If you read the names Griffiths And Hollingsworth you might think you are dealing with a law firm. But that's not the case at all. We are here dealing with a British musical duo. Namely keyboard player Steve Griffiths and multi-instrumentalist James Hollingsworth. James is the lead vocalist and played on instruments such as guitars and basses as well. Together they released their first musical effort Lost In The Winds Of Time in 2024. Hollingsworth met Griffiths in the Swansea music scene in the early 90's, but it wasn't until 2016 that they got into the studio and began working on the first song and title track of this double album. A double album on which three guest contributed. Karine Butchart (voice) can be heard on the title track. Sean McBride (sax) showed his musical talents on The Library. And finally Peter Kirch (guitar) helped out on Whisperings Of The Shaman's Dream. Lost In The Winds Of Time is a concept album, it's a kind of allegory for the democratisation of our true history on this beautiful living jewel of a planet, with a picturesque tale woven through it. Hollingsworth feels it also describes the people of the world shrugging off of the shadowy secrets of the age of Pisces, and the beginning of the more egalitarian age of Aquarius, but he's more into astrology than Steve. In short: A book preserved in Argon is retrieved from an abandoned library of lost histories by a hired crew, whose captain eventually surrenders it to humanity - but without alerting his paymasters (who are jealous of the knowledge it contains) due to the existence of a strangely providential key which opens the argon-filled flask. The tale hinges on the friendship and commonality rediscovered between the travellers and the local indigenous people who save them from drowning. After completing the first mix of the title track and the basic versions of the other compositions, Hollingsworth realised that every track needed to have the same instrumentation for the album to flow and bind together. This resulted in this amazing sounding album, which indeed has a musical flow throughout the entire nine tracks divided over two CDs. Two CDs which contain musical pieces which are difficult to describe music wise. It's certainly progressive rock but it's hard to put your hands on and draw comparisons to well-known acts in the genre. Well Hollingsworth was influenced by names such as Yes, Genesis, Rush, Jethro Tull and Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds. On the other hand Griffiths musical influences extend more into metal, such as Black Sabbath and he's a huge fan of Opeth. But to say that this double album sounds like the names mentioned above? No! No at all. Most of all not metal. Yes, Genesis and Rush might be an influence way in the back of the compositions. However Jethro Tull might be there because the songs have certainly influences taken from folk music as you can also find in the music of this band. But also because of the use of a real flute, just like Ian Anderson plays in Tull. Everything sounds rather relaxing with a mix of progressive rock, rock, folk and sometimes even some blues parts. The musical highlights are without any doubt the opening ( Lost In The Winds Of Time) and closing track (Argon). The two longest compositions you can find on this album. They contain of all most more instrumental parts and have the most progressive rock parts. Lost In The Winds Of Time is, in short, a double album that is pleasant to listen to, but it is difficult to describe what it contains musically. Sometimes you have albums that are just hard to summarize but still have a good musical quality. That's why I simply recommend anyone who seems interested in what this duo does to just listen to their Bandcamp page. But one thing is for sure. Their debut album is definitely something to behold. **** Henri Strik (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
