Most progressive rock devotees know Peter Bardens being once the keyboard player of Camel, one of the finest British progressive rock bands ever. He played with Camel from 1971 until 1978 and he participated on six studio albums. Personally I loved all the Camel-albums, especially Moonmadness (1976), Rain Dances (1977), Stationary Traveller (1984) and Rajaz (1999). In 2002 Peter Bardens died from lung cancer at the age of 56 leaving a couple of solo albums behind. Heart To Heart was originally released in 1979 and can now be listened to as a remastered edition. On some Camel-albums Mel Collins played the saxophone. I utterly hated that, as he raped for instance a great song like Never Let Go with his sax solo on one of the live albums. He also contributed to Raining All Over The World and After Dark and these tracks are the dullest on Heart To Heart. In my humble opinion there are only two songs that I really liked listening to: Slipstream and the title track. These are Camel-like instrumental songs with dominating ke yboards and nice melodies. The remainder I have to say is rather boring and truly disappointing for the marvellous musician and composer Peter Bardens was. So, Heart To Heart is not really recommended to Camel-fans. ** Martien Koolen (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
