Millenium – Souvenir from Holland, cd and blu-ray (2024)

I am a fan of the music of the Polish band Millenium. Take a look at my list of favourite bands elsewhere on this site. It is one of the many bands of keyboardist and composer Ryszard Kramarski and this band has been making a relaxed kind of prog for years with not too many complicated tempo changes or broken speed records on keys and guitar. But in terms of melody and atmosphere, you can enjoy often medium-length songs with a clear structure and fairly song-oriented. Trademark are the guitar solos of Piotr Plonka which are of great beauty and he plays them very easily with a lot of feeling and emotion.

Since the last album Tales from imaginary Movies (2022) there is another singer active and this David Lewandowski certainly has a pleasant voice but, at least for me, cannot make predecessor Lukasz Gall forget because that was a singer with an even more appealing voice. Nevertheless that last album is really, really beautiful and ended up high on my annual list of 2022.

Well, on to the live album with also a bluray of the concert they gave at the Progdreams X festival in the Boerderij in Zoetermeer. People who have been following Millenium for a while know that predecessor Gall didn't really like to perform live and you can see that a bit on the band's previous Bluray, The Cinema show, where he adopts a somewhat awkward, uneasy posture while he sings really great. The question is therefore whether successor Lewandowski feels more at home on stage, giving the otherwise somewhat stately band a bit more live presence.

Unfortunately, the answer to this question is no, because Lewandowski is certainly not a born entertainer and is singing with one hand on his earpiece for 95% of the performance and that just doesn't look good. All musicians are really skilled on their instrument but there is hardly any enthusiasm on stage where the band finishes the performance quite perfunctorily and that is a shame because musically it is very impressive. Missed opportunity.

My second criticism is the setlist and of course I know that it is always difficult to keep everyone happy when it comes to the choice of tracks to play. But I dare to say that there are many fans of the music of these Poles who consider the albums Puzzles, The Web and The Sin to be their better works and it is precisely these albums that are not or hardly represented. No songs from the first mentioned albums and only one from The Sin. (Envy) Not a single song from Exist, also an album that I personally like very much. Apparently, mastermind Kramarski has other thoughts about this because he opts for easier and less challenging songs. Fortunately they do play some more songs from their last album with the great opening track to start the gig. Higher than Me is from Reincarnations and When I fall comes from the album Ego and are nice tracks but lack some power. One thing I am really glad about is the fact that they did not bring a saxophone player along but I know some people missed it. As you see, tastes differ. I won’t go in to all the songs separately but we can safely say that that the relatively short performance lacked some dynamics and power.

So is it a bad live registration? Well no, not at all because there is still plenty to enjoy, even if it is only the wonderfully melodic playing of guitarist Plonka who conjures up one nice solo after the other from his instrument. The rhythm section is also of a high level and where you may not see or hear it right away, bassist Wyrwa is really a very inventive musician who plays beautiful parts, but he also looks a bit like a bag of salt on stage. That is a Dutch expression meaning that he is not moving too much and we can hardly see any emotion in his face. Drummer Grzegorz Bauer wears sunglasses, so not much expression here too, but plays steady and with ease.

From behind his keyboard arsenal, Kramarski guides his bandmates through all the tracks and his playing may not be as dazzling as that of Wakeman or Rudess, but it is certainly tasteful.

And then to Lewandowski because he does really sing well and his voice is absolutely fine and without taking any risks he sings pure, so he clearly knows his limits and with his pleasant timbre he always stays within them and that is also a quality. Not every singer has that discipline.

Look, you can't turn a modest band like Millenium into an over-the-top rock band and these guys don't want that at all, but they do play it very safe and therefore the spark that should touch to the audience is missing a bit.

All in all, it's great that the band performed in our little country and that this CD and bluray have been released, but it could have been even better, I'm convinced of that. If you give energy and passion yourself, you will get it back from your audience and it is certainly not ill will, but I just missed it and that is such a shame when you have such beautiful songs in your repertoire.

Qualitatively it is all quite good, beautiful images with good lighting and a sound that is certainly good for live recordings. That's actually the best conclusion, it's just good but ........

Image 80

Sound 80