-strings do head things in a slightly different direction, here too, the lack of incident left me completely nonplussed.

Atlantean Symphony is expertly constructed and that the whole thing has been created by one man behind, I believe, one keyboard, is quite astounding. It’s also a decidedly down beat affair and one that I found resolute and immovable in its never changing stance.

Track Listing
1. Across The Ageless Ocean
2. Approaching Atlantean Monoliths
3. Embraced By The Light of the Final Dawn
4. The Opening of Eternity
5. A Reflection of Rebirth Through The Eyes of the Forlorn
6. Into The Temple of the Elements
7. (Immersion Into) The Azure Mirror of Infnity
8. Tears of the Enlightened 2
9. Of Grandeur and Fragility
10. A Timeless Lamentation Carried Upon The Storm
11. Through Fire Into Legend
12. An Epitaph Engraved In Water
13. The Rains of Castamere
14. An Epitaph Engraved In Water MMXVIII

Added: May 18th 2018
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Dreamfire online
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Language: english

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