Alexandra Zerner
Opus 1880

Tracks
Disc 1
1. Overture
2. Chaos of Cards
3. The Oracle
4. Mirrors
5. Quest of Light
6. The Sound of Dreaming
7. Questions
8. Letter to Nowhere
9. Diamind
10. Pinch of Time
11. The Missed Dance
Disc 2
1. Desaturation Point
2. Master of Lightning
3. The Other Side of the Sky, Pt 1
4. Unfairlytale
5. Cumulonimbi
6. Dolphins
7. Electric Kisses
8. Sensosphere
9. Five Gardens
10. The Other Side of the Sky, Pt 2
11. Youtopia


Band:
Alexandra Zerner - All instruments


Discography:
9 Stories (2014)
Aspects (2015)


Guests:
Angel Wolf-Black – vocals on "Chaos of Cards", "The Oracle", "Quest of Light", "The Sound of Dreaming", "Questions", Letter to Nowhere", "Pinch of Time", "The Missed Dance", and "Master of Lightning"
Bobby Koelble – lead guitars on "Desaturation Point"
Franck Hermanny – bass on "Electric Kisses"
Gretchen Menn – lead guitars on "Unfairlytale"
Iavor Pachovski – lead synth on "Master of Lightning"
Ivan Ivanov – vocals & narration on "Overture", "The Oracle", "Questions", "Master of Lightning", and "Sensosphere"
Misha Iliev – vocals on "Dolphins"
Mistheria – piano on "The Sound of Dreaming"
Nora Kalcheva) – cello on "The Sound of Dreaming"
Svetlana Bliznakova – vocals on "The Other Side of the Sky, Pt.1 & 2"


Info:
Written, recorded, mixed, mastered, and produced by Alexandra Zerner

Released 2018-09-23
Reviewed 2018-12-31

Links:
alexandrazerner.com
youtube

This is an album I should like, a sci-fi concept, a massive conceptual album with several vocalists etc. it should be good. At least it could be, Ayreon usually pulls off these several CD releases, Dream Theater also has a few strong ones in their discography and there are a few more. But it is not easy to pull off a two-hour story in the musical format. Zerner has enlisted the help of some skilled musicians and is said to make music in the progressive rock genre and the album has a fairly cool cover as well. But what should we make of this then, does she pull it off or does she fail miserably? Well, the answer might be somewhere in between.

The first thing that strikes me about this album is that it has very much instrumental parts to it, and while that may not necessarily be a bad thing it may get in the way of telling the conceptual story of the album. And while I am on the things I reflect over when it comes to this album, I don’t think that the singers are that great – they are okay but none of them really shine. The production isn’t as brilliant as one would hope, it is quite alright but not great and the album could be more varied to make it captivating through the playing time. I think that this album is too long, two hours is too long – she could easily have kept the album shorter by decreasing the instrumentals, which could have made it half an hour shorter without much effort.

It is an album that has some great highlights, some really exciting parts are to be found on this album but that doesn’t really help the major issue with this album. The album is too long and feels a bit tedious to listen through, it takes too long and you kind of just wait for it to end. This opus is too much, too much instrumental stuff, too much minutes and not enough captivating stuff – not quite enough depth I think. When I listen to this album I keep thinking that she has taken on a project that is a bit too much for her, she doesn’t quite pull it off like the masters of the big conceptual ideas can do. The great moments are too few and too far between, it works for most and is never bad but the sense of rainy, dark streets of London in the 1880s doesn’t quite do it for me, I need more excitement than that.

In the end I think that Alexandra should have kept it shorter, and simpler, she does some things right and other things less right so that we in the end have an album that doesn’t quite excite me. She should be commended for taking on such a project and managing to create a pretty decent end product where there are some highlights but the overall result isn’t a very exciting one. Perhaps she was biting for more than she could chew and in the end the result fell a bit flat and I find Opus 1880 to be an album you probably could overlook without much sense of loss and it is an album probably should like but I don’t.

HHHHHHH

 

 

 

 

Label: independent
Three similar bands: Yes/Rush/Ayreon
Rating: HHHHHHH (3/7)
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm


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