“Cloud Sculptors is the debut album of the experimental Oslo based rock-quintet Full Earth. With a deep connection and love for minimalist music, especially that of Terry Riley’s organ works, heavy stoner rock ala Sleep, High on Fire and Elder and the electronic avant-garde, the Full Earth-sphere circles in on fuzzed out riffs, sonic experimentalism and noise music.”
“SPOOK – Dutch for GHOST – is a brand new trio by Simon Segers (De Beren Gieren, Black Flower) on drums, Nicolas Rombouts (Ottla, Dez Mona) on double bass and Filip Wauters (The Wodads, BackBack) on pedal steel and guitar. What started in the summer of 2019 as a one-off meeting has now grown into a fully-fledged collective that breaks the boundaries between improv and composition with intense interplay and sparse themes. The prominent presence of the pedal steel gives SPOOK an allure of “free country” or “post western”. Add some pulsating progrock rhythms and the free spirit and virtuosity of jazz and you capture the unique sound of SPOOK.”
“Agusa’s music effortlessly foliates from majestic beauty to violent outbursts and everything in between. It blends tripped-out psychedelic and progressive rock structures to instill visions of nature, the cosmos, and dreamlike passages, meandering into realms of a possibly supernatural or parallel existence. This is instrumental music where the instruments – and the people playing them – communicate directly with our hearts and minds.”
“Guranfoe is a four-piece rock band from Norwich, England whose music forges psychedelia, and prog intricacy. These styles combine with years of cohesive group playing to produce a live show defined by medleys of prog compositions and extended improvisation.”
“A remastered ‘official bootleg’ documenting Diagonal in its second formation – playing live in support of Wolf People in 2012 at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. A very different beast to the current band line-up, this Diagonal shared territory with the likes of Magma and ‘Red’ era King Crimson. Hot from the release of their second album ‘The Second Mechanism’ Diagonal were in top muscular form, sonically blasting West Yorkshire with unique, pulsating heavy prog.”
“When a power trio can share the stage comfortably with the likes of John McLaughlin and Black Sabbath, you know two things: They rock hard, yet provide enough harmonic content and improvisational daring to make it interesting. Norway’s Hedvig Mollestad Trio does precisely that on its sixth album. Recorded live in the studio, Smells Funny is a metal-jazz excursion that often tips into the Sonny Sharrock zone, fueled by Ellen Brekken’s rumbling bass, Ivar Loe Bjørnstad’s insistent pulse and Mollestad’s hellacious chops and fertile imagination… When Frank Zappa famously said, “Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny,” he was referring to a moldering of the music. The Hedvig Mollestad Trio aims at providing an antidote with this audacious outing.”
“The debut of Skog Under Jord is a hidden gem in the contemporary underground rock scene. The prog / psych of the Swedes is based on pure jamming character, with amazing flow and development and fiery changes. The typical dark melodiousness of the Nordic prog of the 70s reigns in both epics that make up this amazing album.”
“The band has been growing or cultivating a certain sound over the years, and I feel this has found its best form so far on ‘Dust Breathing’. This album sort of mirrors ‘States of Mind’, where I wanted to make the band into more of a collaborative group, and to step down from the bandleader role. The members have such strong musical personalities that the only way I had of getting that out of them was to open the gates and just record for days. We did some collaborative songwriting and lots of free improvisations, with the composition done in the post production, editing and mixing process. On ‘Dust Breathing’ I have tried to distil the type of music we created together on ‘States of Mind’, carefully keeping in mind the balance between composing/pre-directing/controlling and letting all band members act as equal contributors.”
“Norwegian trio Krokofant plays energetic and explosive jazz rock that is both free and structured.
Krokofant consists of Tom Hasslan (guitar), Jørgen Mathisen (saxophone) and Axel Skalstad (drums). They are heavily rooted in the 1970 jazz rock sound, with strong references to King Crimson, early Mahavishnu, John Zorn and Peter Brötzmann. An expression that hits both rock audiences and freejazzers. With a drummer sounding like a turbocharged hybrid of Keith Moon and Elvin Jones, Krokofant plays precise and heavy riffs that are redeemed by jarring and strong improvisations. Long, wild saxophone solos are matched by extremely creative, virtuoso guitar playing, without compromising on interaction and groove.”
“This Norwegian fusion quintet features the same instrumental lineup as Mahavishnu Orchestra, so comparisons to John McLaughlin’s legendary ’70s band are probably inevitable. But on the basis of Grand General’s eponymous 2013 Rune Grammofon debut, such comparisons would merely scratch the surface. The bandmembers have the chops to match any fusioneers past or present, but they’re also fond of the relentless rock pummel, undergirding their pyrotechnics with a powerful rhythm section possessing deep reserves of energy.”