(40:45; I Sincopatici) Track list: 1. Uomini E Vermi 5:50 2. Dramma Sul Ponte 9:54 3. Il Morto Chiama 7:06 4. La Scalinata Di Odessa 8:54 5. Una Contro Tutte 9:01 Line-up: Francesca Badalini - piano, guitars Silvia Maffeis  - violin Andrea Grumelli  - bass Teo Ravelli - drums, electronics  Prolusion. Italian band I Sincopatici has been an active part of the Italian music landscape for a decade and a bit, primarily performing live sets of music to accompany classic era silent movies if I have understood matters correctly. In the fall of 2024 they released their debut album "Decimo Cerchio", and now in early 2026 they have self released the album "La Corazzata Potëmkin". Analysis. The music of this band is inspired by the silent movies they accompany, and while their first release revolved around the 1911 silent movie "L'Inferno", this new album celebrates and accompanies the 1925 silent movie "Battleship Potemkin". For this new album the band ...

(35:01; Ivan Jacquin) Track list: 1. Un Chemin 4:18 2. In the Air 6:57 3. On Revient 3:49 4. Derriere La Fenetre 7:15 5. Si 3:58 6. Un Prenom Un Visage 2:37 7. Autre Depart 6:07  Line-up: Ivan Jacquin - vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion with: Henri-Pierre Prudent - drums Trev Turley - bass Maria Barbieri - guitars Denis Codfert - drums Richard Lefranc - bass Amanda Lehmann - guitars, vocals Prolusion. French composer, vocalist and musician Ivan Jacquin has been active in the French music scene for more than 30 years, with guest appearances and tenures in a number of bands over the years as well as being a central part of several project constellations. In 2025 he further expanded his CV by recording a solo album, "Intimites", which was self released in the fall of 2025. Analysis. Jacquin is an artist that has been active in a number of different styles and types of music from what I can understand, with pop, jazz and metal all being genres he has explored to a lesser or ...

(42:51; Greydisc) This is the first collaboration between Kevin and drummer extraordinaire Paul Wertico who will always be celebrated for being a long-time member of the Pat Metheny Group with whom he won seven Grammy Awards. Here Kevin provides 30-string Contra-Baritone guitar, 30-string Double Contraguitar, 26-string Double Sub-Contraguitar, 24-string Double Sub-Contraguitar and Paul acoustic drums and  cymbals (featuring the Wertico Ride), prepared drumset and talking drum. Wertico has appeared on hundreds of recordings, is Associate Professor of Jazz & Contemporary Music Studies at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, and conducts drum clinics worldwide, as well as releasing numerous critically acclaimed recordings, and also authored the groundbreaking drum instructional book, ‘Turn The Beat Around’. On this collaboration he often brings a very busy approach, while Kevin is more laid back, and the two styles are very contrasting in nature. It works bes...

(28:45; Greydisc) This is the second album from Kevin Kastning (36-string Double Contraguitar, 16-string Subcontraguitar,  24-string Subcontraguitar, 26-string Contraguitar) and Bruno Råberg (Double bass), following on from 2024’s ‘Silent Dimensions’. Råberg is a Swedish musician who has been living in the States for more than 40 years and is a teacher at both the Berklee Global Jazz Institute and at Berklee College of Music and  has recorded 12 albums as band leader and another 30 as a sideman. What makes this such a fascinating release is not only the way the two musicians interact, but also that Bruno is pushing the boundaries of his instrument just as Kevin is with his. There may be staccato notes plucked very high on the neck which provide an almost percussive element, jazz-like melodic runs or even a bowed technique which provides a totally different backdrop for Kevin to play against. As on the last album, Kevin often sounds more as if he is performing on a  harp o...

(39:52; Greydisc) “But wait, there’s more!” (as they say on those annoying TV ads). Not content with releasing ‘Codex I’, we also get ‘Codex II’, released on the same date. Many of the pieces are connected to the first album, at least in title, and one wonders if Kevin had thought about releasing this as a double CD set instead of two separate albums, given one is 45 minutes in length and the other 40. There is also a separate argument of possibly cutting some material and releasing it as a single disc, but I am truly glad he did not as there is something very special here. The concept and approach are the same here as on ‘Codex I’, so much of the same commentary and descriptions still apply, but I discovered there is something “more” about this album. I must confess I am not sure if it is just falling under the spell of Kevin having always played this after listening yet again to the first one, or if this one is actually that bit more special, but when playing this time stands still, ...

(44:44; Greydisc)                   I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have become aware of Kevin Kastning some years ago and to have reviewed a great many of his albums since then. However, he normally works with other musicians such as Mark Wingfield or Sandor Szabo (who produced both this and ‘Codex II’), and prior to this I had only heard one of his solo albums, and here he is now presenting us with two at the same time. For those who have not heard of Kevin, he is a musician who discovered that normal instruments were not capable of allowing him to play what he could hear in his head so he has invented many different multi-stringed instruments over the years, and on this he provides 30-string Contra-baritone guitar, 30-string Double Contraguitar, 26-string Double Sub-contraguitar, 24-string Double Sub-contraguitar and a normal 6-string guitar. He is playing these in an unusual manner, with one hand on each neck, which means that h...

(3xCD, 1xBlu-ray; Atomhenge [2026 Edition] ) In many ways I feel I was rather late in discovering Hawkwind, as they only came to my attention after the release of ‘Quark, Strangeness and Charm’ when I was 14, but I soon discovered their key releases up to then, and there is no doubt that ‘Roadhawks’ was one of the most played releases in my collection. However, I don’t actually remember listening to their debut, although I must have done back then, so coming to this reissue now is like hearing it for the very first time and it is absolutely fascinating. What we have is a deluxe boxed set comprising three CDs and a Blu-Ray disc featuring a new remaster of the original album, an additional CD of rare live recordings from 1970 from Dave Brock’s archives, plus seven bonus tracks taken from a 1969 demo session, both sides of the “Hurry On Sundown” single and a studio out-take and new stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound mixes of the album by Stephen W Tayler. One of the things which Hawkfans will ...

(29:44; Lynx Music) Formed in Poland in 2014 and releasing their debut, ‘Era of Stone’ in 2016, here we have the latest release from Wisdom Trip who are one of those rare things in progressive rock, a trio who rarely use keyboards. The line-up is Jakub Zuber (guitars, vocals), Milan Rabij (drums, percussion) and Grzegorz Grychtoł (bass), while ex-Dream Theater keyboard player Derek Sherinian guests on one track. This is yet another concept album with lyrics in Polish, here telling the story of the main character being permanently trapped in a repeated Monday, referring to the helplessness, monotony, frustration, and feelings of loss and confusion that people suffer. Much of this was completed during the pandemic, so perhaps these feelings are not much of a surprise. I have no idea what Jakub is singing, but apparently the English title for this album is ‘The Wind-Up Man’, and the artwork definitely shows that, and it would certainly be interesting to understand what is being said as th...

(62:00; Lynx Music) There is no doubt whatsoever that Ryszard Kramarski is single-handedly doing all he can to keep the Polish prog scene vibrant and active, as he not only runs Lynx Music but is also in multiple bands such as Millenium, Framauro and Fatherso.  Of course, that is not nearly enough, so here we have the eighth studio album from his project outlet. All lyrics are in English, and this time we have a concept inspired by Lewis Carroll’s “ Alice In Wonderland”. Given this band is a project, and it is a concept, it makes total sense to have a cast of many, and we have five singers in Ania Batko (Hipgnosis/Albion), Łukasz Gałęziowski (ex-Millenium), Marek Smelkowski (also ex-Millenium), Michał Kramarski (FatherSon) and Dominika Niebudek. TRK Project guitarist Marcin Kruczek (also Framauro etc) is here plus four current members of Milennium, guitarist Piotr Płonka, drummer Grzegorz Bauer, bassist Krzysztof Wyrwa and saxophonist Łukasz Płatek which must mean they are recordin...

(40:11; Lynx Music) There are no prizes for realising this is a Polish release, and from the title one might surmise the lyrics are also in Polish, and that is indeed the case which is a real shame to my ears as there is no doubt whatsoever that the music is geared to keep the vocals front and centre. Strefa Wolnych Myśli (Free Thought Zone) is a project which was brought together by songwriter and guitarist Artur Krystek, who invited a host of Polish musicians (which includes five singers no less). The cover art reminds us of ‘Animal Farm’, and that is quite deliberate as apparently that and ‘1984’ were major inspirations for this four-track 40-minute-long album. Given that my Polish is non-existent it means I must concentrate just on the music, and what we have here is an album which is many ways is tied much more firmly in the Seventies that many Polish prog albums I come across. The keyboards are often wonderfully dated, and the music swells and changes so one is never quite sure w...

(34:40; Shallow Willow) It is not often that I have no idea whatsoever about how to approach a review, but that is what is happening here, and even as I sit at the keyboard, I have no idea what it is I am going to write. Thierry Sportouche and I have been friends for probably 30 years, and I have been writing for his fanzine Acid Dragon for even longer than that. He is well known in the prog scene not only for his ongoing efforts to promote progressive rock, but also for being involved in bands such as Caladan, Silver Lining and Silver Hunter (with Tim Hunter) and has also provided lyrics for Anoxie. So when he asked me to listen to his latest project, Shallow Willow, I of course obliged, yet as I played it something didn’t feel quite right.  The album varies tremendously in style, and I only felt I could really hear Thierry on one track, “Harvest”, while the rest felt incredibly polished and bouncing, not normally what I would equate with Thierry’s music at all. Speaking with him ...

(55:22; Lynx Music) Poland has long been a hotbed of progressive rock, and luckily for me I have been fortunate enough to hear a great deal of music from that scene over the years, and I even contribute to a Polish website (the wonderful MLWZ.PL). However, I don’t hear everything, which is why I have only just come across Scarless and their second album, ‘Arkana’. In 2023 they released their debut, ‘Czekając...’, with the line-up of Gaba Latak (vocals), Janusz Głowacki (guitars), Marcin Perguł (keyboards), Tomasz Zarzycki (bass) and Adam Wątły (drums), but Gaby has since left and been replaced by Anna Grzesik. The result is a classic Polish Neo album which hearkens back to early Quidam, Collage and Satellite with some influences also from Millenium, yet looks across to ‘Script’ era Marillion as well, especially on songs like “Wieża” where the picked guitar in particular takes the listener back more than 40 years. Pallas and Pendragon have also had their part to play in curating the so...

(35:47; Psychoyogi) I will never understand why some great bands get loads of press and comment and others get absolutely nothing. It makes no sense at all to me, but if most of the bands I write about could be described as being underground, then PsychoYogi must have already dug through the molten core of the Earth and are close to coming out somewhere South of New Zealand (yes, I Googled it). I first came across the guys when I was asked to review their fifth album, 2018’s ‘Accident Prone’, since when I have reviewed their next four and now they are back with their tenth. But, and this is a massive, huge, “but”, I am the only person to have reviewed any of these albums on ProgArchives. No-one else, not a single one. Why? Surely it cannot be due to the instrumentation, I mean, progheads like it weird so if the guys want to include both trombone and violin as main instruments why not? The line-up is very stable, with the band again being Chris Ramsing (guitar, vocals), Izzy Stylish (ba...

(90:03; Solstice) All the way back in 1993, Progressive Records sent me first a copy of Solstice’s second album, ‘New Life’, then afterwards sending me a reissue of their debut, 1984’s ‘Silent Dance’. I think it is safe to say that neither I nor Andy Glass could have imagined that more than 30 years on the band are finally reaping the dividends they so richly deserve. It has been a long road for Solstice, with many struggles and a few line-up changes, but 2020’s ‘Sia’, the first album for seven years, was the first with a new singer, Jess Holland (everyone else was involved with ‘Prophecy’), and it all came together majestically. 2022’s ‘Light Up’ saw the addition of more female singers, with only a minor change in line-up between that and 2025’s ‘Clann’, a set now known as the ‘Sia Trilogy’. What we have here is a record of the ‘Clann’ concert recorded on home turf at The Stables, Milton Keynes, on 30th August 2025 with the band expanded by the addition of a brass section, meaning tha...

(46:47; Canvas Productions) Nick Katona is always doing his best to promote albums from the past which he thinks need more time in the spotlight, and one day I was on Facebook and saw him talking about this album from 2012, so I thought it was worth giving it a shot given I never heard it at the time. Something which is fascinating about this release is that although it is credited to October Tree, it is actually Canvas plus the addition of Greg Lounsberry’s wife Tammy on lead vocals, and an appearance by their son Daniel. Everyone apart from Daniel would then appear on the next Canvas album, 2013’s ‘Long Way To Mars’. This album was written by Greg for his wife based on a story he wrote about fairies, as that is what she wanted the album to be about, and for some reason the artwork made me think this would be a prog folk release, but although there are some folky elements, for the most part this is much more middle of the road crossover in its approach. It is a concept album, which ha...

(59:16; Lynx Music) Out of the 19 studio albums released by this wonderful Polish neo progressive band I think I have reviewed 16, including this one, and each and every one has a very special place. Band leader, composer and keyboard player Ryszard Kramarski is always full of ideas, so much so that he has created other bands as well, while of course running Lynx Music which is so very important to the Polish scene. Millenium celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2024, and in 2025 they played a very special show (to which I was invited but could not attend) at the Nowa Huta Cultural Centre in Krakow, which led Ryszard to bring together new versions of well-known material plus some brand-new recordings.  We get a few rarities which feature previous lead singers Marek Smelkowski and Łukasz Gałęziowski, but for the most part we are treated to newly recorded songs featuring current vocalist Dawid Lewandowski. He has totally settled into the role now, having already completed two albums ...

(64:00; Iapetus [2025 Edition] ) This was the second of Reuter’s ambient Christmas albums, originally released in December 2021, having been recorded live at home in Berlin only a few weeks earlier, and as with ‘Winter Solstice’ it has now been newly mastered by Erik Emil Eskildsen. I must confess to only knowing one of the six pieces on offer this time, as after including three traditional German melodies in his song choice plus one by Johann Abraham Peter Schulz and another by Johann Sebastian Bach, he ends his selection with a piece inspired by Mike Oldfield’s “The Time Has Come”, which was originally on 1987’s ‘Islands’ and was released as a single. I believe this album works more cohesively than the earlier one, but I am aware this may be because I am unfamiliar with most of the original material so am treating this solely as new pieces of art. To me this feels less Christmassy, and more Wintery, as he manages to bring cold feelings to bear and there is definitely an impression of...

(56:27; Iapetus [2025 Edition] ) This album was recorded live at home in Berlin on December 17th, 2018, and has Markus using Touch Guitars® AU8, Guitar Synth, Dual Looping System to create soundscapes of tunes which are popular in Germany at Christmas. We have five songs which come in a total of 56 minutes in length, and Markus has created meditative soundscapes (based on the series of pitches of each tune) and then overdubbed normal versions of the melodies, which means the brain is listening to the usual version as well as a very different one, both at the same time and it is strangely relaxing, familiar and strange, all at the same time. I find it highly unusual to hear Markus playing what I think of as standard guitar, as I know him as an inspirational live composer who is a master of his instruments and uses his skills and techniques to push music in unusual directions. Consequently, the “easy to understand” melodies are the ones I found most confounding as they are most unexpecte...

(60:00; Karisma Records [2026 Edition]) More than 30 years on from when it was first released, Ritual’s debut album is finally available on vinyl, care of Karisma Records. For those reading about the underground scene in 2026 it must be incredibly difficult to understand just how hard it was to discover albums and bands back in the Nineties in the days before internet as there were no glossy magazines dedicated to the genre, and the only people writing about the scene were the nutters (like me) who were running fanzines. Actually, I didn’t come across this album at the time (which is weird as back then I was covering everything Musea was releasing) but instead came across it in 2004 when it was reissued and remastered by SPV. I took the CD from the shelf just now and smiled when I read the sticker on the cover which says it features Patrik Lundström from Kaipa, which is true as he was part of the “new” Kaipa line-up in 2000, and is still there today, but he is also still in Ritual who ...

(73:09; Iapetus) Sonically one might expect this album to have been recorded with keyboards and for the composer to be working with a strict score and then tracking more and more layers to create something which is incredibly deep. However, what actually happened was Juan Dahmen in the studio with a Touch Guitar U10, pedals and looper, composing and performing live. This is an album where sounds are elongated, and it definitely makes one think of the infinity of space, as if we are on a journey to the stars (I was playing this in the car the other day and my wife asked if we were at risk of being abducted by aliens, and I had told her nothing about this). Although one may argue this is mostly ambient, it also has a great deal going for it within the space rock community, and if someone had told me that Dr. Space (Scott Heller) had been involved then I would not have been surprised, but although it may seem that Juan has been listening to a great deal of Øresund Space Collective he is c...

(61:00; Boudicca Records) In 2024 I was fortunate to come across Scottish progressive band Ebb, who sent me their debut album to review. I am truly glad they did as I was stunned to discover that here was an independent outfit who were investing in a CD which came in an A5 book packed full of colour photos and lyrics. By then the album had been out 18 months, so I was somewhat surprised to discover I was the first person to review it for ProgArchives. In November 2025 they released their second album, ‘The Mirror’, and I am again the first person to review it, but worse than that, I am still the only person to have reviewed their debut! Yet again it has been issued in an A5 book which has been beautifully designed and contains the same line-up of Erin Bennett (guitars, lead vocals, trumpet) who also provides all the material, along with Anna Fraser (drums, percussion), Nikki Francis (Hammond, piano, synths, saxophone, flute, clarinet), Bad Dog (bass), Kitty Biscuits (backing vocals, pe...

(46:35; Coenobite Productions) Multi-instrumentalist Coen Vrouwenvelder had planned to take a year off after 2022’s ‘My Habit II’, but one thing led to another and for multiple reasons it has taken until 2025 for his 19th album to be released. Here Coen has undertaken a slightly different approach, so while we still get some unusual time signatures and chord progressions, this is more focussed around guitar, with keyboards being somewhat more simplistic and the guitars kept to the fore. He has never made any secret of his admiration for Andy Latimer, and “Tree of Life” certainly sounds heavily Camel influenced. It makes me wonder what would happen if he and Martin Springett ever undertook any musical investigation together, as their combined influences could well produce interesting results. Coen is not a great singer, and he recognises that, but there are times when he feels he needs to provide a voice to his stories, and as they are so personal he needs to do that himself. This means...

(40:26; Melodic Revolution Records) At the bottom of the front cover it says, “A Progressive Bass Journey”, and in many way that tells you all you need to know about this album. The lead musicians on this instrumental release are Alberto Rigoni (Italy), Michael Manring (USA) and Stuart Hamm (USA), all playing bass in different styles and techniques, with the only other musicians being drummers Tim “Herb” Alexander (ex-Primus) and David Menoudakis who play on three tracks each out of the nine on offer. What they are attempting to achieve here is a fusion of progressive rock, metal, fusion, soundscapes, and experimental textures which together combine to create an album which is quite different to many others. It is hugely cinematic in that one can certainly imagine this being used in a science fiction soundtrack, and while they are all masters of their instruments this is about ensuring the basses are being used to create music, as opposed to all being about ego. In many ways it is a fa...