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Tusmörke - 2025 - En Pakt Med Naturen

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(48:19; Karisma Records) ‘A Pact With Nature’ was recorded live at Oslo’s biggest independent record store Big Dipper, as part of Tusmørke’s 25th anniversary celebration last October. Somewhat incredibly this is their first ever live release, even though they have released eleven studio albums (and also is the first I have heard so am not sure how similar this is to their normal output). The line-up of Benediktator (bass, vocals), Krizla (flute, vocals), Herjekongen (keyboards) and Kusken (drums) were expanded for this event by guests Dauinghorn (guitars) and Åsa Ree (violin, backing vocals), and given the importance of those instruments to the overall sound one can see the need for them to be involved. I love the following comment from Benediktator, “Is this Folk Horror? Silly question, perhaps, but we need you to mutter certain phrases while listening: Bucolic, acoustic, ancient, uncanny; acid, pagan, peasant, occult; wildness, wilderness, wilderness, Wicker Man…We ask you to close y...
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Steve Hackett - 2024 - The Lamb Stands Up Live At The Royal Albert Hall

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(146:00; Inside Out Music) I have said it before, and will say it again, but my favourite period of Genesis was the one which contained Steve Hackett, and since his departure he has done much more to keep the original style alive than any of his ex-bandmates, even when they were still called Genesis. Anyone who has seen him perform in recent years will be comfortable with the way he spends roughly half the set performing songs from his solo albums, and the other playing Genesis material with which he was originally involved. There is no doubt it is always a magical night out, and he has been one of the few prog musicians to find Aoteaora on a map, so I have been fortunate enough to see him twice in the last decade or so. I would still like to hear him perform a complete set of his own songs, as when I first saw him some 30 years ago that was what he was concentrating on, but I fully understand why he feels he needs to keep the Genesis flame burning. Captured at The Royal Albert Hall la...
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The Reference Group - 2025 - File Under Unpopular

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(38:10; Cuneiform Records) There is no doubt that Cuneiform are one of the most important labels in the world as they continue to make available music which otherwise would have been lost, and here we have a fine example in The Reference Group who were only around in 2007/08, played just one gig and recorded just eight tracks (all collected here). The group was formed by Ralf Nygård (digital bass with a Zanzithophone or Casio Digital Horn) and Michael Maksymenko (drums, some vocals) who we then joined by Jimmy Ågren (slide guitar) and Mathias Danielsson (guitar). Four of the songs were recorded under normal studio conditions, while the others were recorded with a digital hand-held recording machine which only had two channels, so this sounds rawer. The band were geographically separated which made it difficult for them to rehearse which led to the dissolution of the band, which is a real shame as this is a very powerful and enjoyable album indeed. They were a rock band but definitely c...
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Nicolas Meier Infinity Group - 2025 - Last Sunset

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(37:52; MGP Records) Some years back Swiss guitarist Nicolas Meier was playing a show with violinist Lizzie Ball when he realised Jeff Beck was in the audience. Beck enjoyed it so much that he invited the pair for a jam, which turned into sessions, which led to Meier touring the world with Beck for the next two years. Last year he decided to revisit all the compositions he had written for Beck, some of which they had performed live, and record a new album with the assistance of Lizzie Ball on violin, Gary Husband on drums, Jimmy Haslip on bass, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Richard Jones on violin, Arran McSporran on bass and Nicolas on electric guitars, acoustic nylon and steel guitars, 12 string guitar and synth guitar. There are also a couple of guest guitarists in the wonderful Dewa Budjana (on two tracks) and Krissy Matthews (one). Vinnie and Jimmy both played on his last album, ‘Infinity’, which was distributed by Favored Nations (Steve Vai's Label) and saw the band open for Vai ...
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Massimo Pieretti - 2025 - Things to Live!

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(57:31; Cromosoma M) In June last year Massimo brought together a band to play his debut solo album, ‘A New Beginning’, all the way through. That release consists of 15 tracks through which Massimo demonstrates his point of view on society by reflecting back on his own personal problems and life experiences, and it originally took more than 30 musicians to bring his dream to reality. That would not be possible for this event, so he used some of his Noage bandmates in singer Germana Noage (Aetherna), drummer Andres Gualco (Darker, ex-Tersivel) and bassist Michele Raspanti (Graal, S.O.S., ex-Tular, ex-Secret Rule), along with guitarists Roberto Falcinelli (who played on the debut) and  Simone Cozzetto while Massimo of course provided keyboards. I really enjoyed the album but given the depth of talent available on that (which included no less than 12 singers of different styles, both male and female), it was always going to be a hard ask to bring that to life, but overall this has gon...
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JPL - 2025 - Post Scriptum

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(46:51; Quadrifonic) As well as the reissue of Jean Pierre Louveton’s third solo album, ‘Cannibales’, to celebrate its 20th anniversary, we also now have his twelfth. He has again been joined by ex-Nemo bandmate Jean Baptiste Itier on drums, but this time he only plays on the last four songs, with the first three instead featuring Florent Ville who also played on the last album, ‘Sapiens Chapitre 3/3: Actum’. Elise Bourg guests on vocals on six of the songs, while pianist Stephane Vouillot is on three, with JPL of course providing everything else. It has been three years since his last new album, but during that period he released the wonderful triple CD compilation ‘1994-2024’ as well as working on ‘Cannibales’ so he has been rather busy. JPL is one of those musicians who define the Crossover sub-genre in that his style of progressive rock is always highly melodic with some commercial influences, but he also likes to use elements of symphonic while he is also never afraid to bring his...
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JPL - 2005 - Cannibales

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(69:39; JPL [2025 Edition] ) Originally released in 2005, what we have here is the third solo album from JPL, released between the third and fourth Nemo albums. JP provides vocals, guitar and bass and he is joined by bandmates Guillaume Fontaine (keyboards) and bassist Lionel B. Guichard (who had just joined Nemo and would appear on the next release) and a few guests. What we have here is a reissue, 20 years on, which has been remixed and partially re-recorded. It contains two versions of “Le Prix de l'Exil” and both the original and new versions of “St Pétrole”. I was not aware of either JP or Nemo when it was originally released, as it was only with being sent a copy of ‘Immersion Publique – Live’ and reviewing it in 2006 that I came across them, so this is the first time I have heard this. What is obvious from the off is just how forward the guitars are in the mix, much more than one would normally expect from a prog release, as JPL has obviously been influenced by shredders and...
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