'Voices' is an album with telling contributions by members of the Athens Opera Company as well as a few singers all enhancing the album's intimate atmosphere. It doesn't start off like that though, for the title-track is an exuberant outgoing sing-a-long piece à la 'Conquest Of Paradise' which earlier in the year had unexpectedly become a huge hit all over Europe. Its main melody returns in both the beautiful 'Echoes' (slowed down to adagio tempo) and the charming little. At the start it appears to also feature the cello played by Caroline Lavelle or perhaps Vangelis' sampled version of it. Lavelle in turn has a nice Enya-like song in 'Come To Me' where she plays her faintly audible cello in the lower registers. Next on the album perhaps the two best pieces are featured, both very intimate and thoughtful, at first the inspired piano piece 'Prelude' immediately followed by another more densely orchestrated piano piece which features Paul Young on vocals and has a great climactic fade-out. The last two pieces are a bit simple and don't really add much to what went on before so the overall verdict must be that 'Voices' is not a consistently strong album, although it does have its own unique atmosphere. Certainly the singers appear to have to restrain themselves and can't really sing out like, say, Jon Anderson would, which is a pity for an album entitled 'Voices'.
