Commentaries of the press concerning EUREKA:

EUREKA - SILVERWARE - The Best Of 1997-2010

Eureka' is an exclamation used to celebrate a discovery. It's a transliteration of a word attributed to Archimedes. He reportedly proclaimed Eureka! when he stepped into a bath and noticed that the water level rose. All of a sudden he understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his submerged body. This meant that the volume of irregular objects could be measured with precision, a previously intractable problem. He's said to have been so eager to share his discovery that he leapt out of his bathtub and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse.

Eureka is also the name of a musical project led by multi-instrumentalist Frank Bossert, who made some name with his latest release Shackleton's Voyage (2009). What this German musician achieved on this album, dealing with Sir Ernest Shackleton's voyage to Antarctica, was pretty amazing. Especially if you take into consideration that he played most of the instruments, like the keyboards and the guitars. On this album, it's obvious that he had been inspired by Mike Oldfield, the famous British multi-instrumentalist, especially as far as the guitar parts are concerned. Also traces of a band like Iona are noticeable, but that's evident since Uilleann pipes specialist Troy Donockley played some whistles and pipes on this album.

However, Mr. Bossert released much more amazing albums in the past that are worthwhile listening to. I realized this when I got a copy of his latest release Silverware - The Best Of Eureka 1997-2010. As the title already indicates this isn't an album containing new material, though some tracks were re-recorded and Solid Ground is a new and previously unreleased piece opening the album. This track has the same high quality level as the material on Shackleton's Voyage, which can be seen as the backbone for this compilation since four tracks that follow the opening piece have all been taken from that album. These tracks had several special guest appearances such as Troy Donockley, but also Billy Sherwood (ex-Yes, vocals) and Yogi Lang (RPWL, synthesizers). A fine selection of tracks taken from his earlier efforts, show that Bossert is a fine composer who blends his songs with influences of world-music. The songs taken from Eureka (1997), The Full Circle (2002) and The Compass Rose (2005) show all kinds of musical elements from countries as Australia, Africa, Ireland and Spain. Together with his fine keyboard work and the guitaristic Oldfield-influences he created a great number of strong compositions. The fourteen tracks on Silverware are all of a high level and it made me curious to Eureka's previous recorded albums. I can hardly imagine that they're mediocre or even bad! Frank Bossert is a musical talent and he should be in the spotlight more often.

I've got no negative remarks whatsoever about Silverware - The Best Of Eureka 1997-2010. Well, you might say that he had been influenced a bit too much by Mike Oldfield, but nowadays it's very difficult to create music without being influenced by all the bands and artists that put progressive rock music on the map. So I can only be positive about this great compilation album. It will put Frank Bossert in the spotlights which he certainly deserves!

By Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen), for backgroundmagazine.nl – September 4, 2011

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EUREKA - Shackleton's Voyage - Neo Prog

From Progarchives.com - the ultimate progressive rock music website:

*****
(5 out of 5 / Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music)

Another of prog's major characteristics is the ability to create through sonic experimentation an overwhelming sense of raptured escape and boundless voyage. There are countless masterpieces that confirm the yarn of progressive rock as an artistic mixture of music and arts & crafts, an endless stream of luscious textiles, gilded filaments and intricate design, heavily attractive due to the manic attention to detail, bedecked with gems and shiny stones. We used to call it "tripping" back then, in the wondrous 70s and we witnessed night after exalted night of interstellar expeditions, coated in a still pure naïveté. Stories told in a wondrous musical context remain the core of the progressive muse. Well that tradition has not died out with the arrival of this exciting package from German multi-instrumentalist Frank Bossert, allied with some splendid cavalry charges from Iona 's Troy Donockley, RPWL's Yogi Lang and Billy Sherwood of Yes fame.

The descriptive is centered around the ill-fated polar expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, a tragedy that went somewhat unnoticed during the strenuous early months of World War I. Throughout the 15 tracks, British actor Ian Dickinson offers his documentary-style voice to add some narrative, providing historical reference points for the rather illuminating music displayed.

Sweeping along the traditions of Wakeman's Journey to the Center of the Earth and Oldfield/Vangelis masterpieces, "Departure" implies the instrumental glee and buoyant confidence of a major undertaking setting sail, whooshing synths, rippling guitars simulating the flapping canvases and the exultation of a giddy crew. "The Challenge" states the purpose and the goal, crossing the Antarctic from coast to coast, Sherwood's voice flush with muted anticipation perhaps even a hint of dread, as if expecting some frozen disaster. On "Grytviken Whaling Station" the mechanical effects and the woozy guitar instill the notion of preparation and the tedious performance of getting the show on the road. "Heading South" is an all-out masterpiece of symphonic grandeur, Yogi Lang's extended whistling synth à la Manfred Mann rustles up images of distance and epic melancholy, while Bossert weaves in some parallel guitar lines. The frosty "Icebound" initiates as a bleak foreboding soundtrack, crisp winds howling on the horizon, swept along by a delicate melody that hints at Vangelian majesty in a quasi-electro/classical dimension that evokes the subject matter perfectly, the frozen vastness imprisoning the tiny wooden vessel , ironically named "The Endurance"! "Plenty of Time" introduces some optimism, a Celtic romp on the Uilleann pipes (here played by Stefan Markus) that playfully stares danger in the face and states "bring it on!" from the star-crossed crew. "Going Home" is the winning track here, a genial attempt at articulating the destruction of the ship by glacial asphyxiation and the need to survive the ordeal, a gigantic main melody expertly expressed by Sherwood's forlorn voice propelled by some lustrous arrangements, flush with hopeful anxiety ("fight for our lives"). Bossert's axe solo weaves magically some kind of salvation, the synthesizer egging the flight on, with some backing choir work to finalize the menace. The instrumental "Into the Lifeboats" has a buzz of impromptu scurrying, overt violin arrangements adding a grandiose implication for haste and no time to waste, while the guitar bursts à la Oldfield (a strong influence here), blitzing manically and spurting encouragement (the bass popping renders the urgency very well). "Elephant Island" as the title implies, reverts to the lumbering glacial mastodon of synthesized sound, plodding the eerie message of frozen destiny once again. "Will You Ever Return?" features the triumvirate of female vocals named Kalema , expressing the fears and worries of the families back home, another nod at Oldfieldian territories, majestic acoustic guitars vying with distressing piano meanderings, a completely successful piece that encompasses even further the ominous pain. "In Search of Relief" is the longest track here, ticking in at nearly 7 minutes, an odyssey of exasperating "endurance" (sic), a woozy blend of gentle harmonics blown aside by some harsh guitar blasts, furious drumming, reptilian bass and an extended and raging guitar foray that remains utterly convincing. The mid section offers some intricate picking, different patches and tones for the 6 strings involved, while the synth backwash persists further into still iced-up deliverance. Finally, the excruciating moment has arrived, "The Rescue" ushers in a feeling of exhausted disbelief, a variation on some of the previous melodic themes and humbly ending the proceedings with the words of Ernest Shackleton: "in memories we were rich. We had pierced the veneer of outside things. We had suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down, yet grasped at glory, grown bigger in the bigness of the whole. We had seen God in His splendours, heard the text that nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man".

A masterful monument to human suffering and progressive descriptive. A gem?.. 5 frozen lifevests.

By Thomas Szirmay (tszirmay), Canada on progarchives.com – August 16, 2009

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EUREKA - Shackleton's Voyage

DPRP Recommended!
Conclusion: 9.5 out of 10

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton and a group of adventurers set sail on the ship Endurance on an expedition to Antarctica. Things did not go as planned, and the rest as they say is history. I will not divulge what happened, but strongly recommend you check out the concept CD Shackleton's Voyage by Eureka, which through a little over fifty-one minutes of music and some admittedly telling song titles recounts what befell Shackleton and company during that fateful journey.

The CD is the fourth release under German multi-instrumentalist Frank Bossert's Eureka moniker. He is joined on this recording by Yogi Lang (RPWL), who mixed and mastered the CD and also contributed a Moog solo. Billy Sherwood (Lodgic, World Trade, ex-Yes, Circa, Aka) sings on two tracks. Troy Donockley (Iona, Nightwish and many more credentials) plays bagpipes and flute on one track. Vocals on one track, Will You Ever Return? also come courtesy of Kalema. Reference points on this CD include Mostly Autumn and A Momentary Lapse of Reason-era Pink Floyd.

Will You Ever Return? is a chamber style ballad with some nice acoustic guitar soloing. Bossert lays down some symphonic synths on Into the Lifeboats and on Going Home. Going Home also features dramatic bass synth touches from Bossert and vocals from Sherwood which are nicely unadorned by the usual processing and multi-tracking that plagues much of his other vocal work.

The other vocal Sherwood track is The Challenge, a mid-tempo number which like the other vocal tracks offers lyrics focusing on the CD's historical theme. Donockley's bagpipes and flute add an emotive flair to Departure, one of nine instrumentals on the fifteen track CD. Having so many instrumentals allows the listener to more freely interpret the music and gives the CD a cinematic quality. It is good that Bossert had this creative vision.

The songs are anchored, as it were, by three spoken word tracks from narrator Ian Dickinson, the British actor noted among other things for his role in the Wim Wenders' film Person to Person . Dickinson 's narration is strong both in style and in content, and is not overdone. I was going to quote some of his narration for this review, but again I do not want to give too much away. The combination of narrative, instrumental and vocal tracks is sequenced across the CD in a way that avoids repetition and makes for good continuity. And on the subject of continuity, most of the tracks are interconnected by some carefully placed and restrained ocean sound effects.

Original photographs from the expedition are found in the booklet and cover artwork included with the CD's retail release. The version of the CD I listened to for this review is a promotional copy with no jewel case or booklet.

Shackleton's Voyage will mostly appeal to fans of symphonic, concept-based music. If you seek something more mainstream, Eureka isn't it. I can think of no room for improvement from this fine project.

JIM CORCORAN on dprp.net - July 12, 2009

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Eureka - 'Shackleton's Voyage' Inside Out / SPV

Hamburg-based multi-instrumentalist Frank Bossert grapples with the tale of Sir Ernest Shackleton‘s Antarctica expedition in the years 1914 - 1916 - and pulls off the shebang with aplomb. Superbly atmospheric, just slipping this CD into the slot will likely give you frostbite.

The vox of Billy Sherwood and choir Kalema provide the icing on the, er... ice!

Geoff Barton, Classic Rock Magazine - July, No. 33 out May 27, 2009

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EUREKA "Shackleton's Voyage"
Genre: Progressive Rock - Inside Out

"Shackleton's Voyage" is the fourth album from multi-instrumentalist Frank Bossert under the Eureka banner and is a musical interpretation of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, also known as the Endurance Expedition, which was to be the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent between 1914 and 1917. The expedition was struck by disaster when their ship, the Endurance, was trapped in pack ice and was crushed and sank. The story of the voyage to safety that all 28 men went through has been put into a musical context here by Bossert.

Not being that familiar with the story, an initial listen was a bit of a strange experience and only having the bare minimum of information with the promo, getting a feel for what was going on was a bit difficult. Enter Wikipedia and the story of this adventure, and the music began to make sense. At times it's quite bleak and sombre but this is always countered by the guitar work of Bossert, which does have an ever optimistic tinge to it. Mixing prog rock with more symphonic and Celtic styles does add variety and compliments the eerier soundscape passages. Assisting Bossert on the album are excellent guest contributions from Billy Sherwood, Yogi Lang and Troy Donockley. The album has narration passages, performed admirably by actor Ian Dickinson, which helps link parts of the story. While the music is the main focus in telling this story, it needed something extra special in terms of mixing and mastering to give it that sense of struggle against the odds. Here, Yogi Lang has done a first class job.

In this day and age, it's easy to overlook the pioneering and adventurous spirit of people like Shackleton. Bringing it to life in a rock musical context and doing it so well is also a huge achievement. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but this is well worth checking out.

POWERPLAY Magazine, July 2009 - rating 7 out of 7

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Eureka - Shackleton's Voyage
InsideOut

From the capable hands of Frank Bossert, a German multi-instrumentalist, comes a fourth album called ‘Shackleton's Voyage' released under the band or project name of Eureka . And a beautiful one it is but one might not expect it to be reviewed on a website like ours. But label manager Thomas Waber of Inside Out can be trusted with his stable additions. To give you an idea of this music: Mike Oldfield with a bite.

A story is told on this album; about the British Antarctic pioneer Sir Ernest Shackleton who embarked on an expedition in 1914, with 27 crewmembers. Lots of things happened of course and this album tries to get the atmosphere of those events. Not all songs are instrumental, it was a wise move to feature some vocals and on two of the songs Billy Sherwood (ex-Yes, CIRCA) appears, loaning his voice. Those two songs are the highlights of the album to my taste; the atmosphere, story and lyrics. Bossert called in more help; from RPWL Yogi Lang (keyboards) dropped by and also Troy Donockley (Nightwish, IONA ) stopped by for a contribution with bagpipe and flute. Actor Ian Dickson narrates the story now and then and another highlight is the beautiful ‘Will You Ever Return?', sung by Kalema. Proggers who like albums as Mike Oldfields' ‘Songs From A Distant Earth' and Don Airey's ‘ K2 ; Tales Of Triumph And Tragedy' can't pass on this one.

Rating: 92/100: An excellent album, a must have for every fan of this metal niche.

“Winston” from Lords of Metal / NL – monthly metal e-zine – June 2009

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Get ready to rock!
GRTR! General rock review
Eureka 'Shackleton's Voyage' Inside Out (2009)

Eureka is basically a one man band in multi-instrumentalist Frank Bossert and this album tells the true story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctica expedition in the years 1914 to 1916. One thing that would have really made this album special would have been to add the music to a DVD of images of the expedition or even a documentary film. This would of course be expensive but much of the album is instrumental and would fit nicely onto such a DVD.

If you like Mike Oldfield of the 70's/80's, Camel in their concept album mode (particularly 'Nude') and the Celtic music of Clannad then this album will be right up your street. For me the Celtic/folk musical passages really add depth and flavour to the album. There are guest musicians as well, notably Billy Sherwood (Yes/World Trade) adding vocals to 'The Challenge' and 'Going Home', the latter a real album stand out. Other guests include Yogi Lang (RPWL), Troy Donockley (IONA/Nightwish) played bagpipes and flute and the narrator, actor Ian Dickinson, links the story together.

A very enjoyable album, best heard in one sitting although 'Going Home' is a strong enough tune in its own right for possible airplay.

Jason Ritchie – online review GRTR! - May 5, 2009

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EUREKA
Shackleton's Voyage
(TEMPUS FUGIT/SPV 28022 CD)

Eureka is a project by the German multi-instrumentalist Frank Bossert (guitars, keyboards, bass, mandolin and percussion). “Shackleton's Voyage” is already his fourth album but I haven't heard his first three. That is a pity because the music on “Shackleton's Voyage”, a concept story about Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, is very strong. Furthermore, quite interesting musicians have joined Frank like Billy Sherwood (Yes, Circa:) on vocals, Troy Donockley ( Iona , Nightwish) on Uilleann pipes and low whistles and Yogi Lang (RPWL) on Moog and other synthesizers. After a brief spoken introduction by actor Ian Dickinson we hear in ‘Departure' what Bossert is capable of. It is a very beautiful composition, a mix between Mike Oldfield, Vangelis and Celtic music (because of Donockley). ‘The Challenge' is a strong prog song with vocals by Sherwood which proves that Bossert has the gift to compose both vocal and instrumental music. The majority of the compositions are instrumental and could serve well as film music. ‘Grytviken Whaling Station' is a beautiful piece that tells a story. The guitar sounds in ‘Heading South' sound very like Mike Oldfield. Yogi Lang plays a wonderful piece of Moog here. A great piece of folk is ‘Plenty Of Time', completely with mandolin. The slightly bombastic ‘Going Home' lets us hear Billy Sherwood again. Oldfield (his “Crisis” period) and Vangelis greet in ‘Into The Life Boats'. Everything calms down in ‘ Elephant Island ' where a soft synthesizer has a central place. Kalema sings the lead in the wonderful ballad ‘ Will You Ever Return?' In the strong ‘In Search Of Relief' Bossert shows his skills as a guitarist.
What a beautiful CD this has become. Bossert is like a new Mike Oldfield but with something extra.

©2009 Paul Rijkens for ‘iO Pages' - Dutch progressive rock magazine

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Ahoy Me Matey's

Ooh, there's lovely! Multi-instrumentalist Frank Bossert's Eureka 's project tells the story of Sir Ernie Shackleton's Antarctica expedition which took place over the years 1914-1916. I can think of better things to base a concept album on, particularly a notable event at occurring at the same time...

Sir Ernest Shackleton and his team of men set out to conquer the Antarctic continent as the world became embroiled in World War One. All but forgotten back home in Britain , Shackleton's expedition drifted with the ice for nearly two years. Facing hunger, loneliness, near-mutiny and what has come to be known as the greatest small-boat journey in history, this is their story.
Even though Prog is my cup of tea, ‘Shackleton's Voyage' certainly tests my mettle for my love of all things prog. First impressions are of a mish mash of prog styles thrown into the mixing bowl; influences rain thick and fast from Pink Floyd, touches of Gabriel era Genesis, Prog Meisters Yes, and a bit of Mike Oldfield to boot. The Yes influence is intentional as Bossert has brought in Billy Sherwood who brings his vocal style to ‘The Challenge' and ‘Coming Home'.

Along with Sherwood, ‘SV' features other illustrious guests. Yogi Lang of RWPL mixed and mastered the album and contributed a Moog solo to ‘Heading South'. British actor Ian Dickinson narrates the icy tale. The CD cover's artwork and booklet contains original pics from the expedition. ‘The Challenge' takes its lead from Peter Gabriel, in fact, tonight Matthew, I, Billy Sherwood, you get it! Shackleton's Voyage is also heavily focused on the works by Mike Oldfield. It's a strong mix of very atmospheric instrumental track interwoven with narrative from Dickinson and vocal compositions. Bossert mixes more traditional progressive music together with synthesised and Celtic themes, bringing in bagpipes and flutes into ‘Departure'.

I've only got the promo CD, but hopefully the version for sale will have a really interesting booklet outlining the expedition and its compulsive storyline, as the album certainly acts as a soundtrack to a bigger picture. Without any info, Eureka have captured the feel of the voyage and it is made very easy for the listener to be drawn into the piece; picturing the actual events is inevitable if you give it a good listen.

Shackleton's Voyage can seem a bit heavy going at time but I can assure you that it's worth taking a punt and seeing it through. It's one which gets better with repeat listenings.

Paul Chesworth on roomthirteen.com - rating 10 out of 13 - Sun Jun 21, 2009

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