By Keith Walsh
Crooniek delivers music that’s sublimely neoclassical. I admit that Neo Fanfare is a genre I hadn’t heard of yet, but when I listened to the new album, Trail Of Time, with its blossoming brass swells, lovely xylophone and gorgeous arrangements, I was instantly converted.
Bandleader Gerry Croon wrote the arrangements and plays cornet, while Olivier Soil steps in front of the microphone occasionally on the album, as does vocalist Elisabeth Coffindaffer, but even on songs without their passionate vocals, the album creates a sublime mental vibe as only an acoustic band with orchestral instruments can. When Soil sings in Dutch, as he does on “Nieuew Dromen (New Dreams)” it makes an emotional connection that only music can bring, even to an English speaker.
There’s much of the medieval and renaissance eras about the harmonies on the album, but it’s all mixed in with a postmodern perspective. The retro renaissance flavor of “Would You Wake Me In Time” ends the album in a classically grand style.
Soil also brings out his Fender Stratocaster, playing beautifully on “Melancholy At Torfbroek.” The use of reverb as an instrument is lovely here. Later on, Elisabeth’s vocals dominate, with her lovely soprano, and eco-activism on “The 6th Extinction.” The blend of acoustic band instruments and electric guitar is particularly lovely on this track. The single “B & G (Bad And Good)” is a rousing number about love and trust, performed expertly by Soil and the brass band.
A complex path led to this album, starting in 2005 in Belgium with the founding of Crooniek, then some collaborations with composer Soil and also with Illuminine. All of the gothic history of Belgium comes into play, including the burning at the stake of a spouse of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s descendant, for witchcraft. Her name was Aert Van Beethoven. Other tragic elements that inform this album is a 1961 plane crash in Belgium, that claimed 61 passengers and 11 crew members, as well as claiming the live of a man working in chicory field, and destroying the leg of another man working with him. Other stories informing this album include the tale of a lovely but melancholy swampland.
This sense of melancholy pervades Trail Of Time, but as the album cover suggests, life is a gift to be cherished. The album cover shows the father of Gerry Crook handing his grandfather’s pocket watch to his son. Life can be sad, even tragic, but music – the making and the listening – make it tolerable, as demonstrated in Trail Of Time.
Olivier And Crooniek On Facebook
Trail Of Time On Bandcamp
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