Muziekrecensies
British guitarist Nick Fletcher (a.k.a. John Hackett Band) has been active in music for over forty years. His new album is based on Dante’s Inferno, the contrasts between “light” and “dark” are much greater here than on his previous album (Cycles of Behaviour from 2021). Nick says of ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’: “Perhaps because of … Read more, available in English and Dutch
Germany’s Crystal Palace (art rock) has been around for over 30 years. Their previous studio album, ‘Scattered Shards’, was released in 2018. On their new album ‘Still there’ from, all the tracks flow into each other non-stop. The concept is about a young woman, she had written on the inside walls of a lookout point, … Read more, available in English and Dutch
Monochrome is the debut album by the German band Sammary. Multi-instrumentalist Sammy Wahlandt founded this art rock/indie project. He started with electronic, musical experiments. ‘Monochrome’ is a concept album and is about the gloomy versus the happy side of man, and hate versus love. ‘Black And White’ has a special, mysterious start, the sound is … Read more, available in English and Dutch
‘Mercurial’ is the fourth album by the prog metal band ‘Iris Divine’, but the first album to be released through Layered Reality Productions. Drummer Scott Manley took the place of Kris Combs (drums, keyboards and programming) he left the band in the Corona era. That doesn’t mean you won’t hear any keyboards/programming on ‘Mercurial’. Singer/guitarist … Read more, available in English and Dutch
Melanie Mau & Martin Schnella are getting more and more known in the prog circuit, and that is well deserved. Recently ‘Invoke The Ghosts’ was released, this is the second album on which you can only hear their own compositions. They call their style acoustic metal. ‘Nur Ein Spiel’ starts with a vocal solo by … Read more, available in English and Dutch
The prog album ‘You have it all’ is an extension of the EP ‘Spirals and Portals’, which Lobate Scarp released in 2019. From that came the singles ‘Nothing Wrong’ (remixed) and ‘Beautiful Light’. These are interwoven within the new album to create more cohesion. Several very well-known guest musicians participate. Like Ryo Okumoto (Spock’s Beard) … Read more, available in English and Dutch
About ten years ago Gerd Albers founded a prog project called ‘Project: Patchwork’. On each album a large number of guest musicians worked together, more than 45 in total. These musicians come from prog bands such as Mystery, Subsignal, and many others. Also on the latest album, ‘Ultima Ratio’, a large number of musicians worked … Read more, available in English and Dutch
Phil Bee has been on stage at home and abroad for over 30 years. He has won several awards and reached the (semi) finals of several singing competitions. Last year he was the winner of ‘The Voice Senior’. Just before the Dutch winter lockdown of 2021, the 11-piece Phil Bee band (including horn section) performed … Read more, available in English and Dutch
Swedish progressive folk-fusion-rock band Kaipa recently released their 14th studio album. With “Urskog,” Kaipa takes you on a journey through the wilderness of Sweden and through the seasons. Hans Lundin used some sampled sounds from the 80s for this album. Perhaps more importantly, Darby Todd is the new drummer. He has played with Devin Townsend … Read more, available in English and Dutch
Singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer Martin Erich has been active on the Groningen music scene (the Netherlands) for about 35 years. In the eighties he played in bands like ’12 Inch from Heaven’ and ‘The Happy Few?’ After a silence he founded the band ‘The Sign of Leo’ about ten years ago. During the Corona crisis … Read more, available in English and Dutch