Bellaphone was a Prog-Rock band from Japan. They were
formed in Kyoto in 1981 and their discography consists of 2 instrumental albums.
Centered around the keyboard player Mitsutaka Kaki they
developed a synth-based symphonic and melodic style, that finally ended up as
instrumental project. All the musicians are quite skilled, but the keyboard
player and the guitar player are in the front line of the band. Their music seems to be influensed by Camel's sound, but
in a more Jazz-fusion style.
Bellaphone was in very close terms with another Prog band
named “Air Soph” and they actually share the same bass player. It is important
to mention that the members of this band are not full time musicians. They had
the band at the side of their everyday jobs.
Their first album (Firefly) was released in 1987 and is a small Prog-Rock gem!
It contains 8 songs including one bonus track, the beautiful
“Labyrinth”. With the first listening 3 songs catches your attention
immediately. (Mistral, Evros, Labyrinth). But after a few listenings you find out
more beautiful moments in this album. Their second album (Delphi) was released
in 1995, is not so good as the first one, but that’s partially because of the
very bad production. But then again, there is a song here that grabs you from
the first listening: “Fragments of Biotope Suite-Firefly”. This album also
includes a few live songs.
I’m afraid I have
no more information to write here about this band, but for all of you who are
fans of Progressive Rock, (and especially of Camel) I strongly recommend to
listen at least Bellaphone’s first album!
In the following
video you can see the song “Labyrinth” in a live performance, so you can have a
small idea. Unfortunately I couldn’t find “Evros” nowhere. (I’m saying “unfortunately” because it is a
better song by far!)
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