The Syn - Big Sky        9/10

By Eduard Antoniu

Active in the mid-‘60s, The Syn were a precursor to Yes. Like Genesis, they formed by the merging of two local school pal bands. But certain elements prevented them from having a Genesis-like career. About six years ago, a longtime virtual friend of mine and maintainer of a Yes-related information web site basically originated The Syn’s reunion.

There is something very touching about this album indeed.  Maybe it’s a young Nardelli himself, still aspiring in this millennium to a Fab Four-like (hope and) glory (“Milo”, “Running Out of Time”, “The Reason”), with a Mark Knopfler-like voice and a Dire Straits-like orchestration (“Universal Witness”, “Running Out of Time”). This 10 tracks/51-minute album is Nardelli’s baby indeed, yet the others make their contributions as well. In particular, the surreal backing vocals of Dorie Jackson (the daughter of the ex-Van der Graaf Generator sax/flute player Dave Jackson) are fantastic.

Nardelli also credits himself with a Nardellitron. This means he either considers himself melodic, or customized the mellotron he plays in the title track and in its reprise, or both.

Tom Brislin does a beautiful Hammond-like solo in “Devils and Demons”. The Police’s Synchronicity album could have as well included a track like “New Reality”. Not only here, Francis Dunnery’s guitar playing can be so Hovian at times. In the catchy “Universal Witness”, A Night at the Opera’s Queen shakes hands with ‘80s synth-pop.

For about four minutes, “Kings, Clowns, Cardinals” is like adding Maggie Reilly-like vocals to Steve Howe’s “The Clap”, then suddenly growing into a one minute and a half pop finale. “Madonna and Child” blends jazzy backing vocals with Yes-ish ingredients.

Remarkable is also the psychedelic artwork from the front of the germinating seed to the back cover where hope, dreams, acoustic guitar, keyboard, stars, “make love not war”, flowers, the Earth, an angel and maybe Nardelli himself as a child hang in a wishing tree.

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