SEBASTIAN HARDIE - WINDCHASE - 1976

Sebastian Hardie's second album is essentially a repeat of their debut, Four Moments. The first half of the album is taken up with one track, from which the album takes its name, and the entire album is dominated by the guitar work of Mario Millo. Unfortuanately, the things that did change from the last album were a slight drop in quality from both the songwriting and the vocals.

The title track is a twenty-minute epic, which follows the familiar style of main theme, several other random tunes, and a recapitulation of the main theme. This structure is quite effective for me, provided the song writer manages the segues between parts and the overall flow of the piece well enough, which Mario Millo does in this case. The music is well balanced and has some really good ideas in it. My main problem with this piece is that the main theme is not quite strong enough, and can't quite support the repetition that it has to undergo.

The remainder of the album consists of four shorter songs, three of which are instrumental. The instrumental pieces are all strong, though not exceptional, and explore different moods. The other piece, "Life, Love and Music", is the stand out. Cruising along to a mid-tempo rock beat, this track has the same infectious appeal as some of the shorter tracks by Yes in their hey-day. Although not worth the price of the album on its own, this and "Windchase" are the definitely the most arresting tracks.

Although this was officially Sebastian Hardie's last studio album, the band Windchase took up where the group left off, and Mario Millo went on to record a solo album called Ocean of the Mind. Despite having promised to record another album when the band opened for Yes on their Australian tour in 2003, at the time of writing nothing has been forthcoming. Four Moments is certainly the place to start with Sebastian Hardie, but fans of that album will find a lot to like in Windchase.
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