Monday 9 February 2015

Nova Lepidoptera (Barclay James Harvest, 1978)

Labelled as "Science Fiction" - and with a synth intro justifying such a tag - this is one of my favourite BJH's songs (the album "XII" has a good bunch of them) and even one of my favourite melodic prog tracks ever. Calm and Majestic, the sung theme is rich and winding, while the arrangement is an atmospheric one, ethereal and spacey.Of course, the instrumental sections are worth a note, particularly the electric guitar solo by John Lees.

This album features many of the best BJH's melodic songs.

Also Les Holroyd's effective bass lines and Woolly Wolstenholme's assorted key effects are among the highlights of this song. Back to SF, the song begins with a Morse code message spelling U.F.O. and the lyrics are about interstellar trips and alien encounters... so the way the band merged those Sci-Fi themes with the most romantic music is simply stunning, reminding me some Ray Bradbury's novels.

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