Some fifteen years on from their debut, and the 2014 version of Millenium still featured four of the five musicians who had played on ‘Vocanda’. Of all the wonderful progressive bands I have heard from Poland, it is with this one I feel the most affinity, as they have consistently released great albums throughout their career, and this shows no sign at all of that changing. As with their previous album, they brought in some guests on vocals and additional instruments (interestingly both Darek Rybka ( saxophone) and Grzegorz Bauer (drums) joined as full members in 2017), to add additional polish and effect. The use of saxophone in modern progressive music still feels fresh, and that is again very much the case here.
This neo-prog outfit takes cues from the likes of Pink Floyd, but IQ is obviously also very much an influence, and there is always a firm concentration on songs and melodies. Singer Łukasz Gall has a wonderful voice and is always kept to the forefront of the sound, and the female backing singers add a touch of finesse, with “Girl From A Glass Sphere” in particular managing to be beautiful, modern and timeless all at once. The last song on the album, “In The World Of Fantasy” is also one of the longest in their canon, stretching in at twelve minutes. It tells the story of a composer obsessed with the desire to write the perfect tune and ready to sign a pact with the devil to achieve this goal. The band see this as a tribute to Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Handel and Wagner and also to “legendary art-rock bands and timeless compositions such as Genesis, “Supper’s ready”, Pink Floyd “Echoes”, Yes “Close to the edge”, The Alan Parsons Project “The turn of a friendly card” or Marillion “Grendel”.”
This digipak is a fine addition to any prog lover’s collection, and I feel so fortunate that I have been able to hear so much of their work. This is the ninth album of theirs that I own, and is either their 10thor 11thstudio release (depending as to whether you consider the debut Millenium album to actually be the second Framauro album or not), and all of them are very high quality indeed. Truly one of the great Polish progressive bands.
8/10 – Kev Rowland
