Aktion	Zweigstelle	Standorte	Status	Frist	Vorbestellungen
Vorbestellen	Zweigstelle: 17., Hormayrg. 2	Standorte: CD.09 Gryp / 70er	Status: Verfügbar	Frist:	Vorbestellungen: 0

Midnight Mushrumps is the second studio album from the band Gryphon. It is a great album that is both creative and very original throughout. The album was released on Transatlantic Records in the UK.

After the success of the first album, "Gryphon", with its medieval folk sound, this second album retains some of those elements but expands the style by taking a further step towards Rock and Progressive Rock.

Multi-instrumentalist Richard Harvey and fellow Royal College of Music graduate Brian Gulland, a woodwind player, began the group as an all-acoustic ensemble that mixed traditional English folk music with medieval and Renaissance influences. Shortly afterwards they recruited guitarist Graeme Taylor and drummer/percussionist Dave Oberlé. The four musicians had then recorded the self-titled debut album Gryphon. After the success of that album they began to work on the second album. They also gained new band member Philip Nestor.

For this second album, "Midnight Mushrumps," they expanded their sound to include electric guitars and electric keyboards. They still used wind instruments, such as bassoons and krumhorns as before. And as they became more Rock based those instruments gave the group originality in the Rock world. The group had a clever mix of sound that meant that they sounded as much like rural English folk or renaissance music as it did rock, at least on their early recordings.

The project had influences of Progressive Rock with the majority of the album being instrumental and the long title track Midnight Mushrumps being the centrepiece of the whole thing. This was a piece that had been commissioned by Sir Peter Hall for his production of "The Tempest" at the Old Vic Theatre in London.

However this second album still has a strong Folk feel to it as well and the mixture of music influences gives it strong credibility as an original Rock album. This is helped even further with the fact that most of the music originates from the band itself with only "The ploughboys dream" credited as from Tradition.

The album has a rich sound using instruments such as Recorders, Krumhorns, Harmonium, Pipe organ, Grand Piano, Harpsichord, Electric Pianos, Toy Piano, Keyboard Glockenspiel, and Mandolin. (Richard Harvey) Bassoon, Bass Krumhorn, Tenor Recorder electric Keyboard, (Brian Gulland) Acoustic Guitar, Semi Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar, Electric Guitar, 12 String Guitar. (Graeme).

 

Brian Gulland - bassoon, krumhorn

Graeme Taylor - guitars

Richard Harvey - keyboards, recorders, krumhorn

Philip Nestor - bass guitar

David Oberlé - drums, percussion, tympani