Gatto Marte - Danae (1997)

When researching this band for something intelligent to write about them, I found next to no reviews of their eight studio and two live albums. Which I find both strange and not fair. Danae is their debut album and their music should have gotten them a lot of attention.

Gatto Marte plays a pretty folk rock influenced uplifting form of RIO (Rock In Opposition). A good English translation is chamber rock with cello, violins, piano and other classical instruments in addition to vocals. The most famous bands in this genre is Aranis and Univers Zero. Gatto Marte can be added to the RIO list of bands. The difference between Gatto Marte and Univers Zero though is that Danae, this album, is much more like a trip to the fair than a trip to hell, as you find on most Univers Zero albums. In other words; the music on Danae is rather uplifting and positive. There is even a vocal folk song on this album. There are also some pastoral, piano driven melodies here. Some of them are even somber melodies. The overriding mood though is a pastoral, positive mood.

The material here is very good throughout. Danae is missing one or two great melodies. This though is a debut album from a band who has gone onto releasing some albums after Danae. Including an album this year. An album I have ordered on the basis of Danae. I really like what I hear and would recommend this very good album.

3.5 points