Perelandra

Glass Hammer | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 1, 1995)
• Original Release Date: February 1, 1995
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: .
• ASIN: B00000JRI6
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,744 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Now Arriving

2. Time Marches On

3. Lliusion

4. The Way To Her Heart

5. Felix The Cat

6. Now Departing

7. Perelandra

8. Le Danse Final

9. That Hideous Strength

10. Enda The Lion

11. Into The Night

12. Heaven

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous music, narratively a little off, December 8, 2002

By 

Francis W. Porretto "Curmudgeon Emeritus" (Mount Sinai, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perelandra (Audio CD)

Perelandra, the first of Glass Hammer's C. S. Lewis-influenced albums, is a beautiful record, well worth its purchase price. As always with Schendel and Babb, the music is soaring and exquisite, and rendered with virtuosic skill. However, in comparison to Journey Of The Dunadan, Chronometree, and Lex Rex, this disc is narratively less well integrated; that is, it tells a less well unified, less well defined story.

Given the influence they chose, it's hard to fault Glass Hammer for that. C. S. Lewis's space fantasy is much more resistant to musical dramatization than Tolkien or the story of Longinus the Centurion. Also, the attempt to include themes from That Hideous Strength (Lewis's sequel to Perelandra) doesn't quite come off. And what's "The Way To Her Heart" doing in here? It's a beautiful piece, but it doesn't fit the Lewis oeuvre at all.

Nevertheless, this is a fine piece of work, and anyone who loves progressive / conceptual rock will enjoy it greatly. It's just not Glass Hammer's high-water mark.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars glass hammer is fantastic, June 22, 2000

By 

David Kirkwood (San Antonio, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perelandra (Audio CD)

Literally, Glass Harp is fantastic, that is, they put into music some of the greatest fantasy fiction of all time. From Tolkien's Lord of the Rings to Lewis' Space Trilogy, Glass Harp is well-read. Only Glass Harp, with their progressive-style rock could pull this album off. It is a masterpiece; truly a magnum opus. One can actually feel oneself take off from earth like a "starship trooper" in the opening cut (like Ransom is in the first book of the Space Trilogy). There are many progressive tunes on this album with many soaring synth solos, and divers key and time signiture changes. Also, in the vein of their previous album Journey of the Dunedan, they include several eerie dramas in between songs. Also the addition of Michelle Young on vocals really adds a new dimension to the group. And to top it all, Glass Harp includes their great ballad "the way to her heart" (also on Journey of the Dunedan). All in all, this is a great cd.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Stuff, September 1, 2004

By 

P. Schumacher (atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Perelandra (Audio CD)

With Glass Hammer you can be sure of one thing: that every new album will be different. It's as if each new album is a new band.

This one differs quite a bit, and is probably their second best, after Lex Rex.

The instrumentals, as always, are superb. Equally good, the singing is great. (The singing is usually GH's weak point.)

There's even a very nice classical pastiche: a synthesizer snippet from Mendelssohn's 4th Symphony, called "Felix the Cat."

Above all, there is great variety and inventiveness.