Category: progressive rock

Vangelis – The Dragon (1978)

1978 Greece progressive rock Vangelis No Comments

“The Dragon is the second of the pair of illegally-released Vangelis LPs (Hypothesis is the other one) that came out in 1978 but was recorded in June 1971. This album includes Vangelis, Silver Koulouris on guitar, Michel Ripoche on violin, Brian Odger on bass guitar and Mick Waller on drums. It was produced by Giorgio Gromelsky and recorded at Marquee Studios in London. Unlike Hypothesis, The Dragon has a more Greek flavor to it, consisting of three tracks, the side long jam title track, the spaced-out “Stuffed Aubergine” and the upbeat “Stuffed Tomato”. This album was also subject of a lawsuit filed by Vangelis and fellow musicians against Charly Records Ltd. After they won, future manufacturing of the album stopped.”

Spook – Spook (2022)

2022 Belgium jazz fusion progressive rock Spook 4 Comments

“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.”

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Agusa – Prima Materia (2023)

2023 Agusa progressive rock Sweden 1 Comment

“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.”

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Diagonal – Live in Leeds 2012 (2021)

2021 Diagonal jazz fusion progressive rock UK 1 Comment

“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.”

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Hedvig Mollestad Trio – Smells Funny (2018)

2018 Hedvig Mollestad Trio jazz fusion Norway progressive rock 1 Comment

“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.”

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Møster! – Dust Breathing (2020)

2020 jazz fusion Møster! Norway progressive rock 3 Comments

“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.”

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Krokofant – Q (2019)

2019 jazz fusion Krokofant Norway progressive rock 1 Comment

“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.”

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