VA - The 7 Samurai - The Ultimate Epic (2005)

Introduction to the 7 Samurai-project

Samurai films were very popular in Jараn during the 1950's and 1960's and one of llje better-known classics of them is Ajfeга Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" from the year 1954. This black&nhite film has been titer said to (mi v been cm influence on many action films of the western World cmd many directors (George Lucas among them) have cited the film as an inspiration for their later works.

On first view "Seven Samurai" seems only to be a green action film but by repeated viewmgs many details begin to emerge and the watcher is getting new impressions and ideas all the time. Good progressive rock has many similarities with a film like this as the best progressive works seem al first to be guile simple but only with time and by listening to the music many times the listener will appreciate the whole meaning and complexity of the music. Thus it seemed to be a good idea to base one of these growing numbers of Colossus-projects on the film "Seven Samurai".

The story of the film (ms been divided in three chapters and each band participating has chosen one chapter and made a suite inspired by it. The bands were given the usual rules of the Colossus-projects, and the sound of the suites was told to be like the sound of early 70's Italian progressive bands like Museo Rosenbacp, PFM, Banco, Le Orme, Latte e Miele, etc. Original 70's keyboards (Hammond, Moog, Mellotron, Fender Rhoades, Grand Piano etc) mere preferred.

Rands participating in previous Colossus-projects have been so pleased by the projects that soon all three trades of the new project were taken by old friends Tempano {front Venezuela), Taproban (from Italy) and C.A.P. (from Italy).

As usual, all bands participating in the project were interviewed for the Colossus Magazine. Again everybody pointed out how stimulating these kinds of projects are. All bands have been particrpating in some previous Colossus-project and they spare the opinion that each time they learn something new and want to make even better music in a new project. The fact that bands are working on a common theme and with the same kind of rules gives the bands additional inspiration that makes the bands even to surpass themselves. The main thing is not the individual tracks but how all tracks will fit together and form a whole album around the given theme. All bands thought that the samurai-theme fits very well wilh progressive rock. How the bandshave succeeded to transfer these exotic Japanese influences to the musical context can he found out by listening to this progressive samurai-special "The ultimate Epic".

Raimo Eurasto, Colossus Magazine