ARC ANGEL – Harlequins of Light – CD review

ARC ANGEL
Harlequins of Light
Frontiers Records

Not to be confused with Arc Angels, Double Troubles post SRV band, this is a return outing for Jeff Cannata, who put out his first Arc Angel album back in 1983. It’s much lauded in the AOR world, despite some critical dissing at the time, and from then on Cannata resorted to releasing albums under his own name, bar “Tamorok” in 2002, which confusingly featured both names.

But now he’s decided to resurrect the name properly, and naturally enough it’s on Frontiers. However, he’s not gone completely back to those 1983 roots, as this still has a lot of the prog stylings he’s been performing over the last couple of decades. And it’s very good. It will please the AOR afficianados without alienating people who’ve followed his subsequent musical moves, and fans of the small print will be pleased to see a credit for Jay Jesse Johnson on guitar, who, as a member of the band Cryer, appeared in the music video for ‘Tragedy’ off the first Arc Angel album.

There’s a lot of good music on offer, although the album highlight is an oldie, with Cannata revisiting a tune from his “Images Of Forever” album in the shape of ‘Fortune Teller’. It’s one of the best AOR songs you’ll hear this year, and it’s worth the price of admission all on its own.

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