VELVET THUNDER

I’ve not heard of Alexandra Zerner before but this lady from the Czech Republic is certainly one hell of a guitar player. Hailing from Brno, Zerner is a progressive rock guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound engineer and already has several albums in her repertoire as well as several credits as a guest musician on other projects.

Silhouette is her latest album and this mainly instrumental prog rock album is very much in Camel/Pink Floyd/Lee Abraham territory and will surely delight all those lucky enough to hear it. Basically, this is a magnificent music score of soaring guitars and moving, fluid keyboards being something of a personal journey for Zerner as the basic concept behind it is the conquering of personal demons. You can go with the concept if you wish or just sit back and listen to some very melodic prog rock played with real passion and style with superb interplay between keyboards and guitar on which Zerner shows that she is a major talent and has the skill to write wonderfully moving and evocative songs as well as playing exquisite guitar. The emphasis is on emotion and control as bestows each track with raw and burning passion and resist the more basic ‘look how fast I can play’ style adopted by some of the more aggressive guitarists, emotional guitar wins every time for me when it comes to progressive rock!

The album is made up of four extended pieces broken down into various parts and the music ebbs and flows in a delightful fashion that draws you further and further into her world. Zerner has also brought in the delightful Maja Shining of the Danish band Forever Still and she breathes real life and colour into Fade, Pt 4 – Perspectives. A further coup is the involvement of Arch Enemy guitarist Jeff Loomis on Fade, Pt 3 – Here It Comes Again and the two musicians add class to a project that is already brimming over with skill and emotional intensity.

Zerner provides virtually all of the instrumentation which includes guitar, keyboards, bass, mandolin, lap steel guitar, fretless guitar, electric sitar and flute which makes her one very talented lady with drums courtesy of Victor Alexandrov and together they have made an album sublime and delicious progressive rock heaven.