Bernard & Pörsti are a side-project from the international progressive rock trio The Samurai Of Prog featuring its members Marco Bernard (Rickenbacker - and Shuker basses) and Kimmo Pörsti (drums and percussion), accompanied by a wide range of guest musicians. The reason for this was because near the ending of the 2010s, third member Steve Unruh realized he no longer had time to be a full-fledged member of The Samurai Of Prog. Since Marco and Kimmo weren't in the mood to slow down at the time, they released more albums, this time as Marco Bernard & Kimmo Pörsti. However Gulliver (2020, see review), La Tierra (2020, see review) and Robinson Crusoe (2021, see review) just sound like any other album released by The Samurai Of Prog. Only without Steve participating on them. He joined them again in 2023 for the recording of The Man In The Iron Mask (see review). After that he withdrew as a core member. So no more albums will be released as Marco Bernard & Kimmo Pörsti and everything will be out under the banner of The Samurai Of Prog. Now the three earlier mentioned albums are being rereleased in the latest The Samurai Of Prog compilation box as Omnibus 4 - The Bernard And Pörsti Sessions. Albums which were already sold out and difficult to obtain! But don't expect to get the same albums which were released earlier. No way!!! First of all I can tell you that all albums are remasterd. And as usual a lot of extra music is added on the featured albums. To be precise almost 40 minutes of extra content of previously unreleased song material is available divided on 5 extra tracks. Of course I will not review all of the albums separately once again. I will ask you to read the detailed reviews of all those albums on our website via the review links mentioned in the intro. Well let's start with the album which you can see as first on the backside of the box. This is Gulliver. Based on Gulliver's Travels, a satirical book from 1726 by the Irish writer Jonathan Swift. It is considered Swift's masterpiece and a classic of English and world literature. Gulliver's Travels is Swift's best-known full-length work and popularised the fictional island of Lilliput. The book is primarily a sharp satire on English (and European) society, the court, science, and human morality. It is also a parody of the phenomenon of travel writing. The album features some excellent music in the best tradition of The Samurai Of Prog. A real retro sound is present with links to artists such as Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman. The bonus track on the album is called Ordinary Man, with a total time of 12 minutes it is the longest bonus track. It was written by keyboardist Alessandro Benedetti. It is strongly sung by Michael Trew (Moon Letters) and Lauren Trew (backing vocals). This excellent song has a melancholic jazzy feeling with a nice solos on the synthesizer. But also a fantastic guitar solo by Tony Riveryman. Even a bass solo is included by the well known Jan-Olof Strandberg. And if this was not enough, finally an extra sax solo is added as well, which was done by Risto Salmi. Next up is La Tierra, which was released only half a year after its predecessor. The whole album was this time around completely sung in the Spanish languages. The inspiration for the entire album came from the 30 minutes long title track written by keyboard player Jamie Rosas. This is another great retro progressive rock album. Another album of which Bernard and Pörsti after the recording probably would have said to each other;" How was it possible to create such an amazing album". Just like all of their albums before. For the bonus track Fuego they asked Spanish musician Rafael Pacha because of the Spanish vocals on the original album. Also female singer Ariane Valdivié was asked again. She sang on three tracks on the main album. The album's musical theme continues here, and we hear plenty of Spanish temperament. There's much to enjoy again, thanks to the fantastic guitar and keyboard playing. A great addition to the album. The final album in the box is Robinson Crusoe. It is based on Robinson Crusoe, a novel by the English author Daniel Defoe published in 1719. It is a fictional autobiography/diary of a man on a deserted island where he ends up after a shipwreck. The album has next to the retro progressive rock sound influences taken from Classical music and movie soundtracks. It is another great piece of art. The album has the most bonus tracks. You can enjoy three new songs. It opens with Winter Day written once again by written by keyboardist Alessandro Benedetti. It is a nice ballad sung by Daniel Fäldt (Simon Says). It features nice musical parts on the flute by Giovanni Mazzotti. Next up Lost Soul is a more up tempo instrumental written by keyboard player Mario de Siena. It features strong parts on the synthesizers, violin, saxophone and guitar. The last bonus track is Three Castles Of Highland done with the help of the Italian group Town Musicians Of Bremen. We only hear the first and third parts of this suite. It features some beautiful flute parts next to some amazing synthesizer parts. Each album in this collection is worth listening to and contains excellent progressive rock tunes. No weak tracks available. Even the bonus material is of a strong level. I guess you can't ask for more! Finally some words about the artwork which comes with this release. The Clamshell CD box has a 32-page booklet in vibrant, colourful style which provides information about all of the performing artists. For the lyrics you have to go to the original release. But I guess you can do without them if you have so many pictures of the musicians decorated with beautiful drawings done by Ed Unitsky (Gulliver and Robinson Crusoe) and Nele Diel (La Tierra). No doubt about this release! This excellent box should be in the collection of every lover of retro prog which is into the music of the giants of the seventies. I am talking about Yes, Genesis, Camel, Pink Floyd and of course Emerson, Lake & Palmer. This is a must have if you love the music of those acts mentioned. Therefore I can only say: "Highly Recommended". ****+ Henri Strik (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
