After a long silence, the Dutch symphonic rock group Kayak has picked up the thread with verve in the new millennium. After the album Night Vision (2001), the band around keyboardist and composer Ton Scherpenzeel and drummer Pim Koopman quickly turned to the next project. The old concept album Merlin, which was already released by Kayak in 1980, was partly re-recorded with an orchestra. In addition,
… Scherpenzeel and Koopman composed a number of new songs based on this old legend, so that a completely new concept album was created. Bert Heerink was responsible for the vocals of both Merlijn and Lancelot, while the other protagonists in the story (Morgan Lefay / Guinevere and Mordred) were played by Cindy Oudshoorn and Rob Vunderink respectively. The result is a wonderfully bombastic rock opera, which will especially appeal to fans of 'old school' symphonic rock. (MS)more
