1. Preface - 4:18 2. Mahzun Gözler - 8:13 3. Mystic Dance - 1:45 4. Misfortune - 4:30 5. Landscape - 3:50 6. Visions - 5:35 7. Without Stir - 1:50 8. Hayal Dolu Güler Için - 4:38 9. Postface - 2:00 Eril Tekeli - flute, guitars, bass Setrak Bakirel - lead vocals, guitars, bass Lionel Beltrami - drums and percussion Nicolas Vicente - keyboards All compositions written by Bakirel/Tekeli
One of the many fantastic, obscure European progressive bands to be unearthed and made available to the prog-buying public by the French label Musea is Asia Minor, who only released two very small-time albums in the late '70s. This Turkish/French band created some great symphonic progressive rock tinged vith a subtle, unique middle-eastern twist which helps guarantee their singular niche in the world of progressive rock.
This is the first of Asia Minor's two albums and from what I have heard of the second one, this one is a little simpler but maybe more original. Crossing the Line is characterized by its clever displays of different textures and tonalities. Genesis-like guitar arpeggios and light, melodic, yet fuzzy solos combined with rough, breathy flute playing create a melancholy, dreamy atmosphere which is also achieved throught the use of chorus, phasing and other effects. The instrumentation is usually quite sparse, but cleverly arranged. There is a little keyboard now and then, but it is never takes the center stage. Seven of the nine tracks contain very, very thickly accented English or Turkish vocals, but they are usually short, unobtrusive and embedded in several minutes of instrumental passages.
Occasionally the band breaks from the dreamy, melodic land scape and employs some heavier, faster group phrasing in asymmetrical time signatures, allowing most of the tracks to be quite composionally episodic and dynamic. Overall this adds up to quite a pleasant listen, but it does seem to suffer slightly from the same ailment as Änglagċrd's Epilog in that it is excellent, original music, but it can be very difficult to pay close attention to throughout the length of the whole album. Maybe this is more a fault of the listener than the muisc, however. It's very hard to think of any band Asia Minor resembles. Aside from some very slight Genesisisms and the Ian Andersonish flute technique (probably coincidental and coupled with a completely different melodic sensibility), Asia Minor are pretty much in a class by themselves. Adventurous proggers know that's a good sign and that it's reason enough to check them out. - Scott Hamrick [February 1998]
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