(78:00; Made in Germany) Just seeing the name John Renbourn immediately casts one back to those heady days of the late Sixties when the guitarist/singer formed Pentangle with Jacqui McShee (vocals), Bert Jansch (vocals and guitar), Danny Thompson (double bass) and Terry Cox (drums). After the original line-up broke up, he and Jacqui stayed working together, and this 1978 concert includes both Tony Roberts on flute, oboe and vocals and Keshav Sathe on tablas from the studio recording ‘A Maid In Bedlam’, while Sandy Spencer (cello) takes the place of Sue Draheim. Although Pentangle had their roots firmly in folk, they never liked the term “folk rock” and instead felt they were more “folk jazz”. This group then took it in another direction with the use of tablas making them more “folk world”. Although this recording, made by Radio Bremen on February 14th, 1978, has been made available previously, it has now been licenced by German record label MiG (Made in Germany music), which means it i...

(40:24; Hitchtone) Track list: 1. Jakna od Teksasa 5:10 2. Vikend u Jasmini 4:39 3. Eshtafe 5:13 4. Zdravo za Gotovo 5:28 5. Tri Probe Tjedno 4:25 6. Kralj Tekstila 4:42 7. Tepsikord 5:49 8. Mekota 4:58 Line-up: Mak Murtic -  saxophone, flute Mihovil Jurdana - bass Damir Mihaljevic -  drums Nika Bauman - flute Lucija Stanojevic - violin Doringo - guitars with: Orjen Ridanovic - guitars Prolusion. Croatian band Doringo have been releasing new material at a fairly rapid pace from 2017 and until now, with almost a dozen releases great and small available on their Bandcamp site. "Budem Budem" is the name of their most recent production, which was released through the label Hitchtone Music & Promotion in the fall of 2021. Analysis. Doringo is one of those bands that are difficult to pin down into one specific segment in the progressive rock universe, something I for my sake feel grateful for. One of the points of progressive rock is to progress, and by being difficult to categ...

(45:09; OctoberXart Records) Track list: 1. Paradise Flying Snake I 3:02 2. Seafoam 1:56 3. Angel on a Tower 4:29 4. Lena Pillars 4:49 5. Footsteps 2:55 6. Doppelganger 4:21 7. Maybe 3:01 8. Deep Low 4:37 9. Roads to Sunrise Cities 6:33 10. Sarisin 3:00 11. Land of Opportunities 2:42 12. Paradise Flying Snake II 3:44 Line-up: Angel Ontalva - guitars Victor Rodriguez - keyboards Avelino Saavedra - drums with: Yolanda Alba - flute John Falcone - bassoons Pablo Hernandez Ramos - saxophones Wadim Dicke - bass Amanda Pazos Cosse - bass Prolusion. Spanish musician Angel Ontalva has an established history in progressive rock circles, at first with the band October Equus and then in the last decade or so as a most productive solo artist with more than a dozen albums to his name as either strict solo albums or as collaborations. "Angel on a Tower" is his most recent solo album, and was released by Octoberxart Records in the fall of 2021. Analysis. As a band member as well as a solo ar...

(40:41; Apollon Records) Track list: 1. Melancholy City 4:03 2. Hesitant Light 3:01 3. Dance of the Swallows 4:50 4. Night by Night 4:45 5. Floating World 5:05 6. Street Heat 3:09 7. Andromeda Waltz 2:51 8. Escape from Plague City 5:32 9. Devil's Highway 5:51 10. Coda:Street Haze 1:34 Line-up: Jacob Holm-Lupo - keyboards,m synthesizers, guitars, programming, samples, loops, percussion with: Keith Carlock - drums Georg Wadenius - guitars Marte Eberson - vocals Hedvig Mollestad - guitars Nikolai Haengsle Eilertsen - bass Brynjar Dambo - synthesizers Bill Bressler - synthesizers Kristoffer Momrak - flute Ivar Winther - synthesizers Prolusion. Norwegian project Donner is one of the many side projects of White Willow main man Jacob Holm-Lupo, and this one has more of an emphasis on the electronic aspects of the music universe. "Hesitant Light" is the first full length album created under this moniker, and was released through Norwegian label Apollon Records in the fall of 2021...

(42:59; Karisma Records) Track list: 1. Enter the Dome 1:15 2. Retrograde 6:32 3. Hypersonic 3:43 4. Deadbeat 5:20 5. Waver I 4:46 6. Waver II 6:11 7. The 1% 6:30 8. Orbit 8:42 Line-up: Sturle Sandvik - vocals, guitars, bass Severin Sandvik - drums, percussion, vocals with: Jonas Saersten - Rhodes, organ, piano, Mellotron Ole-Andreas Jensen - bass Morten E. Olsen - guitars Prolusion. Norwegian band Kosmodome was formed a few years back, and following a self-released EP they were signed to Norwegian label Karisma Records. The band is now ready with their debut album "Kosmodome", which will be released in early December 2021. Analysis. The main style of this band is a retro-oriented type of psychedelic rock, and a variety of the style with a distinct progressive orientation at that. Mainly due to structural elements, but some of the arrangements and instrument details also point towards a more progressive take on psychedelic rock in this case. Songs that ebb and flow in intensi...

(77:00; Cleopatra Records) It is impossible to talk about Calvert without also mentioning the band with which he was involved so heavily during their golden years, Hawkwind. But he also released five solo studio albums before his demise from heart attack at the early age of 43. Of these, the one which is most fondly thought of by his fans is the debut, ‘Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters’, which is obviously referenced here in the title. Calvert was a true multi-media artist, being involved in poetry long before he joined Hawkwind, and I am sure he would have been intrigued in this bringing together of his music from throughout his career. The project features vintage Calvert tracks taken from both his solo albums as well as raw, unfinished demos, completely revamped by the likes of indie noise icons Xiu Xiu, chillwave group Small Black, post-punkers Soft Kill plus darkwave duos Xeno & Oaklander and Sixth June as well as veterans A Flock Of Seagulls and The Damned’s Rat Scabies!...

(48:03; Soniq Theater) One thing that can be said about keyboard player Alfred Mueller is that he is incredibly consistent, both in terms of his music and output. Every January he releases a new album, both digitally and as a CD-R, saying that people can pay what they want for it. Now, in some ways this has meant he has stayed in the deepest bowels of the underground so that even those familiar with the scene either have never heard of him, or feel the quality of the music must be somewhat lacking in that he does not spend money on self-promotion or artwork, and does not even charge for people to download his music. I look at it in a different way altogether, in that Alfred does not make music because he wants to, he does it because he must. There is an inner driving force that demands he keeps putting his music out there, even though it is unlikely that many will hear it or write about it. This is his twenty first solo album, and I have reviewed every single one of them, as well as th...