Perhaps some of you have already heard the name HEXPEROS related to the exquisite Cold Meat Industry label-sampler Flowers Made Of Snow. HEXPEROS is the project of the female soprano singer Alessandra and the multi-instrumentalist Francesco Forsione. The two Italian neoclassic-musicians participated with the song The Warm Whisper Of The Wind that is included in the present debut album in a slightly different version.
The already mentioned song fitted well to the enormously high quality level. Thus the expectations to the full-length-debut are quite high. The Garden Of The Hesperides is a very calm opus, which coquets with several top acts of the neoclassic- and heavenly-voices-scene like Arcana or Dead Can Dance. With their debut album HEXPEROS offer relatively diversified stuff to a limited range. So the red line is always visible but at the same time the albums lacks of musical tension.
The Garden Of Hesperides is a feathery treat with minimalist instrumentation without rough edges. Too often the dolce songs fail to captivate the listener. But there are also some bright spots: Francesca’s beautiful and not too incisive soprano and gently bewitching songs like Hesperos or the title track. An interpretation of Caccini’s Ave Maria closes the album before the outro.
As a conclusion you can attest HEXPEROS having made a solid album somewhere between heavenly voices and neoclassic, which doesn’t convince me 100%. However the album will appeal not only to genre fans for sure, but I hope that the follower of this debut will be more enthralling.