Nine Skies - 2023 - The Lightmaker [mini-review]

(57:36; FTF-Music)

French band Nine Skies are out with the album "The Lightmaker", and progressive rock is the style explored on this production. It is an accessible and atmospheric laden variety of the form we get on this occasion, and I suspect many will categorize this album inside the neo-progressive tradition due to the extensive number of floating and elegant landscapes with smooth and careful layered keyboard textures being a prominent and dominant aspect of the arrangements. We do get callbacks to the more dramatic and elaborate symphonic progressive rock tradition along the way though, and occasional side steps into harder edged and more vibrant displays of progressive rock is a recurring element too. A bit more prominent than those are careful and delicate interludes with a bit more of a folk music vibe to them though, and we also get a few token flirts with jazzrock along the way here. But most of all this is an album for those fond of the more elegant and dreamladen variety of the neo-progressive tradition though, and with an excellent mix and production that enhance and elevate the experience for those fond this tradition of progressive rock.

Olav "Progmessor" Björnsen, September 2023

Links:
https://nineskiesmusic.com/
http://www.ftf-music.com/