Atria - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 1992
Time: 60:16
Size: 138,1 MB
Label: Musea Records (FGBG 4071.AR)
Styles: Progressive Rock/Neo-Prog
Art: Full

Tracks Listing:
 1. Backside - 0:54
 2. The land of Broken Dreams - 9:06
 3. Lady lea - 8:11
 4. A reason to Be - 7:01
 5. Speedway (Instrumental) - 5:22
 6. The Magic World - 8:22
 7. Escapee - 6:53
 8. Words (Instrumental) - 4:45
 9. Ghost of a Child - 9:38

Musicians:
Jean Michel Paci - vocal;
Gerard Larue - guitar;
David Juvan - bass;
Martial Urbanc - keyboard;
Stephane Pacini - drums.

ATRIA is a French Neo band, that released two critically acclaimed albums for Musea. The lineup consisted of vocalist Jean Michel Paci, keyboardist Martial Urbanc, guitarist Gerard Larue, guitarist Vincent De Toffoli, drummer Stephane Pacini, and David Juvan on Bass. The two albums, 1992's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," and 1996's "Hide," managed to be recorded with absolutely no change in lineup. This may not seem like a big deal, but when you have researched as many short lived bands as I have, this is more of the exception than the rule. Keeping the band together also seems to be especially difficult when there are large gaps of time (like four years) between albums.
Now, ATRIA may be from France, but it isn't exactly easy to tell. The vocals are in English, and they aren't really indicative of the French school. It is a powerful style of Neo, with an emphasis on symphonic. The complexities are almost reminiscent of Brazilian symphonic. As if that is not confusing enough, comparisons to Clepsydra have also been made. Anyway, this is expertly executed prog, and should be of interest to any Neo, or Symphonic fan.
Nice Neo Prog, in the vein of Clepsydra, Pendragon, or Eloy in some passage, but not so mellow. I like Frence neo prog band, because the music is not influenced by metal that in the last years has infected the style of the some Neo prog band. The music is driven by guitars and the vocal are decent but nothing to special. There are good ideas here, from long and complex composition with catchy melodies to instrumental tracks although someone is a bit weak, and it could be a masterpiece of prog rock, but it doesn't for any reason i'll say. First of all the production could be better and the keyboards sound isn't much accurate and refined, and sometime the solos of keys bored me and seems ridiculous like in the instrumental "worlds". I hope they does better in the next release.

Boulevard Of Broken Dreams