Customer Reviews

Fantasia Lindum

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Working in a Honolulu record store in 1972, I was browsing the classical stacks, when I stumbled across three hippies, sitting for a portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn with the HUGEST great dane I had ever seen. Says I to myself, "this be not classical or I'm darned to heck" (or something to that effect). Acquiring same, I went home that evening and beheld John David Gladwin's portrait of his Lincolnshire home in Fantasia Lindum. Lutes, recorders, theroboe and krummhorns, the usual make up of early music consorts, combined with bagpipes, Appalachian dulcimers and angelic harmonies transported me from Polynesia to Olde England and nearly thirty years later, it is still able to reproduce the effect. This record is stupendous!! I would have a hard time giving 5 stars out to any disk, perfectionist that I am, but, if you are open minded about musical styles and are ready for a rare treat, bust loose of that $18.00 or so and buy this album. When you've listened to it several times, treat yourself to England, Blondel's third. It really is a 5 star... transcendent!

30 years and more ago I first saw Amazing Blondel - wonderful entertainment, bawdy jokes and strangely shaped instruments (no rudeness intended). Hearing their stuff today it's timeless and uniquely beautiful. I wonder in hope whether the England they conjure up ever existed.
Listen carefully to the words and above all enjoy the double-entendres and the odd juxtaposition of the words.
There's been nothing like them before or since, and this is probably their best album. They're the best thing England has offered the world since the Wellington boot. If they have another comeback tour, I'll see you there.