by Tim DiGravina
Alphaville's 1984 debut, Forever Young, deserves to be viewed as a classic synth pop album. There's no doubting that Germans are behind the crystalline Teutonic textures and massive beats that permeate the album, but vocalist Marian Gold's impressive ability to handle a Bryan Ferry croon and many impassioned high passages meant the album would have worldwide appeal. Indeed both "Big in Japan" and the touching, sad change-of-pace "Forever Young" raced up the charts in multiple continents. Borrowing inspiration from Roxy Music's detached theatricality and Kraftwerk's beats and rhythms, Gold and company hit upon a magic formula that produced here an album's worth of impossibly catchy tunes that could almost serve as pure definitions for the synth pop genre. The hits race straight for one's cranium and embed themselves upon impact. "Big in Japan" feels like a more serious cousin to Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok," as a slow-pounding beat spars with Gold's desperate voice. "Forever Young," a stark, epic song that would become essential for every post-1984 high school graduation, drips sadness and never fails to cause a listener to nostalgically reflect on life and loss. Outside of these hits, the remainder of the songs rarely falter, mixing emotion, theater, and of course electronics into a potent, addictive wave of synth euphoria. It's likely every fan could pick his own favorite of the other should-have-been-hits, but "Fallen Angel" deserves special mention. It begins with spooky, funny warbling and icy keyboards, and then explodes and transforms into a startling, romantic epiphany at the chorus. If its lyrics are a bit goofy or juvenile, it only adds to the heartfelt love the song expresses. Alphaville stick firmly to their synths and sequencers on Forever Young, but they keep things interesting by incorporating motifs from funk, Broadway, Brazilian jazz, and even hip-hop. Even when the band takes itself too seriously, the songs' catchy drive and consistently smart production cover any thematic holes. Forever Young is a technically perfect and emotionally compelling slice of 1980s electronic pop/rock music. It's also a wonderfully fun ride from start to finish.

There's little that the dreamy, new age intro vibes to Schiller's "Zeitgeist" LP can do to take the edge off of the über-German spoken word bits that hover atop of them. It's just not a pretty language, and the only reason that Western ears bought it from mega-synth legends Kraftwerk was because the cold steel timbre of those voices meshed so well with the perceived notion of machine-speak. Those uncomfortable interruptions aside, the Schiller duo of Mirko von Schlieffen and Christopher von Deylen do a fair job dabbling in the hypnotic organica of Enigma. When the beats are finally dropped (on "Liebesschmerz" or "Lover's Pain," for instance), however, the most the duo manage to pull off is a pale and less dramatic approximation of Bedrock's "Heaven Scent." Taking their name from the German poet Friedrich Schiller, the lyrics translated for the sleeve read like pedestrian, high-school fare ("Love is like a fever/it overcomes us and disappears"). While most of the tracks here are passably produced and logically thought through, the resulting material is far too bloodless to spend much time poring over.

莎士比亚经典悲剧中那自溺的姑娘古往今来曾经引发了多少诗人画家的感慨而今德国的NEO CLASSICS巨星OPHELIA'S DREAM用音乐将其重新演绎.这支97年被Oli发掘出的天音新古典组合明显是Hyperium旗下用以填补即将离去的STOALOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH位置的接班人.Dietmar grenlich - 穷困潦倒靠在酒吧弹钢琴为生的艺术家突然之间成了德国著名黑暗公司力捧的新星,不能不说是个乞丐王子的奇迹.Oli为其找来Julia fiedje这位拥有奔放高音花腔的年轻女孩作为乐队的特邀主唱,并不惜巨资在Eudraum专有录音室请Weisser herbst的四位录音师及制作人打造OPHELIA'S DREAM的首张专辑ALL BEAUTY IS SAD,凄美浪漫的故事又一次征服了所有听众.ORKUS更是将乐队评为了当年最有传奇色彩的乐队.华丽的古典音乐编排与时而悲伤绝望时而小鸟倚人的正统学院女高音的配合简直是....惊叹!不得不感叹HYPERIUM在天音及新古典乐风上的造诣,其麾下涌现出了多少让人倾倒的组合厄.
但正所谓成也萧何,败也萧何.由于Oli的独裁以及HYPERIUM公司经营的换向.OPHELIA'S DREAM的新作品直到2000年才得以发行,这时候的Dietmar grenlich已经转投到Trinity发行集团的Sad Eyes旗下.新EP：Stabat Mater取材于意大利古典作曲家Giovanni Battista Pergolesi(1710-1736)的作品,OPHELIA'S DREAM重新演绎了它.与上张作品相比,Stabat Mater更是一张古典音乐作品,Dietmar已不甘心仅在GLASSIS-POP领域发展了,也许他渴望的是创作一些真正的古典音乐.
就这张专辑来讲，认为OPHELIA'S DREAM完全可以替代STOA离去后HYPERIUM天音/新古典体系中产生的空缺.专辑的第一首歌RISE一出手就改编自著名古典管风琴器乐段落.通篇的古典管弦乐编排和钢琴独奏在加上Julia那十分华丽的女高音,就是纯正的古典音乐么.看得出Dietmar与STOA的OLAF有同样的野心和梦想：用个人力量全面嫁接古典乐团的音乐神韵.13首歌曲中,声乐的分量不是很重,更多的是Dietmar那钢琴在管弦伴奏下的抒情演绎,不明白国人会对那种钢琴POP小品如痴如醉,却对这样的新古典作品视而不见?
这颗新古典殿堂的璀璨夺目的明珠于2002年再版的专集多加了他们珍贵的新作，依然非常富丽堂皇尊贵高雅，新古典的魅力被Ophelia''s Dream演绎得淋漓尽致，相当出彩！大型厚重的古典管风琴器乐段落，豪华的管弦乐段如水银泻地般地冲击着听者的听觉神经，别以为black l才能给你带来这样的震撼与快感，新古典也可以！学院派正统女高音Julia显示着其华丽高贵的气质，就如典雅的女皇缓缓步入铺砌黑色大理石的殿堂，女皇在诉说着一个凄美传奇的悲剧。钢琴solo相当有水准！如高山泉水般直泻、音符流动于那着魔的指尖之间，十分流畅同时也富有激情。惊叹于Dietmar grenlich的音乐才华，而Ophelia''s Dream同时也演绎着一幕传奇的新古典神话，为新古典的历史谱上金碧辉煌的一页，是新古典乐界的又一里程碑！