Getting to that time of year where all prog heads start thinking about their fav albums of the year. I have started piling mine as shown above. Not complete yet as it has been a bumper year for new prog. Long may it continue. Don't worry Mr Wilson's latest will be in there. But it's a biggie and would topple the stack! Not good!
Arjen is back, doing what he does best. That is, Prog Opera! No one else can assemble such a huge cast of vocalists and instrumentalists and produce such epic music so effortlessly. We all thought the lengthy Ayreon project had come to an end, concentrating as he was on Guilt Machine, Star One and last years excellent solo album. But here he is again, still mixing prog, metal, folk, classical in a strange, hybrid melange that always seems to work. Here, he has great help from the likes of John Wetton, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman and Steve Hackett amongst many others.
It may not be very original, but somehow Arjen puts his stamp on it all and you cannot criticise his boldness and enthusiasm. To totally appreciate and immerse yourself in Arjens world, you need to get the sumptuous super deluxe edition, which is a large format hardbound book affair, which houses the two vocal and two instrumental CDs plus the making of DVD. The latter is interesting, offering an insight into Arjen's meticuluous methods for bringing the project together. You cannot help being carried away with his boyish enthusiasm for all the people he brings on board and his love for music making. Nice one Arjen.
I almost completely forgot about this. I actually ordered this box set nearly a year ago from the ReRmegacorp web site. It has taken till now to actually finish it and release it. I think this type of, on the edge type of music is having a hard time at the moment. ReR are actually going the way of downloads rather than release physical product, such is the cost of producing music with such a specialised and to be honest, small audience. It's a shame, as no one produces such genre defying music as the likes of Cassiber did back in the late 70's and through the 80's.
Cassiber were basically a collective of Christoph Anders, Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth and drummer extraordinaire, Chris Cutler. This box set is a collection of all their albums, plus odds and sods as well as a DVD of live performances. The set is the latest in a series of incredible collections put together by Cutlers' label Recommended. Previous boxes have been by the Art Bears, Henry Cow and This Heat. They are truly labours of love. All have been gorgeously mastered by Bob Drake (apart from the This Heat box, which was mastered by Denis Blackham) and have fantastically detailed booklets with lots of rare archival photographs. It may have taken longer than expected, but this latest box does not disappoint and is produced to the same high standards as the others. This may be the last big release like this from ReR, which is a pity. I know that with the interest in progressive music on the rise, more and more people will start to investigate the further, outer reaches of the genre. It's all here, in all its' glory.
This has been a difficult one. The Norwegian band, Airbag have released two previously exemplary albums of atmospheric prog, in the vein of RPWL and Riverside. The reviews for this, their latest have been a bit cool, mostly considering the band to be too near their Pink Floyd roots for comfort and lacking any real originality. On the first couple of listens I tend to agree. I was on the whole underwhelmed. But I had an inkling this was going to be one of those albums. You listen to it initially and it doesn't really click, but there is something in the back of your head that keeps making you go back to it. You just have this feeling that you will get it eventually.
After spending a while with it, it did click. I still don't think it stands up with their first two yet, but it is getting there. It is beautifully put together and the musicianship is superb. It sounds sumptuous. The songs slowly reveal their riches, taking their time to be fully absorbed. I think it is one of those albums that requires patience to really appreciate. I am getting to love this album. Slowly, but surely!
Roger, the talented one of the Eno brothers. Only joking! Though Roger is the trained musician, whereas Brian was always the non-musician. It may have been through brother Brian's connection that Roger's music was able to come to the attention of a wider audience, but his music would have shone through anyway, such is its strength and beauty. Obviously inspired by Erik Satie's minimalist style, Roger's goes further to produce intimate, reflective, heartfelt vignettes. Over the forty tracks which grace the 2CD's here, every piece is imbued with rich melody and an uncanny ability to be at once still and animated, perfectly judging the arrangements and instrumentation to obtain maximum emotional resonance. Simply beautifully sublime. Lovely photographs by Roger's daughter Cecily throughout the packaging and booklet.
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