Summary
Attila Heger hails from Hungary and is mostly known it seems for his music for computer games. He also writes and performs our kind of music and this is a sample thereof. It does not happen often that people construct an album purely for me, but this is such a case: the original album is a double one adding one extra track to each of the separate albums that make up the double disc. I review here only the 13 tracks listed above, they should be ample to give you an idea what Laren D'Or is about. As an aside: Laren D'Or is also known under the alias of Al Norder (get it?).

The music
4.12 (April Ride) is the short opener to the synthesizer part of this album. Fast and friendly, melodic, classical in structure with harpsichord sounds, with some tenseness as well evident in it. The strings sound very good. Fifth Dream is a longer, darker piece opening with sampled voices, a bit far away and unclear sounding. Then the Vangelis type of music slowly takes form, but not just Vangelis, because D'Or throws in some folk melodies as well. Then a quick piano comes in, to accompany the slowly evolving themes of the song. The music may be compared to Julius Dobos' Mountain Flying but is more subdued and because of the way it is recorded, more electronic. The melodic material often has a folk music sheen lying over it. I do not mean folk in the sense of English folk, but the folk music of the Balkan and environs. Halfway the music is quite moody and stately. In Gothic I-V we open with a medieval battle and the music then becomes a bit bouncy, thoroughly melodic with washes of keyboards, but the main of this first part is very waltz like. The atmosphere evoked is that of dances in a medieval castle. Then the music becomes more typically folky with violin/cello sounds. The playful, elegant melodies return later on in the track. Heart Of A Dragon opens with spooky sounds and takes quite a long time to get underway. I like to compare it with the quieter passages of Antarctica. Then some flares of bombasm erupt, and the music becomes quite percussive. The end is again more Vangelis like. War Of Angels closes the synthphonic War Of Angels with rather quiet percolating piano and some now recognizable melodies. Playful and elegant as always, but always a bit moody as well. If it weren't for the absence of the guitar, I would think this to be Janus' Agnus Dei.
The progressive rock album opens with more force than the previous tracks. The music is both more catchy as well as energetic and percussive, but it still recognizably the same artist. The percussion sounds non-electronic but in other places it is electronic again. On this first track also the guitar sets in giving more force to the music. The focus on melody stays, but the focus on atmosphere is a bit lessened. The follow-up Sidestep Walking is more like eighties Tangerine Dream: electronic music with a beat under it. The music continues to be very accessible throughout, but is certainly worthwhile. I have to admit he's walking a dangerously narrow ledge here, but he succeeds in maintaining an equilibrium. In this second track he even incorporates some less accessible passages. Arcadia is a long piece again, after the shorter introductory pieces, with some playful melodies. It seems we are back now to the first album, because the music is rather relaxed and bouncy, a bit in the to me too simple style of Jarre. My attention wavers here. Later on the music becomes less electronic with some acoustic guitar (a bit Greek in style). The songs ends in a more euphoric vein with bombastic keys and percussion. I do get the impression though that D'Or takes it a bit too easy on the variation in this long track. Too few ideas and a bit more power would have been better as well. After part I, which is in the style of the previous track, Precursor II is a more up-beat track with plenty of percussion and a catchy melody. Pearldance reminds me very much of Enya's Orinoco Flow. Liberate Me is the short closer of the album, a pleasant electronic piece with an unobtrusive beat.

Conclusion
Really some nice music, but I have to admit liking the synth part better. Maybe the percussion doesn't come out as well as it should in the progressive album, but on the whole there was just too little rock in this part. Of course there was no rock at all in the first part, but that is as it is meant to be. Melodically, this is top notch, but for the readers interested in rock, maybe a bit too light. If however you like people such as Caudel, later TD, Vangelis and Janus' Agnus Dei, then this might certainly be something for you.

Jurriaan Hage