(35:36; Windsailor Music) Even though I have only recently come across Mormos, there is no doubt in my mind that they should have been a huge band back in the day (I think they were active 1970-1973), and given they were signed with CBS with whom they released two albums and some singles I am not the only one. It was only fairly recently that some good quality live recordings surfaced, and this album was mastered and released in 2022 by Ernie Mansfield (flute, alto flute, harmonica, vocals, percussion). The band were originally formed by Jim Cuomo (soprano sax, clarinet, domra, vocals) and Annie the Hat (lead vocals) along with Ernie, Elliott Delman (guitar, vocals) and Sandy Spencer (vocals, cello) in Champaign, Illinois, before they all upped sticks to Paris where they stayed for the next few years playing a type of English folk/singer songwriter. There is little in the way of audience noise or reaction, or interplay with the crowd, but there is no doubt that here is a band who are c...

(35:01; Windsailor Music [2021 Edition] ) Recorded in the Summer of 1972 and released the following year, this album finds Mormos working as a quartet with Tobia Taylor having departed not long after the debut, and Sandy Spencer (cello) no longer officially a member of the band. The main photo on the rear cover shows Annie “the Hat” Williams (lead vocals, bass, balalaika), Ernest Mansfield (flutes, piano, harmonica, spoons, triangle), Elliott Delman (guitars, vocals) and Jim Cuomo (clarinet, saxophone, domra, vocals) while there are small photos of Sandy and lyricist Michael Daniel Hanks. I remarked in my review of their debut that they should have been picked up by an English audience and Ernie has told me that although they had an English manager in Jake Riviera (Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Stiff Records) they found it incredibly difficult to get work permits.  With the band now operating as a quartet, still without a drummer, there is a lot of space between the layers, and the de...

(35:41; Windsailor Music [2021 Edition] ) I will never tire of hearing “new” music which passed me by when it was first released, but I must admit it is unusual for me to be sent an album which was originally released 55 years ago by a band I had never heard of, and from someone who was a key member of the band at that time as well! Mormos were an American group who resided in France and released two studio albums, this being the first which was remastered and reissued by (Rick) Ernie Mansfield (flute, alto flute, alto recorder, balalaika) in 2021. Mormos were formed by James Cuomo (vocals, domra, soprano recorder, balalaika), who along with Annie “the Hat” Williams (vocals) had been in The Spoils of War, with the rest of the line-up comprising Ernie, Elliott Delman (guitar, vocals), Sandy Spencer (cello, vocals), and Tobia Taylor (vocals, balalaika, zither, soprano recorder). So, we have an American group living in Paris playing prog folk heavily influenced by Incredible String Band a...

(51:36; Speegra Ltd.) One of the many issues of being a fan of progressive rock music is that it can often be difficult to find the information one is seeking. A strange series of events led to me only recently discovering that classic neo prog outfit Ark actually came out of a band called Damascus, which in turn led me to asking Jerry van Kooten what he knew about them. Jerry is more of an anorak than even I am and confessed he actually had a live recording from Damascus in his extensive files but was not aware of the Ark connection. This in turn led me to wonder how guitarist Steve Harris was doing as it was some years since we had last been in touch, not long after he stopped working with Paul Menel, so I dropped him a line. He soon responded and we caught up on what each of had been doing, and then he mentioned he had been establishing a new band, Forgotten Gods, and that their debut album had been well received and they were working on a new one. This had totally passed me by, whi...

(66:00; Aurua Sounds) This is the first time I have come across American-Brazilian composer Miguel Kertsman, who apparently has composed, produced, engineered, arranged, conducted and played keyboards across a diversity of genres such as contemporary classical, jazz, rock, and world music, but here he has gone straight into progressive rock from the Seventies. He has obviously been highly influenced by both Rick Wakeman and Patrick Moraz, but Richard Wright has also been brought into the mix and while it does mean we also hear the likes of Yes and Pink Floyd there is also plenty of Gentle Giant and even some Camel. It is mostly an instrumental release, where the musicians all played live together (I do not have any details of who else is involved), while “Red Blue Sky” is one of the few vocal numbers and is both an absolute delight and also at some odds to the rest of the album which is much more like a classic Wakeman and his work with The English Rock Ensemble (or one of its many ite...

(40:55; InEarVisions) Back in 1994 I was fortunate enough to get hold of a copy of Madrigal’s debut album, ‘Waiting…’, which had been released some years earlier. This was in the days of snail mail, no internet or email, and I cannot recall how an American independent release ended up in my hands in the UK. I gave it a very positive review but thought nothing more about them (apart from including the review in my books) until earlier this year when I heard about The Madrigal Project, who released ‘11th Hour’ in 2024. Some digging led me to discover this was a new version of the band, still being led by drummer and lead singer Kevin Dodson, and we were soon in contact. After I reviewed the new album, I asked Kevin if he would be interested in having a review of their previous release from 1996 which I had never heard, which is why I am now listening to ‘On My Hands…’, and what a delight it is too. The debut album was basically recorded by Kevin along with Michael Dornbirer on guitar and...

(89:00; InsideOut Music) Given this is the eighth studio album from Riverside vocalist and bassist Mariusz Duda it would be completely unfair to think of this as a side project, but instead we should say it as an outlet for his material which he does not believe fits with that group. Sometimes he performs as Lunatic Soul completely solo, sometimes it becomes more of a band and this time around he provides vocals, basses, piccolo basses, acoustic guitars, piano, keyboards, percussion and programming while drummer Wawrzyniec Drumowicz has returned with the only others involved being saxophonist Marcin Odyniec and Mateusz Owczarek who provides soundscapes. This is his first ever double CD, and lyrically is the final instalment in “The Circle of Life and Death” cycle with this chapter taking place after 2017’s ‘Fractured’ and before 2014’s ‘Walking on a Flashlight Beam’. The complete story tells the tale of a nameless protagonist trapped in a loop, continuously traveling between life and d...

(126:00; InsideOut Music) Leprous have been at the forefront of prog metal for some time now, and it is nearly 20 years since their debut, ‘Aeolia’. Following on from their ninth studio album, 2024’s ‘Melodies of Atonement’, they recorded their gig at Tilburg and have made it available in multiple versions, including Blu-ray, but I am just listening to the straight double CD which in itself is more than two hours long. Only two people still remain in the band from those early days, guitarist Tor Oddmund Suhrke and lead singer/synth player Einar Solberg, but musically we have a band who has changed quite a bit and just by listening to this one would not realise they are a quintet with two guitarists in the band. I cannot help but be reminded of Marillion in many ways, as yet again we have a band which has become a singer and backing musicians, and while I firmly believe Solberg has an edge on Hogarth and is one of the most amazing vocal gymnasts out there, this feels less like a collect...

(53:49; John Holden) In 2024 John returned with his fifth album, and while he again used some of the same people from ‘Kintsugi’ (for example Peter Jones, Sally Minnear and Vikram Shankar) we also get some new key players in singer Shaun Holton (two songs), guitarist Luke Machin and flautist John Hackett. As expected, we get wonderful performances, arrangements and lyrics, as John yet again takes us on a journey unexpected. I do need to make mention of Moray Macdonald whose trumpet on “The Man Who Would Be King” is a key element (along with an exceptional performance from Shaun): this is the only track on which he plays and it would have been very easy for John to replace that melody with a synth, but having a real trumpet makes a significant difference. This is actually the longest song on the album at 10:38, perhaps fitting as it is the telling of the story of Alexander the Great, and is wonderfully cinematic and visual in its approach. There are a few times on this album where rock ...

(54:13; John Holden) I am playing a little bit of catch-up with John’s albums, as it was only when reviewing the most recent that I realised I had missed a couple, so what I am listening to now is his 2022 release, ‘Kintsugi’. Yet again John (guitars, bass, keyboards, orchestration) has brought in some incredible guests, so we get vocals from That Joe Payne, Ian Hornal, Peter Jones (plus saxophone) and Sally Minnear on a few tracks each, Dave Bainbridge providing guitar on one song, Jean Pageau flute on the same one, Henry Rogers drums on two,  Vikram Shankar (piano, keyboards) on three and Frank Van Essen (violin, viola, drums) on one.   But what makes John’s albums so essential is that not only are they quintessentially English, but they also refuse to sit within any particular sub-genre of prog so one never knows what is going to get, except the lyrics will be worth listening to, the music will be beautifully arranged and the performances exceptional. Take “Ringing The...