Sommaire pour Issue 145 de Prog

Bird’s Robe has been dedicated to the promotion and continuation of progressive and experimental music in Australia and around the world since 2008. Formed by Michael Solo and Alexander Tulett, the label has grown to accommodate artist management, bookings, releases, publicity and tour promotion both nationally and internationally. Prog, post-rock, art-rock, pop-prog, jazz-metal, avant-garde, psych-rock, post-metal, electronica, chiptune, noise-rock, fusion, tech-rock, crescendo-core, new dirt and experimental rock are just some of the many descriptions used to define the music we enjoy and promote. The one thing it all has in common: it’s music we like. Give it a listen and we hope you’ll like it too. What’s on your free Bird’s Robe digital album Download the 18-track sampler from birdsrobe.bandcamp.com 1 Closure In Moscow Better Way Taken from Soft Hell…

Steve Hackett is to release The Circus And The Nightwhale on February 16 via InsideOutMusic. It’s his first full-blown concept album since his 1975 solo debut, The Voyage Of The Acolyte, and the narrative, which is based on the rites of passage and adventures of a character named Travla, is, to all intents and purposes, autobiographical. “It starts off in 1950 and then it’s a travel through time and personal experiences,” Hackett explains. “Lyrically it’s a description of my first impressions of the world, and then certain characters that I met. But then it moves into more and more fantastic and imagined situations.” Hackett rates Genesis’ narrative concept album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway as “one of the finest prog rock albums of all time”, and plans to play…

Scottish neo-proggers Pallas caused much furore when Alan Reed, who fronted the band between 1986 and 2005, announced his return to the fold in February. Now the band, reacting to the darkness of recent times, will release their eighth album, The Messenger, on December 15. Written and recorded across continents, with guitarist Niall Mathewson having relocated to Cambodia, it’s described by Reed as “the album of our careers”. Reed replaced original singer Euan Lowson and spearheaded the band across four albums, including 1986’s seminal The Wedge, before parting ways after 2005’s Dreams Of Men. While he says his return to the band has been “a surprise to me as much as anybody else,” the singer reveals it was the quality of their early demos that enticed him into the reunion.…

Australian prog rockers Caligula’s Horse have announced their first album in four years. Charcoal Grace will come out on January 24 via InsideOutMusic. The nine song, hour-long LP will be a more progressive effort than 2020 predecessor, Rise Radiant, with a loose concept related to the band’s experiences during the pandemic. Lead single Golem is currently available to watch on YouTube and via streaming services. “We jokingly refer to Charcoal Grace as, ‘What did we learn in the pandemic?’” guitarist, composer and co-founder Sam Vallen tells Prog. “There’s a continual thread of that throughout the record. Either it’s looking out and seeing things you hoped you wouldn’t see in society, like the people who immediately became 100 per cent individualist, or looking internally. How do you be an artist in…

MEZE AUDIO 109 PRO PRIMAL The Romans said “festina lente”, the Greeks “speûde bradéōs”, the British “more haste less speed” (or, more commonly, “don’t screw it up”). The motto of Romanian audio firm Meze is “Graba strică treaba”, which means the same thing, and gives some indication of their diligent approach toward making high–end audio products. I’m a sucker for tech embedded in wooden enclosures crafted by artisans in the foothills of the Gutâi Mountains, so if you could grab those walnut earcups anointed with linseed oil and get them on my head, that would be great. Ta! www.mezeaudio.com SOUNDBOKS 4 Bluetooth speakers are ten a penny these days, but none of them are as monstrously huge and powerful as the range made by Soundboks. I vaguely remember dismissing these…

(Bella Union, 2006) For one of the most acclaimed indie records of its era, the second LP by Denton, Texas’ Midlake has some seriously proggy credentials. A concept? Check. Esoteric-sounding title? Hell, yeah. Cover art mysterious and alluring enough to rival Hipgnosis’ oddest images? Check. The Trials Of Van Occupanther doesn’t have any Mellotron or flugelhorn, but it does have autoharp, dulcimer and some gorgeous flute courtesy of the band’s then-frontman and chief songwriter, Tim Smith. Better yet it’s a world unto itself: a magical and mysterious place in which the listener can lose themselves. Opener Roscoe – a Fleetwood Mac–ish gem later given a seven–minute, psychedelic remix by DJ Erol Alkan, AKA Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve – is immediately transporting. Its lyrics takes a fond look back at stonecutters…

The prog top 30 albums October 2023 Compiled by 1 STEVEN WILSON The Harmony Codex (SW RECORDS) 2 ROGER WATERS The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux (COOKING VINYL) 3 GOAT Medicine (ROCKET RECORDINGS) 4 XTC The Big Express (APE HOUSE) 5 BRUCE SOORD Luminescence (KSCOPE) 6 PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING This New Noise (TEST CARD) 7 TREVOR RABIN Rio (INSIDEOUTMUSIC) 8 SIGUR RÓS Átta (BMG) 9 TESSERACT War Of Being (KSCOPE) 10 PINK FLOYD Animals (2018 Remix) (PINK FLOYD RECORDS/RHINO) 11 STEVE HACKETT Foxtrot At Fifty + Hackett Highlights: Live (INSIDEOUTMUSIC) 12 MIKE OLDFIELD Tubular Bells – 50th Anniversary Edition (UMC) 13 TAME IMPALA Lonerism (FICTION) 14 JETHRO TULL The Broadsword And The Beast (PARLOPHONE) 15 POLYPHIA Remember That You Will Die (RISE) 16 ROGER WATERS The Lockdown Sessions (SONY MUSIC) 17 HAWKLORDS Space (HAWKLORDS) 18 JETHRO TULL RökFlöte (INSIDEOUTMUSIC) 19 KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD PetroDragonic Apocalypse…

Yes filmed four videos to promote the singles from 90125. For Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis was selected to direct. Teasing us with a live performance of the first verse and chorus, we are then plunged into an expansive dystopian thriller featuring British character actor Danny Webb. The band, including a guest appearance from Eddie Jobson, are involved, transforming into animals. It’s wildly expensive and pretentious as hell, but even so, it’s been viewed 47 million times on YouTube. With Kaye back, a second video for the song was filmed on the cheap; this time the band performed in a studio desert set. With the budget stretching only to four stuffed parrots, this version seems to have been disowned by everyone, with good reason. With the…

“Do I ever feel any pressure? Only if I read comments on the internet!” jokes Kavus Torabi, singer and guitarist with Gong, the psychedelic act and later prog-rock institution founded in 1969 by Daevid Allen. Before he died – or decoupled from the physical realm, as he would no doubt have put it – Allen tasked Torabi and the band with taking Gong to the next level, wherever in the universe that might be. Of course, not every Gong fan agrees with that decision. “Every single person who likes Gong, whether that’s old Gong or new Gong, will have their own take on what the band should be,” continues Torabi. “I’m the same about the bands that I like, so I get it. At the same time, you have to…

"A lot of big things happened in my life that sent me on this hurricane, whirlwind trip, but in order to grow and reach the next level you need to became a new you in a way." The journey into motherhood can be a tumultuous one. Combine that with losing someone close and you might find a strong need to redefine yourself in a brand-new era of your life. Just ask Myrkur, real name Amalie Bruun, who is returning with her fourth studio album, Spine. “I had a child [since the release of Folkesange] which is about as big a change as it can be,” she says. “I had to find myself in that new life and that new role, and I went through a long period of not even…

"it was good to leave Unitopia on a positive note.i think that the Damanek trilogy is complete. That’s not to say there won't ever be any other Damanek but there’s nothing in the pipeline." Sean TimmsSean Timms Five years ago, Adelaide-based Southern Empire created unbridled momentum with the release of their well-received Civilisation album. The band completed a tour of the UK and Europe that garnered themselves more attention, before a radio silence fell over recent years. That leads to the understandable question of what exactly happened? “Well, it certainly wasn’t our intention,” recalls keyboard player and project leader Sean Timms. “Things were going really well for the band and we wanted to capitalise on that. We got back to Australia and then Covid hit, which took everybody out for…

The last time Peter Gabriel released a whole album of original material was in 2002. Tony Blair was prime minister, Wikipedia was just getting started, and the Twin Towers in New York had barely been down a year. Given the passage of time, one has to wonder about the voice, which tends to weaken and lose precision when a singer crosses the threshold into senior citizenship. Thankfully there are no such worries with i/o, Peter Gabriel’s 10th solo studio album, with his soulful larynx projecting even more gracefully than he did on Where The Sour Turns To Sweet, the opening track of Genesis’ 1969 debut album From Genesis To Revelation. Moreover, he has the same range he drew upon for Supper’s Ready – the surrealist prog opera from his old…

VENUE THE LONDON PALLADIUM DATE 08/10/2023 Aside from a few nods, Prog has always been disappointed that, since London Palladium’s recent incarnation as one of the best gig venues in Europe, more artists haven’t really pushed the fact they’re playing there on a Sunday night. Not so Roger Waters: being Mr Showbiz himself, he trots on in a pink jacket and treats the audience to not only a Bruce Forsyth impression (“Nice to see you, to see you, nice”) but also a Max Bygraves one (“I wanna tell you a story”). Waters, of course, is not known for his mirthsome light entertainment, being one of the most controversial figures in popular music. What should be an intimate celebration – the first time he’s publicly played a venue of this size in…

Porcupine Tree’s surprise comeback album, 2022’s Closure/Continuation, is being followed up by a new DVD/Blu–ray recording of the subsequent tour. Closure/Continuation Live, filmed at Amsterdam’s 17,000–capacity Ziggo Dome on November 7, 2022, will be released on December 6 via Music For Nations. Available on CD/Blu–ray, a CD/Blu–Ray box set and four–LP vinyl editions, the 21–track set features every song from the recent album, plus such classics as Blackest Eyes, Fear Of A Blank Planet and Trains. “The first night of the tour in Toronto, the audience just went berserk when we walked onstage,” says drummer Gavin Harrison. “They cheered for five minutes before we even played a note.” The tour saw the band playing their biggest-ever UK headlining show at Wembley Arena. “I always thought if we came back, we’d…

With Elbow set to return with a brand-new, as yet untitled album and a seven-date arena tour next year, frontman Guy Garvey has admitted that the new record – the band’s 10th – has been written specifically with large venues in mind. “It’s hard not to,” says Garvey. “We haven’t played very much in the last few years. Because of Covid and the intimate nature of the last album, Flying Dream 1, we just decided to have a year off to hang out with our families for a bit. So in making the record we have, without even discussing it, had these shows in mind.” While one of the songs has been inspired by their experience of supporting Foo Fighters (“real gentlemen”) in front of 90,000 Mexican fans, others have…

Steven Wilson’s expanding legion of fans are set to be spoiled for choice with the release of No-Man’s CD box set, Housekeeping: The Oli Years, 1990–1994, which is out January 26 via One Little Independent Records. Containing the band’s first two albums, Loveblows & Lovecries (1993) and Flowermouth (1994), the deluxe five–CD box set is augmented by 1992’s singles compilation, Lovesighs as well as Radio Sessions 1992–94, which includes specially recorded versions of Break Heaven, Housekeeping and Heartcheat Pop for then–Radio 1 DJ Nicky Campbell as well as Days In The Trees and Lovecry for Greater London Radio among others. The set’s fifth disc, Swagger, reveals a different side to No-Man. Chronicling the period between the band’s first studio experiments and just prior to being signed in 1991, the collection contains…

“The second band I ever saw was King Crimson. It was a free concert in Hyde Park in 1971. I was about 12 or 13. I always remember King Crimson because I’d just discovered In The Court Of The Crimson King. That’s where things went a bit further because I liked Greg Lake’s singing, and so my first indoor concert was ELP at the Empire Pool, Wembley. Fast-forward 45 years: Keith Emerson lived in my neighbourhood in LA. It would’ve blown my teenage mind to think that I would be going to have Sunday lunch regularly with my old hero. Deep Purple’s Glenn Hughes had introduced us. I told him about seeing ELP at Wembley and he told me that his son’s favourite band was The Cure. And I’m like, ‘Wow!…

The worst thing that can happen when sending a speculative mail is reading the word “no”. Fortunately for young Dutch singer Sanne Rambags, the answer was in the affirmative when she approached seasoned jazz drummer Joost Lijbaart and experienced guitarist Bram Stadhouders with a view to working together on a new project. “Eight years ago, she was selected by the Beaux Jazz initiative to do an experimental concert with two musicians who are on a different path in their career,” explains Lijbaart of Under The Surface’s origins. “So we did a gig and I thought, ‘This is cool.’” Organising a recording session, Lijbaart knew that the trio had hit on something special. They fused elements of folk, jazz and ambient music among other influences with Rambags’ ethereal vocals to create largely…

BERLIN’S ZAHN LIKE to have their cake and eat it. As hard as the boney incisor they named themselves after (‘zahn’ means ‘tooth’ in German and is pronounced with an‘s’ rather than a‘z’ sound), they are the purest distillation of the instrumental power trio, but also an experimental electronic outfit at the same time. “We deliberately decided to be just three people,” confirms guitarist Felix Gebhard. “It’s the essence of a rock group. But then, of course, we add a lot of stuff on top when we’re at the studio.” Accordingly, a crunchy rocker like Zehn is overlaid with patches of ominous synth drones, while Zebra combines industrial pistons with Cluster-like synth garnishment leading to digital enlightenment. Zahn’s second album Adria is a punishing-yet-controlled 80 minutes of instrumental post-rock mayhem,…

In January 1981, Yes met at Steve Howe’s house in Hampstead. The previous year had been a fraught one for the band: following the departure of Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman, the three remaining members – Chris Squire, Alan White and Howe – had recruited Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes from the new-wavers The Buggles. The resulting album, Drama, remains a fan favourite, but was created under extreme pressure with a US tour only months away. During the shows that followed, Horn frequently struggled to fill Anderson’s shoes. All was not well. “I told Chris that it sounded a bit like Yes. To which Chris said, ‘That’s why you’re here.’”Jon Anderson Horn was effectively fired after the tour, and Squire and White announced a plan to form a new project…

Fish wants to make something clear. “If you go on Wikipedia, it goes, ‘Blah blah blah… It’s about the end of a relationship.’ But it wasn’t about that. It was about me, about a time in my life when I was just lost. Absolutely fucking lost.” The singer is speaking to Prog via Zoom from his home-come-studio in East Lothian. The ‘it’ he’s referring to is 13th Star, his ninth solo album and 13th in total, including the four he made with Marillion. Originally released in 2007 and just reissued in deluxe box set form, the narrative around it is that it’s Fish’s ‘breakup record’, written about his brief, turbulent relationship with then-Mostly Autumn singer Heather Findlay, which ended dramatically a few months before their planned wedding. There’s an element…

“Nine years I’ve been doing this prog stuff, and I still have to pinch myself and think that people actually want to come and pay to hear this.” “I’ve been saying to everybody, and I probably should stop saying it because it’s probably going to put some people off… but it’s not the proggiest album that I’ve done,” says Tiger Moth Tales mainman Peter Jones somewhat sheepishly about his new record, The Turning Of The World. “But it was just an album I felt I had to write.” Sometimes, needs must. With lyrics often focusing on the rudimental topic of coming to terms with the constant cogs of change, and songwriting that stemmed from the six strings of an acoustic guitar rather than any elaborate keyboard wizardry, it’s fair to…

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GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN Music can take the listener on emotional journeys, so I was delighted to see the article on my hero Keith Emerson in Prog 144. It was fascinating to see the 30 tracks chosen by fans, family and friends. There were no major surprises, but for me there were three significant absences from the list that, in my humble opinion, I would like to have seen included. It is solely through ELP and The Nice that my interest in classical music was born and the Five Bridges album is one of my all-time favourites. Is there anything that screams prog as much as that opening suite, with the band playing alongside the orchestra, fusing classical, rock and jazz, to produce 20 minutes of epic, exhilarating music? And…

CHRISTOPHE VOISIN-BOISVINET spent his childhood in the Loire Valley in central-western France: a stunning, rural region defined by its series of sky-piercing castles. So it really shouldn’t be a surprise that he grew up to be the multi-instrumentalist of a historical progressive folk collective. “As a child, I was introverted and surrounded by these medieval ruins and fortresses,” the mastermind behind Skáld tells Prog – or, more specifically, his interpreter tells Prog, since he speaks in French. “I used to play in these special places a lot by myself. My parents say that I’d always ask things like, ‘Why don’t we tell stories about our past? What were things like before?’ So I’ve always had a link with medieval culture. I think that’s the time when I also got into…

THOSE WHO CLAIM to play without musical boundaries very rarely follow through on such declarations. But one group of musicians that seem to buck the trend are Amsterdam based quartet Jerboah. A live set by them feels like a trip through the history of popular music. Not that the band are entirely free of labels, as EWI (electronic wind instrument) player Dodó Kis explains: “We describe ourselves as genre bending worldbeat and post-pop.” Jerboah’s instrumentation is highly unusual. Guitar and drums combine with the recorder and vocal talents of Brit Sarah Jeffery, while Kis’ EWI provides both bass lines and synth-style solos. This unexpected configuration evolved from the band’s original 2014 line-up, which was augmented in 2016 when Kis and Argentinian drummer Marcos Baggiani joined. It was this ensemble that…

“THE THING I admire most in other bands and musicians, and strive to achieve myself, is an acute attention to composition – and how albums function as a whole and not merely as collections of independent songs,” guitarist and main composer Gustav Jørgen Pedersen explains, after Prog asks what sets Norwegian post-rockers Spurv apart from their peers in an oversaturated market. According to him, Spurv exist in “a genre of music that has been very codified over the last decade or so”. The difference is that they’ve found a space in which to exist almost uniquely, due to their hypnotic yet enthralling combination of post-rock and orchestral magnificence, which is captured on their recent fourth album, Brefjære. “I think there’s no reason to listen to the same chord progressions played…

“For me, music transcends everything,” begins Magenta’s Christina Booth. “It has the ability to connect people and brings a sense of hope.” The Welsh vocalist and singer-songwriter recently released her long-awaited third solo album, Bar Stool Prophet. Its 10 songs’ various themes are tied together by the belief that it’s never too late to alter the course of one’s life – and that concept is encapsulated by the final track, Rise Again. With an emotionally charged harmonica solo by Steve Hackett (yes, that Steve Hackett), the spine-tingling composition is one of Booth’s favourites. “No matter what, you pick yourself up and get on with it,” she explains of the lyrics. “There’s always something better around the corner. I put a lot of myself into the lyrics, though they’re not always…

“Finding the right words was really difficult,” says Bruce Soord. The Pineapple Thief bandleader’s third solo album, Luminescence, finds Soord in an introspective, reflective mood. It’s an LP to slowly savour and absorb, qualities that may reflect its lengthy gestation as the music was written and recorded across a period from January 2021 to June 2023. “It’s one of those things where I would dip in,” he says. “I’d work on it for a month or so and then be distracted with touring, Pineapple Thief, things like that.” And songwriting isn’t a tap to be turned on and off at will. “Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t,” he adds. “It’s one of those things you just can’t force. I spent months chasing my tail. I was writing loads of songs…

Scott Black spent his childhood immersed in the myths of the English countryside. The Green Lung guitarist grew up in rural Devon and used to pass the time playing with his friends in a disused quarry. Back at home, he’d get told that the quarry was stalked by a woodwose: a hair-coated wild man straight from Arthurian fables. And this wasn’t just a bedtime story that grown-ups invented for children’s ears, either. “Even the old blokes at the pub that your dad would hang out with used to talk about it,” the musician remembers on a video call with Prog, on which he’s joined by lead singer Tom Templar. “Growing up very close to Dartmoor, before the internet, all of those legends seemed very plausible.” Since Green Lung formed in…

Founded in Warwick in 1968, the Edgar Broughton Band came to embody a distinct facet of the British counterculture. Their intense songs often dealt in socio-political issues, earning them a reputation as a confrontational bunch with a happy habit of extending the middle finger to authority. Led by singer/guitarist Rob ‘Edgar’ Broughton, with brother Steve on drums and bassist Arthur Grant, their music was just as uncompromising. Psychedelia, heavy rock, beardy prog and experimental folk were locked in an uneasy embrace, usually crowned by the kind of low vocal rasp that saw Broughton routinely compared to Captain Beefheart. Signed to Harvest, the progressive arm of EMI, they quickly became known as a ‘people’s band’, playing free festivals and a steady stream of benefit gigs for any number of worthy causes.…

VENUE ROYAL ALBERT HALL, LONDON DATE 29/09/2023 SUPPORT THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN Arthur Brown is a national, international and cosmic treasure. Why he’s not a Knight Of The Realm, or the Government’s official Charismatic Authority/Grand Druid Of Freakdom, is a mystery but he is the God Of Hellfire, at least. Tonight, surrounded by Day-Glo mannequin props – and in his trademark facepaint and various sequinned britches, boots and capes – he and his excellent bluesy Crazy World warm up for his long-standing friends and collaborators. A lithe spirit, Brown navigates his vocal parts near-faultlessly, taking in the Fire suite, and, movingly, his beautiful 2007 ballad Voice Of Love and Kingdom Come’s psychedelic soul epic Sunrise. He finishes with a mesmerising Time Captives, from 1973’s Journey album, experimental electronica where…

VENUE THE DRILL HALL, CHEPSTOW DATE 04/10/2023-06/10/2023 Chepstow, along with large parts of the UK, is currently bathed in unseasonal temperatures in the 20s. It’s just the kind of late summer boost everyone needs, although the repercussions for an audience of prog fans gathered together in a building erected in the early 1900s, when construction made a mockery of today’s flimsy efforts, and air conditioning was merely the draught that would blast through an open door, are, to say the least, somewhat stifling. Summer’s End ’23 is not only bathed in sunshine, but a cheery bonhomie too. The bar and kitchen do brisk business all weekend and there’s someone selling an excellent record collection and sharing the profits with the organisers (and from which Prog relieves the vendor of a hefty…

VENUE DINGWALLS, LONDON DATE 20/10/2023 Given that tonight’s show is one of only two UK appearances by The Flower Kings – one of the pre-eminent symphonic prog bands of the last couple of decades – since the pandemic, it might be reasonable to expect that this gig would be a hot ticket. However, although the audience is healthy, it’s far from heaving, with interested parties including Robin Boult (Tilt, ex-Fish, among others) and Marillion stalwart and TFK guitarist Roine Stolt’s Transatlantic compatriot, Pete Trewavas, also in attendance. With a new album, Look At You Now just out and keyboard player Lalle Larsson added to the line-up, they take to the stage and ease both the audience and themselves in with the reggae-tinged Ghost Of The Red Cloud, following that up with…