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Tag Archive for 'prog-rock'

Osada Vida – Uninvited Dreams (Metal Mind, 2009)

Published by Assaf Vestin on February 10, 2010 in Reviews. Tags: , , , , .

You’re cordially invited to experience the Uninvited Dreams of Osada Vida.

This talented quartet releases their sixth album. I’ve started following them, quite by chance, starting at their third album, Three Seats Behind A Triangle and have been hooked since (I reviewed their two previous albums and interviewed the band as well in 2009). I feel that with each album they progressed with their sound and production. But the familiar sound from Three Seats is still here, that somewhat murky signature, spell-binding spirit it sill present and permeates through every song.

The drummer, Adam Podzimski,is again the writer of the lyrics, about dreams that one wishes he’d forget as soon as he wakes up, undesired dreams that come though they are unwanted. Continue reading ‘Osada Vida – Uninvited Dreams (Metal Mind, 2009)’

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Kinetic Element – Powered By Light (self-released, 2009)

Published by Assaf Vestin on February 6, 2010 in Reviews. Tags: , , , , .

Kinetic Element was originally formed to perform keyboardist and vocalist Mike Visaggio’s music form his solo album Starship Universe, released in 2006. Things, however, took a turn and they liked the idea of playing together as a band and along with playing covers of classic rock and prog-rock songs, they have been playing their own original material. Some of it already released as a promo ep, The Powered By Light Suite in 2008. In 2009, the band self-released Powered By Light Continue reading ‘Kinetic Element – Powered By Light (self-released, 2009)’

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Pictorial Wand – Face Of Our Fathers (Unicorn Digital, 2009)

Published by Assaf Vestin on December 7, 2009 in Reviews. Tags: , , , .

One man, Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Mattis Sørum, is behind this project started in 2003, bringing to his aid (much like Ayreon) musicians and vocalists (four on this album) to play and sing on his albums. Mattis plays the synths, organ and guitars on the albums.

This 2009 release, is his second album and a concept one as well, after his 2006 debut, A Sleeper`s Awakening , which was a double album that was made while Mattis was a music student in Trondheim. It was there he found the seventeen musicians to help him create his vision and it took three years to make.

This current album is released through Unicorm Digital, a Canadian based label that released superb albums from progressive bands like Karcius, Hamadryad, Mystery, Jellyfiche, Capharnaum, The Gourishankar, Karfagen, Nil, Nathan Mahl, Sympozion and many others; so Pictorial Wand are in a very good company.

The music is very emotional; it manages to convey very well a mournful spirit, a sense of torment and regret. The dynamic range is wide, as the music ranges from calm and serene landscapes to troubled waters where a heavier approach reigns, and where the music acquires a metal sound as well up until the emotional peaks of a song like Circle’s End.

Continue reading ‘Pictorial Wand – Face Of Our Fathers (Unicorn Digital, 2009)’

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Gösta Berlings Saga – Detta Har Hänt (Transubstans Records, 2009)

Published by Assaf Vestin on December 6, 2009 in Reviews. Tags: , .

I was tired that day, annoyed at everything that didn’t work. A long period of frustration this has been and few things have managed to comfort me.

Staying late at work, I put on my headphones and started to scroll through my music player to see what can I possibly listen to. I then stopped at the Swedish progressive rock band Gosta Berlings Saga. I had just gotten their new album a week before and have only listened to it once and did not remember it well enough. So I decided to play it again, thinking to myself that it might help me engage my brain for the tasks ahead.

I was wrong.

Not wrong about engaging my mind, but wrong about being productive.

Wrong, because for some reason, the moment I put the music on, I was hooked.

Continue reading ‘Gösta Berlings Saga – Detta Har Hänt (Transubstans Records, 2009)’

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Moon Safari – Blomljud (Blomljud Records, 2008)

Published by Assaf Vestin on December 5, 2009 in Reviews. Tags: , , .

I am not an optimistic person. I am not a very positive and constructive type too. I am prone to see the empty half of the cup rather than the full one. Being diagnosed with depression, I’m not one to look for hippie happy music and start roaming about how much beauty there is in the world and how much we all need some love… In fact, I usually run away from such things. Much of the music I listen to is dark, depressing (in lyrics and mood) and melancholic.

I do however listen to (and love) uplifting, upbeat and cheerful music. Though I do have a problem listening to saccharine and sweet lyrics.

Which is why I was somewhat surprised that the music and lyrics of Moon Safari have not turned off. In fact, Magic Pie’s music and lyrics has done just that to me. It’s so sweet and naively positive that it just ruins the music and the enjoyment for me.

But for some reason, not only does Moon Safari’s music cling with me; it has also become a favourite of mine. Its peaceful, positive vibe and cheerfulness have struck a chord within me. Their first album, A Doorway To Summer is a beautiful album filled with lovely tunes and I was looking forward to this double album. Indeed, they carry on what they started.

Continue reading ‘Moon Safari – Blomljud (Blomljud Records, 2008)’

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Diagonal – Diagonal (Rise Above Records, 2008)

Published by Assaf Vestin on December 1, 2009 in Reviews. Tags: , , .

“Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end…”

But they did.

Or did they?

Well, according to the British band Diagonal, those days may have passed but that’s no reason not to try to revive them, or in fact re-live them. And they do it so well, that their version of past days seems better than the original.

Released on Rise Above Records, which aside from metal bands, has also several bands in their lineup that recreate the magic of past days of glory, such as Circulus, Litmus, Blood Ceremony, Astra and Diagonal.

Diagonal, from Brighton that sits on the shores of southern England on the channel, are a 7 members band, bent on recreating sounds long gone and even in the booklet of their self-titled album they look like 70s’ rock musicians, giving the impression that they are either a long lost band only recently discovered or rather time travelers or in fact just die hard enthusiasts of another age. Continue reading ‘Diagonal – Diagonal (Rise Above Records, 2008)’

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Karcius – Episodes (Unicorn Digital, 2008)

Published by Assaf Vestin on November 30, 2009 in Reviews. Tags: , , , , .

Karcius from Quebec, Canada have so far released 3 instrumental albums, all of them quite eclectic with regards to the styles played in the various pieces the comprise them. With Episodes, I hear a band that has developed, and for lack of a better word, matured; they are more delicate and precise in their way of delivering their instrumental pieces, more refined than before. They are still as varied as before, conjuring up different styles and playing in a dynamic fashion.  Continue reading ‘Karcius – Episodes (Unicorn Digital, 2008)’

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Interview with Osada Vida (Poland)

Published by Assaf Vestin on November 13, 2009 in Interviews. Tags: , , .

Polish progressive rock/metal band Osada Vida have been around since 1997 and have been making their name more familiar in recent years with their two last concept albums, Three Seats Behind A Triangle (2006) and The Body Parts Party (2008).

November 2009 sees the band’s new album, Uninvited Dreams, being released through Metal Mind Productions. In light of this, bassist Lukasz Lisiak and drummer Adam Podzimski have answered some questions regarding the band, its past albums and the new release.

1) For those unfamiliar with Osada Vida, can you give us a brief background of the band? How did it come to be? Your musical influences?

AP: Osada Vida was set up in 1997. Lukasz and I created the band in 1997 as a trio. The members of our band had changed several times and the same was with our music. In the year 2000 we recorded our first demo album “Moment krytyczny” (The Critical Moment). Since then we have recorded two more albums: “W drodze na ksi??yc” in 2002 and “Osada Vida” in 2004. Our music was changing, developing you can hear it on our previous albums. But the year 2005 was very crucial to our band. We invited the new guitarist – Bartek Bereska – and released an album “Three Seats Behind a Triangle”(2006). We try to find an inspiration in every good piece of music. No matter if it’s pop, jazz, metal or even classical music.

LL: Together with Adam, we wished to play our favourites’ music: Rush, King Crimson, Camel, early Porcupine Tree, Talk Talk and a stuff from 4 AD. We never chose any style or never called it a give name. We simply wished to play the music, which we felt, we loved, enjoyed and we wanted to listen to.
Continue reading ‘Interview with Osada Vida (Poland)’

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Jean-Jacques Toussaint – From Tiemko To Travelling (Musea, 2009)

Published by Assaf Vestin on October 12, 2009 in Reviews. Tags: , , .

I’ve had my share of listening to eclectic and varied sounding albums. This offering from Jean-Jacques Toussaint qualifies as one of them and also amongst those albums of this nature I like a lot.

Jean Jacques Toussaint is the keyboards and bass player for Tiemko, a French instrumental prog-rock group. This helps explain part of the name of this album. At first I though the second part, Travelling, referred to a second French prog-rock group called Travelling (playing in the Canterbury style), however it appears not to be the case.

There is a note in the booklet saying in French: “Travelling: a path that leads nowhere, since nowhere is still the most mysterious place there is”.

In this album Jean-Jacques plays the keyboards, guitar, contrabass and does programming. He has a wide array of musicians playing along with him in the different pieces on instruments like guitar, saxophone, trumpet, accordion, trombone, violin, drums and tablas. The album was released through the French prog-rock label, Musea in 2009. Continue reading ‘Jean-Jacques Toussaint – From Tiemko To Travelling (Musea, 2009)’

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Delirium – Il Nome Del Vento (Black Widow, 2009)

Published by Assaf Vestin on August 25, 2009 in Reviews. Tags: , .

Originating in Genova, Delirium rose from the band Sagittari in 1970 and went on to release three progressive rock albums in the 1970s’, Dolce Acqua, Lo Scemo E Il Villaggio & Delirium III: Viaggio Negli Arcipelaghi Del Tempo. They disbanded in 1975. They reformed in 2003 with two new members and released a live album in 2007 and this album reviewed here in 2009.

This album flows beautifully from one album to the next as the song seem to connect to each other, as if not ending but serving as the starting point of the next in line.

Starting with a reprise of Dio Del Silenzio from Delirium III, the album goes on to the title track that presents the string quartet that plays along with the band. This is a beautiful, evocative and spellbinding melody, rich sounding and captivating. Continue reading ‘Delirium – Il Nome Del Vento (Black Widow, 2009)’

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Spleen Arcana – The Field Where She Died (Self-released, 2009)

Published by Assaf Vestin on April 19, 2009 in Reviews. Tags: .

French musician Julien Gaullier, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, pulls off an impressive achievement with his first album The Field Where She Dies. Having written the material over several years, he recorded the music, singing and playing all the various instruments except for the drums which are played by David Peron and there are addition vocals sung by Marie Guillaumet. Continue reading ‘Spleen Arcana – The Field Where She Died (Self-released, 2009)’

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Viima – Kahden Kuun Sirpit (Self-released, 2009)

Published by Assaf Vestin on April 19, 2009 in Reviews. Tags: .

Viima releases in 2009 their second album, Kahden Kuun Sirpit (Two Crescents), with a new lineup in which only two members are left from the previous album. The new people in the band are drummer Mikko Väärälä, vocalist flutist and saxophonist Hannu Hiltula and bassist Aapo Honkanen. Continuing from the first album is keyboard player Kimmo Lähteenmäki.
The album contains four songs, one instrumental piece (Sukellus) and an epic title track. This title track is about the history of the city of Turku (where the band rehearses) and also about an individual’s life in the city. As the band sings in Finnish, it is a welcome gesture that the booklet has translation into English of the lyrics alongside the original Finnish version. Continue reading ‘Viima – Kahden Kuun Sirpit (Self-released, 2009)’

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Deluge Grander – The Form Of The Good (Emkog, 2009)

Published by Assaf Vestin on April 19, 2009 in Reviews. Tags: , .

The Good is in great Form

Let me start by saying this:
There are several bands and musicians that when I listen to their album I think to myself: “I wish I could compose music like this. I wish I would have composed this”.
This is the case with Deluge Grander’s music.

This is the second Deluge Grander album, another musical delicatessen from Dan Britton’s creative mind (keyboards), along with his highly talented band mates, Dave Berggren (guitars), Brett d’Anon (bass) and Patrick Gaffney (drums). This time around Dan hired the services of a large lineup of classical musicians to enhance the sound and add more dimensions to the music. The musicians, mostly
from College Park, in Maryland, bring in the lineup such instruments as cello, clarinet, flute, saxophone, violin, trumpet, trombone and oboe. This orchestral addition comes out very well and is best heard on the track Aggrandizement. Continue reading ‘Deluge Grander – The Form Of The Good (Emkog, 2009)’

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The Fractured Dimension – Towards The Mysterium (independent, 2008)

Published by Assaf Vestin on January 21, 2009 in Reviews. Tags: , .

This eclectic sounding instrumental album merging classical,jazz and metal influences is the first release by The Fractured Dimension trio.Jimmy Pitts (piano & keyboards), Jerry Twyford (5,6 strong bass) and AlexArellano (drums & percussion) created here an album that is a homage tocomposer Alexander Scriabin and named after his uncompleted final creationMysterium (hence the name of this album).

Continue reading ‘The Fractured Dimension – Towards The Mysterium (independent, 2008)’

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Grayceon – This Grand Show (2008, Vendlus)

Published by Assaf Vestin on October 5, 2008 in Reviews. Tags: , .

A continuation

Grayceon’s s/t album was one of my favourite releases of 2007; an album I got addicted to, drowned in, in love with. With its captivating sound, the Grayceon trio with their cello-guitar-drums made a deep impact, not only on me but on a wide audience as evidenced by the numerous positive reviews they’ve received. It is therefore not surprising that this, their second effort, released in 2008 is one of the year’s most anticipated albums, not only by myself. They face a difficult task in this aspect; following up on what to is a stellar first release and a fabulous album in itself. Where would they go from here? Do they even need to go somewhere? Is repetition enough? Or do they need to evolve progress and offer us something new not heard on the first album? I personally was curious to see how they chose to go, and was trying to keep an open mind in that regard.

Continue reading ‘Grayceon – This Grand Show (2008, Vendlus)’

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