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Reviews

Teru's Symphonia — Clockworked Earth
(Musea FGBG 4342.AR, 1993/2000, CD)

Teru's Symphonia — Fable on the Seven Pillows
(Made in Japan SYCD-1, 1991, CD)

by Dane Carlson, Published 2001-12-01

Clockworked Earth Cover artFable on the Seven Pillows Cover art

Fable on the Seven Pillows is a Musea re-release of a 1990 album by Japan’s Teru’s Symphonia. Having followed this bands career backwards I can finally state that this sounds like a prog album. It’s a concept album about what I do not know; it’s all in Japanese. The cover and booklet feature castles, elves, and other fanciful things. The composition here is fairly grand (as usual) but more symphonic; the Symphonia part of the band name actually makes sense. In later years the band’s symphony is a variety of over the top themes, here they incorporate a lot of classical themes with their juggernaut of keyboards. Again Megumi Tokuhisa is outstanding; she and Terutsugu Hirayama have created the concept. And for a band bearing his name Mr. Hirayama (guitar) is remarkably generous with playing time, this band has always been very heavy on keyboards. Though he does get credit for keyboards on this one, there are two other piano and synthesizer players. The music brings to mind a bit of Asia and Renaissance, which may not sound to appealing but this band always surprises me. And I find it hard not to like them. I would recommend this album to all as the place to start.

Clockworked Earth is a Musea re-release of a 1993 album, and it’s a worthy one indeed. In later albums by this band the cheese factor is pretty high, but here we get a pretty toned-down version of the band. This allows you to just enjoy the vocals of Megumi Tokuhisa, a sweet singer who wanders into Kate Bush territory at times and is really good. She gets credits for keyboards as well, but it seems like Shou Nakao is the main keyboard player and he gets the nod for his somewhat restrained keys (restrained compared to later albums). This is very accessible neo-prog rock, from a band I would favorably compare to Asia (make of that what you will). I have always stated this band plays the corniest music; and here you get to hear it in its infancy, without the outrageous compositions and keyboard playing that appear in later years. However Teru’s Symphonia will launch into a nice guitar melody, with an aggressive time signature and then shift into what sounds like a Circus theme! The best tracks are the last two; taken from a 1997 Novella tribute album, I have never heard Novella before but Teru’s Symphonia does them well with these two. Great vocals, a potpourri of styles and inventive composition; while this is not something I will listen to a whole lot, I must confess to finding this band highly entertaining.

Filed under: Reissues, Issue 23, 2000 releases, 1993 recordings, 1991 releases

Related artist(s): Teru's Symphonia

 

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