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All songs by Char-el (except * by Char-el/Gary White) 2000. Char-el is Charles Thaxton |
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A powerfull new music collection on 2 CD's representing the best of two worlds. Disc one Heaven is a 67 minute astral trip through peaceful celestial sounscapes and contemplative ethereal atmospherics. Disc two Earth is a 72 minutes of epic instrumentals combining symphonic progressive rock and new age fusion with a dash of widescreen filmscore textures makes for a stimulating journey of the senses. 2000. © Press information. |
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Char-El (a.k.a. Charles Thaxton's) new 2-CD release, Heaven and Earth, is really two very different recordings in the same package. Disc one, Heaven, is classic space music in the vein of Constance Demby and Jonn Serrie, as well as newer artists like Telomere and Meg Bowles. Disc two, Earth, is a high-energy progressive electronic and prog rock workout that will jolt you, shake you, and motivate you! Talk about variety! The other item worth mentioning is how long this CD is. Disc one is sixty-seven minutes long and disc two is even longer (seventy-one minutes)! There's more than two hours of music here and, surprisingly, almost all of it is great! And trust me, not many artists could bat a thousand, so take that as praise indeed! The first disc, Heaven, begins with one of the strongest cuts on the whole album. "Into The Infinite" is more than ten minutes of classic space music, anchored by breathy synth choruses, twinkling synth bells, and billowy clouds of assorted keyboards floating in the background. Char-El could not have started the CD off better. A subtle and muted midtempo percussive element enters the song and the music begins to soar and cruise through distant star clusters and nebula, accompanied by swooshing synth effects and a high-pitched synth choral sound. If you don't flash on Novus Magnificat by Constance Demby, you're not listening very closely. "Timestream" begins very softly and may conjure up thoughts of classic Serrie, as long washes of synths slowly rise and fall, while a metronome-like bass synth line marks time in the background and gentle synth flute floats among the other music elements in the song. This is another strong cut and is followed by a short piece called "Release" which is soft and gentle, even lushly romantic at times. "Higher Realms" clocks in at almost twelve minutes and the song is another more classic space music, this time using a piano-like synth which plays a repeating ascending series of notes, while muted synth washes flow underneath. The song begins to open up and grow in drama as breathy keyboards are brought in, lending an air of healing and peace (again, evoking Demby for me). The synth washes in this song also remind me a lot of And The Stars Go With You at times.With six more songs to describe/review/detail, it would take a lot to give the music is justice, but I still have another disc to get to! Rounding out this first CD are songs like the Ray Lynch-meets-Demby title cut ("Heaven"), the bubbly and sparkly "Solar Wind," the deep calm of "Ecstasy" (sounding like it could be on a Liquid Mind release), and the closer, the delicately beautiful "Lightworlds ." Disc two (Earth) starts things off with "Beyond the Farthest Star," heralded by drums and piano but the song soon shifts to a fuller prog-ish feel with soaring mellotrons (?) and a dramatic, almost heroic, fanfare. The song even fades out to the sound of triumphantly ringing bells! It's a good indication of what the second part of the CD will be like. This disc is made for cranking up and blasting so that the listener will drain every last ounce of emotion and power from the songs.Next up is "Full Circle" which introduces searing electric guitar (courtesy of Larry Clark) which is counterpointed by Char-El's melodic and restrained piano. Obviously, this song is planted firmly in prog rock territory, with its rock-ish lead lines, pounding drums, and overt rock sensibility. This is followed by the jaunty space cruiser meets prog "Earth (All One Tribe)" with swooshy synth effects balanced by piano, synth wood flute, and chugging percussion. This cut might bring Peter Buffett to mind, except that the synth effects are, at times, more "spacy" than Buffett used. Still, the tribal overtones dominate the song.Some songs are more subdued, such as the fourth cut, "Mysterious Valley." Here, more traditional synth strings and piano play out a mid tempo but somber number with some restrained drum work and percussion effects in the background. I like this song's air of, well, mystery. "Vision in the Skies," the next piece, is slower and features a fuller sound, composed of piano, drums, lush synth strings, and still other synths playing the refrain. It's a dramatic and sweeping song which may bring images of vast horizons stretching out forever.Believe it or not, there are TWELVE more songs I could describe. They include the synth-driven "Visitors" (evoking, for me, the soundtrack to The Day The Earth Stood Still, of all things!), the almost straight ahead rock of "Seasons Will Change," the wonderful almost cinematic textures to the piano-led "Santa Fe" and the thunderous "Breaking Free." Detailing all the music just on disc two alone is daunting to say the least.Looking back at Heaven and Earth as a two-CD recordings, it's superfluous to say it is really two distinctly different albums. In fact, even within each single disc, the variety is startling. Can a CD be too varied? I don't know. I don't think so. The artistic vision of each disc rings true, no matter how different individual songs are. Personally, I like the Heaven disc better, but that's just my taste more than anything else. Earth is full of some real fireworks. Obviously, it's unlikely that everyone who likes one disc will like the other. They are just too different in tone. Is Char-El being too ambitious? I don't think so. If his aim was to portray two dissimilar musical (and even philosophical) visions, he has succeeded admirably. From a compositional standpoint, just writing twenty-six (he had a co-writer on one song) songs for this album is mind-boggling. Engineering is very good through-out (I'll bet headphones on disc one yield amazing results, but mine have vanished so I can't testify to that fact). There's enough music on this album to make three or four decent albums of narrower focus. Whether or not you will enjoy it all depends on how broad your tastes are. Myself, I may never play both CDs back-to-back, but I still highly recommend this to both space music fans (Heaven) and progressive EM (Arkenstone, Buffett, Sarno, Synthuser) fans (Earth). Call me two-faced if you must, but both of me agree - this is an extremely solid CD! 2000. © Bill Binkelman / Wind and Wire |
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On this double CD, Char-El (alias Charles Thaxton) has had the excellent
idea of dividing his stylistic interests between two CD's - one of slow, floating new age music, and one of much more up-tempo progressive rock oriented styles.
On tracks like "Into the Infinite", "Timestream" and "Release" on the
"Heaven" disc, the standard are is slow chimes, choir sounds, gentle sequences, huge swirls of flutes, arpeggiated pianos and electric pianos. Char-El likes his Mellotron sounds too, so there are plenty of analog strings and some interesting novelties like harp strums going on. A bit of over-reliance on the DX7-like Fender piano sound too, but that's par for the course in the new age area. Much more imaginative is the "Earth" CD, which ventures into prog rock fields with an amalgam of Camel, Rick Wakeman and David Bedford (in fact the opening track "Beyond The Farthest Star" has a fanfare-like theme very much like something off one of the early Bedford albums). But the power of this half of the project is very much increased by the presence of guitarist Larry Clark on eight of the 17 tracks - pictured on the sleeve as a middle-aged Country & Western type, Clark actually delivers some blistering electric solos, flipping back and fore from lead guitar to bowing techniques and generally taking off Camel's Andy Latimer with great effectiveness. "Full Circle" is a good example of this - Char-El's piano, strings and synthesized orchestral and rock percussion underpin a great anthemic guitar lead, and there are some more all-electronic tracks, with touches of world music on "All One Tribe" and of happy synth music bands like Peru elsewhere - but the guitar tracks are by far the most effective. It's all too long of course at 72 minutes (plus 67 from the first disc), but the whole point of the project is that you can choose which bit to listen to according to your mood. Rating: ****
2000. © Mark Jenkins / E-Mix |
 review |
After the release in 96 of the majestic "WORLDS WITHOUT END", I bring you news of an artist from Ohio, Charles Thaxton, a.k.a. Char-El,on this occasion and to play for a wide audience. I present you with a double CD of heavenly planetary songs. Beginning with the first, HEAVEN, I would define as a collection of
heavenly songs. The second disc EARTH is conceived with symphonic and progressive tunes for the terrestrial
explorer. We travel with Thaxton with his majestic and grand melodies. There is great elegance in his music. There will be obvious comparisons to Vangelis who is a favorite of everyone's. He utilizes his professional keyboards with such intelligence that the results are in high style. He also has a glorious mellotron that all can enjoy (I must emphasize that a real mellotron is used, not a sampler). Also contributing with undoubtless experience is Gary White (synthesizer), Doug Bonnell (drums and percussion), Chris Stoll (drums) and the Gilmour-esque guitar of Larry Clark, whose sound fits like a glove and sounds spectacular along with Char-el. He moves with exquisite assurance and his near perfect compositions are typical of his play. This North American artist works from his home and creates sounds like a symphony.His music approaches cinematic soundtracks with emphasis on an extraordinary piano sound. At times (with Rick Wakeman in mind) he creates an extraordinary piece of work with his electronic melodies. He is a true teacher who I will recommend his music/work to the whole country besides being one of the most complete musicians in a style in which everyone will soon take notice.
2000. © J.J. Iglesias ATROPOS magazine |