Luca Turilli's Dreamquest: Lost Horizons

Before Luca Turilli formed Rhapsody with keyboardist Alex Staropoli, he actually studied piano. However, after the tremendous success of Rhapsody, he focused on guitar (which he had also mastered before), still retaining his love for classical music, dynamic arrangements, and huge orchestral sections. As years passed with lots of Rhapsody and solo albums, Turilli finally decided to go back to his roots, and form a new band where he'd fully immerse himself in piano and keyboard. He put together a new band which he called Luca Turilli's Dreamquest and also wants to take his music on Lost Horizons to a live setting as well.

The album's first single "Virus" kicks off with a very electronic keyboard sequencing by Turilli before the semi-operatic female vocals kick in. The song is quite fast-paced compared to the subsequent pieces, but it does feature enough space for Turilli to experiment with electronic soundscapes. "Dreamquest" is a more laidback number, with a huge symphonic backdrop, and while the singer does a good job, she seems a bit inadequate for this type of singing. I wonder what it'd be like if Tarja Turunen would guest on a future Dreamquest project now that she is no longer in Nightwish. Some of these songs would have worked much better with a more capable singer. That said, the track is still satisfactory, and the blues-tinged guitar solo is pretty cool. On "Lost Horizons", you'll hear a good dose of Arabic chanting, a modern production, weird sound effects, and melodic vocal lines; while "Sospiro Divino" features Italian operatic vocals atop classical piano that then turn into meticulously arranged symphonic sections. Oddly, the vocals on "Shades of Eternity" are highly processed for reasons I can't understand. If Turilli meant to make this song more experimental by that, I doubt it helped much.

Actually much of the album is a bit too flat and falls behind Turilli's solo work and Rhapsody too. It's great that he wants to explore a new field, but I feel these songs could use more depth and developed ideas, and definitely better written vocal parts. Still, my guess is that Lost Horizons will sit well with most Rhapsody fans. I just happen to think The Infinite Wonders of Creation is much better than this.

Track Listing

1. Introspection
2. Virus
3. Dreamquest
4. Black Rose
5. Lost Horizons
6. Sospiro Divino
7. Shades of Eternity
8. Energy
9. Frozen Star
10. Too Late
11. Dolphin's Heart
12. Gothic Vision

Added: August 3rd 2006
Reviewer: Murat Batmaz
Score:
Related Link: Luca Turilli's Dreamquest website
Hits: 5013
Language: english

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