Cressida
Asylum

The gods of rock, as we know, are capricious and often "condemn" to oblivion bands that would have deserved a much better fate without apparent reason. The dense undergrowth of English progressive and psychedelia between the '60s and '70s, in particular, is rich with bands that appeared like meteors on the scene and, after a few years of activity, disappeared in general indifference, only to be rediscovered a couple of decades later. These Cressida are an example, certainly not the only one and perhaps not the most significant, but surely one among those that deserve to be remembered.

The group, whose name reveals its neoclassical inspiration, was formed in 1968 around the keyboardist Peter Jennings (Hammond, piano), with Angus Cullen on vocals, John Heyworth on guitar, Kevin McCarthy on bass, and Iain Clark on drums. In 1970, Cressida released their first self-titled album, the seventh in the celebrated Vertigo label's catalog, an enjoyable work, full of gentle and melancholic melodies, already representative of the band's sound but still indebted to the symphonic and overstructured pop derived from the Beatles-like groups such as Moody Blues and Procol Harum. The next "Asylum" (1971), with the new guitarist John Culley, is more decisive in speaking a language already fully progressive, although it does not deny its debts to certain typical sounds of the late sixties. Behind the splendid metaphysical cover, created by Marcus Keef, hides one of the most successful and balanced works of the early progressive, characterized by a dreamy and vaguely melancholic atmosphere, a symphonic and romantic rock, yet always composed and graceful, never verbose and free from exaggerated and redundant baroque elements.

The mini-suite "Munich", perhaps the most representative composition of Cressida, played on a soft dialogue between organ and electric guitar, enriched by measured orchestral inserts and the wind instruments of Harold McNair, and made unforgettable by Cullen's splendid vocal melodies, well testifies to this serene and enchanted atmosphere, almost fairy-tale-like, a world in gray and pink that recalls the contemporary Caravan.
The rest of the album is nonetheless just as good, offering pieces of vigorous symphonic rock ("Lisa", "Asylum"), short, more pressing and captivating tracks ("Goodbye Post Office Tower Goodbye", "Survivor"), interludes of refined jazz pianism ("Reprieved") and folk-tinged ballads ("Summer Weekend Of A Lifetime"), up to the splendid concluding suite, "Let Them Come When They Will", with its alternating pace, now calm and dreamlike, now more urgent and agitated. All interpreted with that composed grace and that captivating cadence, which constitute the stylistic trait of the entire work.

After the release of "Asylum", Cressida, disappointed by the lack of interest aroused by the record (reports speak of no more than eight hundred copies sold), ended their musical journey at the expiration of their contract with Vertigo (we will see drummer Clark with Uriah Heep and guitarist Culley with Black Widow), leaving behind two splendid works, today considered among the best examples of early English progressive, deserving to be brought back to proper recognition, if not as masterpieces, at least as worthy witnesses of their time.