XII ALFONSO's "The Lost Frontier" is a great first album with an ambitious concept. These young musicians from Bordeaux (France) have built a superb work with long instrumental passages, some female vocals, and a Celtic-influenced atmosphere sometimes reminding of Mike OLDFIELD. "Odyssees" is the second album in 1999, presenting the same sort of beautiful and majestuous music that could have been heard three years ago. "Claude Monet Vol. 1" is the first delivery of a trilogy dedicated to the last years of the french impressionist painter's Claude Monet life, for the French group XII ALFONSO. This first one surrenders it occupies from the years 1883 to 1889. The relative influences to progressive bands that are appreciated in the album, I believe that they would come mainly from French formations as MINIMUM VITAL or Jean Pascal BOFFO, besides others as Mike OLDFIELD and Steve HACKETT. Those that have not been satisfied with XII ALFONSO's first two albums, they can prove with this third that sincerely I believe that it is a great disk. -- www.progarchives.com Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.