(62:55; Regal Crabomophone) Track list: 1. BS 6:39 2. Slow Burner 12:41 3. 12 Shades Revisited 10:58 4. Teifi Marshes 9:14 5. Starflower Blossom 14:40 6. Lost City of Cardiza 8:43 Line-up: Peter Bingham - guitars, keyboards, electronics, field recordings Lee Relfe - saxophone Glenda Pescado - bass with: Roger Morgan - piano, synths Gregory Curvey - drums Jack Jackson - drums Prolusion. UK band Sendelica had one of their more productive years back in 2018, with four studio albums released during the course of that year in addition to a few other productions. The first as well as the fourth of their albums of that year was in their Cromlech Chronicles series of creations, with the second of these kicking off 2018 for Sendelica while the third in the series appeared in the spring. As with the previous installment in the series the album was released through UK label Fruits de Mer records, this time around on their Regal Crabomophone imprint. Analysis. While the second installment of the C...

(50:23; Gonzo [2017 Edition] ) Track list: 1. Devil's Answer 4:03 2. When Do I Start to Live? 2:56 3. Play It Again 3:11 4. Control of You 4:48 5. Lost in Space 5:52 6. Looking for You 3:05 7. Watch Out 4:06 8. Tomorrow Night 4:49 9. Living Underground 3:36 10. The End of the Day 3:27 11. Loose Your Mind 3:35 12. Hiding in the Shadows 6:55 Line-up: Not stated Prolusion. UK band Atomic Rooster is one of those bands that appear to always be restricted to a bit of a niche and underground knowledge and popularity. With ties to the progressive rock universe in terms of some of the people involved as well as some of the albums they released over the years, they have their fair share of fans in progressive rock circles, but with a penchant for the creation of dark and eerie moods and atmospheres they have just as many fans among hard rock enthusiasts. But they are a band that more people have heard about than actually listened to. The album "The Devil Hits Back" dates back to 19...

(50:11; Orphictone) Track list: 1. Sudba 5:31 2. Oieo 4:15 3. Duzhd 5:20 4. Ti Si Svyatiya 3:14 5. Ti Edinstven Si 3:55 6. Vurvi Napred 5:00 7. Kogato Mechut Stane Krust 7:09 8. Pokrit S Lyubov 5:42 9. Novo Surtse 6:02 10. Lyubima 4:03 Line-up: Joey Petrov - keyboards, vocals Tony Grapes - vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass Stratsi Dimitrov - drums Blazhko Matanov - bass with: Ivo Ivanchev - drums Ventsi Velev - guitars Michelle Nahabedyan - saxophone Danny Grapes - vocals  Todd Radilov - vocals Heinrich Jonk - vocals  Hermann Maintes - vocals  Lia Petrova - violin  Kiril Matanov - viola  Lyubomir Nikov - cello  Radoslava Tsvetanova - cello Prolusion. Bulgarian band Milenium was formed back in 1987, and from what information I can track down it would appear that the band released two albums over the years. Their debut album "Change Your Life" appeared back in 1995, and in 2017 their second studio production "Sudba" was released through Japanese label Orphicto...

(37:30; L'etourneur / Decagon Records) Track list: 1. Seeds, Needs 6:38 2. Bamboozled 6:07 3. Death Toll 6:56 4. Something Else 2:29 5. Concealed 5:06 6. 7x6[infinity] 4:46 7. Dog Eat Dog 5:28 Line-up: Pierre Blin - drums, synthesizers Thibault Geay - vocals, guitars Maxime Metais - guitars, saxophone Simon Toralba - bass Prolusion. French band Nooumena has been around since at least 2011, and from what I can see they have released two studio albums to date. "Controlled Freaks" is the most recent of these, and was released through French label L'étourneur at the start of 2017. It would appear that the band has since gone on a bit of a hiatus, with the band's social media presence laying dormant since 2020. Analysis. Whenever I encounter a progressive rock band from France, I'll always be curious about whether this is an off kilter band that favors being expressive and experimental rather than being more conventional. While this is a curiosity that obviously ca...

(35:14; Strange Fish) Track list: 1. Ripples of the Megaliths 18:21 2. Even Though My Mouth Is Silent 16:53 Line-up: Peter Bingham - guitars, electronics Lee Relfe - saxophone Glenda Pescado - bass with: Cheryl Beer - Tibetan singing bowls, shaman drums, sansula, ting sha, mbira, wood blocks, Chinese gongs, shruti boxes, sanskrit chanting Kate Riaz - cello Jack Jackson - drums, congas Colin Consterdine - keyboards Prolusion. UK band Sendelica have been quite the productive entity since they first appeared, averaging more than one studio album each year ever since they released their debut full length album back in 2007. "Cromlech Chronicles II" dates back to 2018, is the 12th full length studio production by Sendelica, and was released through UK label Fruits de Mer Records imprint Strange Fish. Analysis. This album is one of a few too many that have been lost in time and capacity for me, sent to me at a time when my spare time was at a premium and my writing capacity was at ...

(46:18; Friends of the Fish) Guitarist Peter Bingham and keyboard player Colin Consterdine had quite the year, with Colin surviving liver cancer and Peter with a heart condition and then suffering  a severely inflamed, blocked and bleeding bowel. But they were determined to press on and started working together remotely while Colin was travelling around Asia.  Glenda Pescado (bass) and Lee Relfe (saxophone) returned to the fray, and they were joined on this album by Kate Riaz (cello), Calli (vocals) and Shane Beck (spoken word). To show they weren’t phased by the experience, Peter also sampled his ultrasound scan and his talking blood pressure monitor and these both have their part to play on this release. The band have been around for two decades now, releasing a wealth of material, but if you have yet to come across them then one of the best ways to describe them is probably Can meeting Pink Floyd and The Orb, with elements of Hendrix and Ozric Tentacles, and when played on ...

(10xLP Box Set; Madfish) There is an argument to be had that it is pointless spending countless hours listening to albums and writing about them, but I do like to think my scribblings have been useful to some to discover bands and music they would to otherwise have come across, but there are certainly some reviews which are somewhat more pointless than others, and this is one of them. The reason for that is not regarding the quality of the music or the information provided, but rather that this is a 10-disc set and consequently the only people likely to purchase this are those who already love Caravan. Consequently, this review is aimed at them. I have seen one review where the critic was bemoaning some of the material included, and that other songs were not there, but what we have are great sound quality recordings of four different concerts, namely Keele University 1976, Bobino 1980, Diss 1998 and Wavendon 2001. Yes, this does mean we get multiple versions of some songs (mind you, I’...

(46:20; Vallis Lupi) Henri Vaugrand (lead and backing vocals, bass guitars, bass pedals, acoustic and electric guitars, e-bow guitar, keyboards, drum programming and percussions) will probably always be best known for Grandval, whose debut album was released in 2016. He was joined in that project by Olivier Bonneau (keyboards, acoustic and electric guitars, drums, drum programming, percussions, bass pedals, lead and backing vocals) before the second album, and they also collaborated on the third, which was released in 2022. By this time Bonneau had been contributing more to the music, and then by the time of the planning for the fourth release both musicians were bringing music for discussion, but when Vaugrand provided lyrics in English they realised that potentially they were moving in quite a different direction, and this is the result. It didn’t seem right to release it as Grandval, even though that has always been Henri’s band, and Olivier has been the only other full member for t...

(49:42; Inside Out Music) I have long been a fan of Sylvan and have been fortunate enough to see him with Steve Hackett twice in recent years (strangely, only Hackett and Yes are able to find New Zealand on a map, where are the rest of the prog bands?). Here we find him back with his latest studio album, which is probably his most personal yet with a couple of tracks inspired by his parents. One of these is the title cut, which is about when his father died, leaving him without both parents. Sylvan explains, “I lost my parents, and knowing that they're gone—and that one day, I'm probably next in line—that felt “monumental” to me. That’s where the word ‘Monumentata’ came from. "Tata" means "Father" in Hungarian, and my dad was half Hungarian. So, I combined those two words to create something new. It's about losing someone and the disappointment.” As with his other recent albums, Sylvan provides all vocals plus keyboards, guitar and bass but there are als...

(32:07; Dave Newhouse) Although not mentioned on the cover, there is a subtitle to this release, namely “Outtakes, Unused, Recycled, New”.  Here we have the first of three releases in the series where Dave is taking his music in a very different direction indeed, improvising over “found” material. Improvisation has always been a very important of his playing over the decades, and here he is more overt, making old recordings modern, combining them into a new whole. The musicians involved are Fred Frith (acoustic guitar), Billy Swann (double bass, fuzz bass), Greg Segal (percussion), Jerry King (guitars, effects) and Dave Newhouse (keyboards, woodwinds), but it is also important to recognise the contribution played by Ian Beabout in turning this into a seamless piece of music which takes us on a wondrous journey. The studio has indeed become another instrument in bringing this music to life. I don’t think it is possible to recognise the full depth of this until it has been played a f...

(74:00; Dodsongs Records) I was on FB one day and noticed a post talking about the new album by The Madrigal Project. Now, while I cannot remember anything really important, for some weird reason anything connected with music tends to stick in my brain and I remembered reviewing an album by a band called Madrigal more than 30 years ago, could the two be connected? The short answer is “yes”, as Kevin Dodson (drums, percussion, guitars, keyboards, bass, vocals) has brought the band back from the dead. Charles Swanson (saxophones, flute, electronic wind instruments) who played on the last album, 1996’s ‘On My Hands’ is back, while the line-up has been completed by John Van Houdt (bass, guitars, vocals) and Harry Fix (keyboards, vocals) along with guests Adam Holzman (Steven Wilson, Miles Davis) and Oliver Wakeman (Yes, The Strawbs) on keyboards, Billy Sherwood (Yes, Asia, Circa) on bass, Michael Lewis (Jon Anderson, Jean-Luc Ponty) and Jane Getter (Jane Getter Premonition) on guitar. ...

(42:54; Apollon Records) I first came across Eivind Lorentzen with Gentle Knife and then Oldenborre, and now he is back with the debut album under his name. In this venture he has been joined by the likes of Atle Pakusch Gundersen (Wintherstormer, The Cut), Trond Gjellum (Panzerpappa), Jácome Guerrero Kiko (Superkabras), Paulin Skoglund-Voss (sought after solo cellist and session musician), Markus Reuter (Stick Men), Davide Rossi (violin for Coldplay, Verve and many others) and Charlotte Valstad Nilsen (ex-Gentle Knife).  This album is very unusual, and due to the way it has been constructed it feels more like something which is coming to us from the Seventies, although the production is bang up to date. Although the album is instrumental, we get some of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry recited between the main musical pieces, and the gravitas provided by Brian M. Talgo is simply amazing. Musically it is a mix of progressive rock and modern classical with Eivind often at the core provid...

(58:54; Discus Music) Larry Stabbins (alto saxophone, concert and alto flutes, bass clarinet) and Mark Sanders (percussion) have both been performing in improvisational outfits of different sizes for decades and hear we have them working together on 19th September 2024. Somewhat unusually, the CD is pretty much in the order it was recorded as opposed to being chopped around, so one can hear how they were working through the ideas. This was recorded after Stabbins had taken a 10-year absence from music, at which point he switched to alto saxophone,  took up the bass clarinet, and developed his flute and alto flute playing to ensure he had a wider set of sounds at his fingertips and also so he was not repeating anything he had done previously. Although both players are wonderful musicians, there does appear to be some separation between the two, as naturally it falls into one providing melody and control and the other providing support. That may not be as it was in the studio, but it...

(53:06; Greydisc) This is the 11th release from Kevin and Mark and is taken from a session they undertook in New York for an WNYC broadcast. Given they have played and recorded together so much, there is a real knowledge from each other as to what is possible and also what may happen when the music is taken down a particular path. Wingfield is highly regarded for the many albums where he has been called upon to provide electric guitar in an improvisational format, while continues invent and then master different guitar-based instruments, here playing a 17-string Hybrid Classical guitar (as well as switching to piano for some, which is an unusual step for him). Mark often takes the melodic lead, wringing strange, elongated sounds from his guitar (reminiscent at times of Holdsworth), while Kevin takes us on a very different journey, plucking chords and bass notes in a sonic manner which is only possible due to the instrument he curated. It is almost as if two very different worlds are co...

(41:55; Greydisc) I am always excited to see there is a new release by Kevin Kastning, as his live compositions are always absolutely fascinating and so unlike anyone else around. Here Kevin (36-string Double Contraguitar, 30-string Double Contraguitar) has been joined by Phil Grenadier (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Bruno Råberg (double bass) in another investigation of what can happen when musicians put themselves into the dangerous space of creating music when previously nothing existed and there is no set plan. Recorded on 28th June 2024, here we have three wonderful musicians listening to each other in real time, working out what to play, what not to play, and how to best take the pieces forward. Grenadier often takes time out to let the others have time to provide leadership, as when he is performing, he is often at the fore (although he also produces some lovely low level bass notes at times, while his blowing through the instrument while not producing any notes creates a totally dif...

(30:49; Jay Danley) It took me much longer than it should have done to really investigate Zappa, mostly because there was such a huge catalogue of work that I really didn’t know where to start, and then when I finally dived in, I regretted all those years I had been dithering about it. My personal favourite is probably ‘Hot Rats’, but I don’t think he ever released a poor album, and it is always interesting to see someone else travel a similar path. I still remember loving Jon Poole’s ‘What is the Ugliest Part of Your Body?’ when it was released in 1994, but then Jon was reinterpreting works from the early part of Frank’s career, whereas here we have an artist who has studied Frank’s works and concepts and then written new music using these as a base. Jay is a renowned session musician who has played with many greats and is also well-known for his fusion of jazz with multiple other world genres, but here he has set himself a different task, create an album which may have been by Zappa,...

(81:36; Regal Crabomophone) There is no doubt that if you want to stay on top of what is happening at Fruits de Mer Records then you need to be on their mailing list as I note this album is already sold out! Although this is a new band, all the players are well known, with the project being led by Swordfish from Astralasia. It all started when contact was made by Jochen Oberlack (the man behind Bellerophon Records in Dusseldorf), and originally it was going to be an instrumental album, but Swordfish wanted it to be a bit ore like Ash Ra Tempel so brought in Britt Rönnholm (Us and Them) to provide ethereal vocals which were spoken rather than sung, along with Pete Pracownik (who passed away the day after the song “Shangrilaya” was completed). I don’t know how the conversation went between Jochen and Swordfish, but if the aim was to produce an album heavily influenced by Krautrock but also bringing in Psychedelic tendencies in a very English Canterbury style then I would say they succeed...

(35:54; Exo-X-Xeno) While this is a new band, led by composer, vocalist and guitarist Craig Maher, there are going to be quite a few people picking this up due to who else is involved, as Maher has brought in bassist and backing vocalist Billy Sherwood (Yes, Toto and Conspiracy with Chris Squire), drummer Jay Schellen (Hurricane, Yes and Asia), plus keyboard player Patrick Moraz (Refugee, Yes and The Moody Blues). Okay, so we have two members of the current Yes line-up, plus one who was involved with that band in the Seventies, so we all know what this sounds like right? Well, yes and no. This band has been brought together by Maher who also provided all the music and obviously has a very strong idea on what he wanted the band to sound like, and the result is a hybrid of early Eighties Yes with mid Seventies. Although two of those involved also played on the latest Yes album, I think they can be forgiven (it was so much better than ‘Heaven & Earth’ after all), with the influences d...

(52:39; Elegant Simplicity) As can be gathered from the title, this is the second in a series of releases, following on from last year’s compilation which was a collection of the EPs put into one album. There was some slight tweaking to the sound here and there on that one but not remastered as such. This compilation has been treated slightly differently as while this is again a selection of previously released material (A-sides and B-sides recorded and released between 2015 and 2021, digital bonus material etc), most of these songs have not previously been available on albums. Also, for this compilation every track has been remastered, the result being a release which actually sounds like a complete album as opposed to a collection of disparate recordings. Most of these songs were new to me as I don’t review singles and rarely EPs, and it was only on re-reading the email that I realised this was not actually a “new” album as such, but a compilation, as it certainly never seems that wa...

(43:27; Alcantera) Alcantara are back with their second album, following on from 2019’s ‘Solitaire’ which I found quite enjoyable. That album was sung purely in English, while this time around it is in both Italian and English (the band hail from Catania in Sicily). It has been six years since the debut, and possibly that is something to do with line-up issues as while Francesco Venti (lead guitar), Sergio Manfredi (vocals) and Salvo Di Mauro (guitar) have returned, as has drummer Rosario Figura who played on just two songs last time around, we now have a new bassist in Delio Santi and they have brought in a third guitarist with Vittorio Distefano with a guest keyboard player on three tracks and guest violinist on one. While the album is bi-lingual, the title is another language altogether, as it means “it is over” in Persian, and while the band may have made some changes in who is involved, musically it is definitely very related to the last one. It is modern psychedelic with plenty o...

(105:00; Spirit of Unicorn [2025 Edition] ) What we have here is a reissue of a CD and DVD which were originally released in 2007 combined as a triple CD set with a few additional tracks (I only have the audio). Recorded at the Stevenage Concert Hall, Stevenage, England on 11th November 2005, this reissue also includes photos and an interesting essay by Jerry Ewing. I don’t think there is any doubt that Greg, Keith and Carl all worked best in a group environment as the ELP, Emerson Lake & Powell and 3 albums demonstrate and that they were often lost without each other, but put any of them in a concert hall with a strong band around them and there is no doubt everyone would be in for a great night.  For the 2005 tour Greg provided vocals, bass and guitar, and he was joined by David Arch (keyboards), Brett Morgan (drums), Trevor Barry (bass), Florian Opahle (guitar), Josh Grafton (second keyboards), Jai Ramage (backing vocals) and Bekki Carpenter (backing vocals). There is no dou...

(105:00; L & H Production) This is my first time of hearing Yelena Eckemoff, but apparently, she has released 22 albums over the last 15 years. Born and raised in Russia, Yelena’s mother was a professional pianist and teacher, so she started playing by ear from a very early age. Yelena became a classical concert pianist yet after graduation from the Moscow State Conservatory she kept looking for new styles and played piano in progressive rock and jazz-rock bands. She stopped playing to have a family, and then emigrated to rural North Carolina, and with her children growing up she returned to music and discovered that through the internet she was able to work with other musicians. This album was not recorded in that manner, but rather it took place over three days in August 2023 in Mantua, Italy, where Yelena provides piano, organ, clavichord, celesta, synths, and she is joined by Riccardo Bertuzzi (electric guitar), Carlo Nicita (soprano, alto, and bass flutes), Eloisa Manera (acou...