The Tongues of Men and Angels by Lyrian. Medieval Records, 2011. Running time 2 hours 5 minutes. Double-CD with twenty-four page booklet of lyrics full of curious artwork.
This is the second album from Lyrian, the follow-up to Nightingale Hall (2008).
About the album. The nine songs that make up The Tongues of Men and Angels tell of human beings and their manifold gods, both false and true. In a forest of delicate coils and tendrils, the listener will encounter crooked priests and true believers, madmen and shamans, anchormen and weather-girls, ancient evil and present joy, angels of a species different from those of legend, the love and loss of Christ, the rise of the greatest god of all, and, finally a vision of freedom. The album runs for a little over two hours. The music betrays influences as diverse as early Genesis, Beethoven, King Crimson, Bach, Blake, Pink Floyd, Mendelssohn and Muse. The album is presented with a twenty-four page booklet of the lyrics, illustrated with images by Piranesi, Gustave Doré, Richard Westall, Birket Foster, Pieter Brueghel the elder and several original drawings and wood-engravings by Paul W. Nash.
About the band. John Blake plays lead-guitar, guitars and sings; Alison Felstead plays bass and sings; Paul W. Nash plays keyboards, guitars, woodwinds and sings; and Edgar Wilde plays drums, percussion and sings. All the songs are composed by Nash and Blake (incorporating the text of William Blake’s great poem ‘The sick rose’ in the song Sick Roses). The name Lyrian is derived from Lyra, the Latin lyre, with its associations with lyric poetry and music. It is also (almost) ‘librarian’ without a bra (all the members of the band are professional lybrarians).
Press notices and reviews. A recent review in PROG magazine described the album as “defiantly well off the bonkers scale and ploughing fearlessly forward into whichever realm exists beyond the edge of outright madness ... The Tongues of Men and Angels is an unashamedly extravagant concept piece that sprints through the prog continuum at a breathless pace ... Lyrian are über-prog and proud”. Richard Hawey wrote (at http://profil.jimdo.com/chronique-la-totale3-review/ here translated from French): “The obvious influence on the band is Genesis, chiefly because of Lyrian’s use of guitars, but also for the slightly theatrical vocals, recalling Peter Gabriel ... Lyrian’s style is a mixture of medieval, folk and progressive rock. The album is not easy to digest, not because of its complexity, but rather for its subtelty and the length of the musical journey. To pick out a few songs, the first, “The Hollow,” is a warm and intriguing opening; when the song begins we seem to be present at an evening of storytelling, and this impression continues througout. On this track the instrumentation is minimalist, with discrete ambient keyboards, percussion and guitar. Then comes “Three One-Eyed Gods” which is the longest song on the album at over 26 minutes. This shows a very medieval influence with some lovely moments of keyboard and guitar, both acoustic or electric. The song is fragile (as is almost every song on the album), and changes in vocal intonation remind me somewhat of Peter Gabriel ... The second disc begins with “A Warning to Angels”, a relatively short song with keyboards conjuring a brooding atmosphere. It ends with “The Flight of the Soul”, which lasts over twenty-two minutes. It starts sweetly with acoustic guitars ... then moves into a guitar section sounding like Steve Hackett playing a beautiful melody which is recapitulated later in the song. There follows a gentle change of direction, with the use of organs and vocals almost in a recitative style, before returning to the echoes of the established guitar theme. The Tongues of Men and Angels is an ambitious and well-crafted project, but demands serious concentration ...The musical style with its medieval accents is charming and often captivating. The songs are complex, but do not expect spectacular solos – rather Lyrian creates subtle atmospheres with keyboards and guitar. For fans of the genre, the album is a real find”