It's a long time I hadn't the opportunity to listen to Runes Order so when I received this promo, I was curious to listening how they sounded like nowadays. You know, I was used to their improvised suites (we played also a concert together in Bologna in 1994. I did that gig as Gerstein as usual) and I knew they changed line up several times (at the time I saw them they were a duo) and that their suites turned into something more structured on albums like "Winter" or "The Land Of Nothing". Since the last line up change (Daniele Magarelli and his wife Paola, respectively on keyboards and vocals, left on 1999), Claudio Dondo (the original member who started it all) deciced to focus the project on dark emotional analog suites which seems to be structured like soundtracks. For this one seventy minutes length album, Claudio has been helped out by Trevor (Camerata Mediolanense and Northgate member) and they collaborated during the last two years to record the fifteen tracks of THE HOPELESS DAYS. Musically the CD sounds like a mix of various genres. Listening to it you can hear echoes of Ennio Morricone's soundtracks, Goblin, Tangerine Dream and tons of other musical sources. Fortunately the result isn't a musical pastiche as it sounds like a mature and honest work. Innovation isn't the main thing about this work but I think that Runes Order wanted it to sound like something personal and full of emotions. This is the effect that the listener has got while the CD lasts so I think that Claudio hit the target.