(52:26; Cuneiform Records) NeBeLNeST were an adventurous and energetic young band who emerged onto the avant progressive rock scene in the late 90’s, but after the departure of founding guitarist Cyril Malderez in 2003 they went into a somewhat chaotic state and although Sébastien Carmona  stepped in to assist in recording the third album he soon left again afterwards. Eventually the band regrouped as a quintet with Olivier Tejedor (keyboards), Michael Anselmi (drums) and Gregory Tejedor (bass) being joined by Matthieu Sassier (guitar) and Julien Wack (saxophone, flute, guitar). They were to play three major dates in 2007, the first being the Rock in Opposition Festival in Carmaux, France, the second was NEARFest in the United States, with the last being the Saalfelden Jazz Festival in Austria. Afterwards, the band kept going into the studio but the fourth album was never completed, and the last set ended up being the final gig the band ever played. Given the energy and tightness o...

(71:10; Öresund Space Collective) There is no doubt that 2026 is already lining up to be an incredibly busy year for Dr. Space who has already released a few albums outside of ØSC, and here in May that band have already released ‘Espaço 3’, with a split LP with Psychedelic Source Records also due out any time, along with this album as well, which is out at the end of the month. It is being released on double vinyl and double CD, with the second CD full of material not available on the records, and the CD version has a running time of just under 150 minutes. Given “Cakefakebake” is a short synth-based piece of less than five minutes one can see just how long the rest of them are given the double CD contains just six numbers. Recorded over a six-day period in 2022, it was mixed in March 2024 and apart from a few overdubs on the title cut it was recorded totally live. This is a rather more expanded line-up than the version which recorded ‘Espaço 3’, with no banjo this time, and a few musi...

(68:58; Öresund Space Collective) The joys of listening to a collective such as ØSC is that one is never really sure of what one is going to get, as when they start recording, neither do the band. Also, as it is a collective, they happily shift membership based on who is available and what they want to achieve each time, with the only true constant being keyboard player Dr. Space. As one may infer from the title, this is the third in a series of albums, and here tracks are often in a longer form. This time around there are five songs, and if one removes the one which has the temerity to be less than eight minutes in length this collection is still more than two hours long. Mind you, there is both the full version of “Warbled Cactus Roots” which is 40 minutes long plus a heavily edited version which is only 23. Apart from Dr. Space the only other person to appear on all three releases is Jonathan Segel (violin, lap steel, guitar) with the rest of the line-up this time being Jiri Hjort (...

(76:32; Cuneiform Records) These days I am quite used to being sent improvised music to review, but I do think this is the first time I have been sent a session recorded by two guitarists and a drummer, and it is strange to think the drummer is in his eighties and one of the guitarists is catching him up in years as well, as the energy from this recording feels like we are listening to experienced musicians half that age. Over the years I have come across Ray Russell many times from his work in RMS, solo, Mouse, Mo Foster and many more, and these days his works from the early Seventies are being rediscovered for their importance in the live composition and avant garde scene while drummer Prévost has been running free improvisation workshops for more than quarter of a century while Nathan Moore is an electric guitarist informed by improvisation, rock, jazz, and modern classical and electronic music.  The three of them set up in a studio and just went for it, and this is the result. ...

(40:45; I Sincopatici) I Sincopatici are an ensemble based in Milan, Italy, who were formed by Francesca Badalini (piano, electric guitar) with the aim of re-scoring early 20th Century silent movies. They have been collaborating with Cineteca Italiana since 1999 and have worked on  famous movies such as ‘Nosferatu’, ‘Metropolis’ and ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’ as well as some which are less well-known such as ‘Seven Footprints to Satan’, ‘The Lost World’ and ‘New Babylon’. The group have been concentrating on undertaking live shows through Italy, and this is only their second album, following on from ‘Decimo Cerchio’ where Claudio Milan guested on vocals. Along with Badalini, bassist Andrea Grumelli played on that release, and this time the line-up is completed by Silvia Maffeis (violin) and Teo Ravelli (drums, live electronics). Here they have taken as their subject the 1925 Russian film, ‘Battleship Potëmkin’, which is based on the true story of a crew who mutinied in Odessa in ...

(66:41; Cuneiform Records) There are times when one comes across an album which is so timeless and so beautiful one can only wonder how it dares to exist in a world where madness is the norm, along with a throwaway and plastic culture, yet somehow this has been brought to life by Frédéric L'Epée and my life is richer for having heard it. The idea behind this is somewhat simple, layer different guitars on top of each other to create a symphony which reminds me of Gordon Giltrap, Guitar Orchestra, and even some works by Robert Fripp or Anthony Phillips.  These pieces combine classical thinking with progressive mindsets and the desire to create something which is highly polished and designed to take us away from the fractured world we inhabit. It is not a breath of fresh air, but more like a gale attempting to blow away the falseness of the world and instead imbue beauty and take all those who hear it to a much better place, transported. I am listening to this on headphones, and occas...