Like Wendy is a Dutch band, the creation and brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Bert Heinen, and their formation is a somewhat unusual story. In the late 1980's, a group of friends would meet up at a local pub in Amersfoort, Utrecht, in the Netherlands, to enjoy some beer and talk about current events and other topics on their minds, but music was the overriding subject. Out of this revelry and good cheer, Like Wendy was born, being mainly the vision of Heinen, who has kept the concept, both as an idea and an actual recording group, going over these last 25 years. The group named themselves after a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's 'Lord Of The Rings', being a play on the name Laiquendi, and the music they produce is very much as you would expect, being a compendium of breath-taking neo-progressive symphonic rock. After seven years of rehearsing and recording together, Heinen had gathered enough material to self-release an album, 'Dream Of The Falcon', so he started to send demos to different magazines, and after a good response from Background Magazine he was signed to LabraD'Or records in 1997. In 1998 the band released their first record on the label, 'The Storm Inside', which featured Heinen on guitars, keyboard and vocals, plus Marien on drums and additional keyboards, and they produced a very melodic progressive rock album, similar in style to Marillion, Pendragon, Pallas or IQ. The critical reception was very favourable, and so the next year the duet released 'Rainchild', on which their sound evolved, keeping the style intact but with a more professional sound. In 2000, 'Songs From The Moonlit Bay' proved to be very different from 'Rainchild', with the first track, 'Falcon Suite', being a 21 minutes epic, and this time there was a distinct echo of Steve Hackett in the guitar-work, with the sound moving towards symphonic rather than neo-progressive rock.
Two years later saw the appearance of 'Summer In Eden', but it was felt that it didn't have the same appeal as 'Songs From The Moonlit Bay', sounding like a blend of Pendragon and 'Foxtrot'-era Genesis, and it paled in comparison with the previous albums. 'Homeland' marked a change in 2004, as the band turned into a one man project following the departure of drummer Marien, with the only other musician being trumpet-player Jos on the song 'Flood'. This time influences included Pink Floyd, but keeping the original style almost intact, except for some electronic touches. The saga of Like Wendy ended in 2005 with the release of 'Endgame', and for this album Heinen recruited another multi-instrumentalist called Mark-Jeroen Heek, but the result was disappointing, with a simpler and more pop-orientated approach. Nothing more was heard from them until they suddenly re-appeared in 2020 with the 'This Beautiful Lie' album, once again credited solely to Heinen, and then the same year a mysterious demo CDr started doing the rounds, which turned out to be a 'reissue' of a collection of demo's by Heinen from 1995, self-released as a cassette before they'd even recorded 'Dream Of The Falcon'. Listening to this album you can hear that the vision of the band was there right from the start, and it's an excellent collection of neo-progressive rock which deserves a wider audience, not only for the fans, but for anyone who is into well-played prog-rock. If you like what you hear, then do check out the rest of their catalogue, as it's generally well-worth hearing.
Track listing
01 The Big Lie
02 The Price For Trust
03 Eyewitness (The Fool)
04 Losing Sight On Reality
05 Breathe Deep
06 Asua's Fall
07 Dreaming
08 Birth (Pre-Version)
09 Wandering
