Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: February 12, 2021
Production: Robert Berry
Album length: 56.59 min
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
3.2 is a special story in the rock universe. Just like 3 was, and the album “The Power of Three”. When the saga of ELP, prog rock’s great taboo-breakers, finally played out, music agents in the mid-eighties started pushing Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer to put together a band that would write more radio-friendly music. Greg Lake evidently didn’t want to be part of that story, or maybe he was never even invited. The “Love Beach” experience remained an unhealed wound in ELP’s discography, and in the hearts of the band’s fans too. This is where Robert Berry steps in. An American composer, multi-instrumentalist and, when needed, a more than decent vocalist. And so 3 (Emerson-Berry-Palmer) was born and put out the album mentioned above. Years rolled by and Berry got back in touch with Emerson. They talked about a new 3 album. Demos took shape, ideas and recordings flew back and forth. But Emerson never got to see it through, since death got to him first. Still, in 2018 an album came out under the name 3.2 titled “The Rules Have Changed”, with every single composition a joint effort by Berry and Emerson, though Berry – an incredibly experienced, seasoned musician and producer – took care of every detail and nuance. “The Rules Have Changed” can therefore be declared a credible continuation of the 3 project, which came about at a time when Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s contemporaries were playing in radio-friendly outfits like Asia and GTR, while Yes and Genesis successfully pulled off a chameleon-like molt that kept the radio-friendliness they’d picked up in the seventies. Many proggers didn’t manage it (Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant), but that’s another story.
Well, Berry more than lived up to the name 3.2. You could read it as: “the former three, reduced to the current two”, and as said, with “The Rules Have Changed” he triumphantly closed the book on 3. At least until the end of last year, that’s how it looked. But at the urging of Frontiers Music Srl., Berry decided once more to tack another sequel onto this whole musical adventure. The result is the album “Third Impression”. With his experience and incredible musical talent, Berry certainly didn’t need to take on a challenge like this. Let’s be honest. He’d said his piece with “The Rules Have Changed”, and those who follow him would much rather have had a new Alliance album. But Berry found one more song in the archives that was written together with Emerson and was simply too long to fit on “The Rules Have Changed”. That’s the song Never, the last one on “Third Impression”. Berry opened up in interviews about how he approached writing the brand-new songs for “Third Impression”: he put himself in Keith Emerson’s shoes and, when choosing arrangements for keyboards (synths, Moog, Hammond organ) and piano, wrote the parts the way he imagined Emerson would have written them had he still been alive. In the sonic structures, the Hammond spice he added, the Moog shenanigans worked in, and of course the passages played in the sonic veils of classical piano, with a clearly highlighted seasoning that evokes a blend of rock and neo-classical – all of it, of course, points straight at the face and work of Keith Emerson – “Third Impression” turns out to be an incredibly successful album. You wouldn’t have dared hope you’d be able to write that. But once again, with this album too, Berry confirmed what a fascinating musician he is and what a fascinating musician he remains.
Berry really thought of every detail in the arranging. The arrangements are rich and the tracks are wonderfully varied. Some speak in a progressive, exploratory voice, while others you could slot straight into a radio playlist without much thought, like the excellent Missing Peace (a song that sounds like it was lifted off some Alliance album). Black of the Night is another more accessible number, with a lead Celtic folk motif that stirs up theatricality and pomp. The Devil Of Liverpool is a prog-leaning impression where Berry achieved excellent sonic spaciousness – the basic rhythm is underpinned with extra percussion, and the winding bass lines (Berry has primarily played the bassist’s role in bands) add an extremely pleasing “groovy” undertone and organic warmth. The chorus, of course, is musical and fascinatingly singable. There are shifts in time signature and, in the closing section, a Hammond organ solo that Emerson would almost certainly have played the same way. That’s just one of the tracks that dominate the album. Among the progressively conceived numbers it’s a bit harder to pick favorites, but two of the album’s most impressive moments are surely the opening Top of the World, which starts out “folky” but quickly and skillfully shows off all its progressive rock content and looseness, and the closing Never. On “Third Impression”, Emotional Trigger is the album’s oddity. It opens in a softly lazy sway built on a piano framework. That’s wrapped in gentle synth pastels that add a veil of mystique. Over all of it hangs a moment that comes close to the character of a cabaret jazz chanson. A great softer track that gets more polished in its arrangement with every pass, and you can easily picture someone like Nina Simone singing it, though it gets “cut through” by a brilliantly placed Moog solo that stamps this one with an absolute art rock seal. An excellent change of pace for the album. The calm before the storm is delivered by A Fond Farewell, with an interestingly dynamic section where Berry introduces a 7/8 time signature, and the closing Never – the album’s high point. Never, the most progressive rock-minded track on the album, contains Emerson’s original lines, a fascinating Hammond solo by Emerson that Berry superbly extended with his own guitar solo. A Bound Of Union is a track of ceremony and fervor. This anthem has an interesting part in its final third that could, as a musical backdrop, be vividly dropped into some old black-and-white film.
Berry is truly incredible. Superb. Even though this isn’t his solo album, it’s a work of great perfectionism and polish. Dedication. Berry is also an excellent singer. His voice is distinctive, memorable and incredibly likable. Both in progressive rock and in songwriting that leans AOR. On top of that, Berry played all the guitars and solos too, and fascinated here as well. “Third Impression” is an old-school progressive rock album. It’s a fitting addition to the previous two releases – one of them pushed deep into the eighties – and although its predecessor “The Rules Have Changed” keeps more purebred kinship with “The Power of Three”, “Third Impression” is an incredibly successful “forgery” that carries, more than credibly, all the ingredients by which its two predecessors are recognized. In other words, as if Emerson were present not only on the track Never, but on every track of the album. That was also the goal of this synthesis of Berry’s, which was commissioned by Frontiers Music Srl., and for which the label’s owners can only bow to Berry. With all that, it’s incredible what a single musician can pull off in his own studio. In every respect. Production too. “Third Impression” is a fascinating work through and through, the work of a highly perceptive artistic mind that, unlike the sea of commissioned and artificially placed music projects from the label Frontiers Music Srl. – often unfelt and “instant packaging” -, possesses a full-blooded, tangible soul and musical character.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Top of the World (9:00)
2. What Side You’re On (2:51)
3. Black of the Night (6:15)
4. Killer of Hope (3:16)
5. Missing Peace (5:54)
6. A Bond of Union (5:20)
7. The Devil of Liverpool (6:09)
8. Emotional Trigger (4:54)
9. A Fond Farewell (4:27)
10. Never (8:58)
Lineup:
Robert Berry – vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, guitar, drums
