Issue 2024-094
Breeze — Echoes From A Distant Past
Breeze was founded in 2000 in Hannover, Germany by Hansi Arnold (drums and vocals) and Ottfried Mietzke (guitars, bass & keyboards). They have released six albums since 2015. Although intended as a recording project, the band has played live with various line-ups.
Ottfried has a prolific side project, entitled simply Mietzke. This has produced 13 releases combining classical music and progressive rock. They are available on Bandcamp. There are also two albums under the David And The Theater of Twilight banner.
This is the first time that DPRP has encountered any of these bands/projects. So let's jump in and see what we have with the latest Breeze release.
From what I can make out from quick scans of previous releases, Breeze like to sway between numerous genres.
Their debut offering, The King Of The Forest is self-described as "a fantasy concept album". Their most recent, Caligo, has more of a prog-metal approach. The variation is aided by Breeze utilising different vocalists across their career; male and female.
Their new offering changes the line-up again with David Barratt being credited as the new singer on half of the tracks. Hansi and Ottfried seem to handle most of the instruments, with three guests brought-in on selected tracks. Hansi is the singer on the other half of the album.
There also seems to be a change in the sound, as this sits towards a very light-weight neo-prog. The use of guitar is minimal, the compositions are never complex nor heavy, and the orchestral keyboards are allowed to provide the main texture.
And there are some very enjoyable neo-prog-lite songs to enjoy here. Opener From The Witchwood has the most memorable melody and maintains one's attention through its extended play-time. David Barratt's vocal and the sharp harmonies suit the music perfectly. This song should appeal to fans of early Pallas, Marillion, IQ and especially Twelfth Night.
Deadliest Creature and The Harbour are both led by piano and voice. The first has a haunting vibe with keys providing an orchestral sub-text. The second is rather beautiful thanks to Barratt's wistful vocal. However, it is too short and needed to develop some extra musical ideas to avoid being dismissed as one-dimensional.
The Last Time introduces some Fish-esque theatricality. The circus vibe to the backing keyboards adds to the story being told. The Inner Light is another very ambient song, where acoustic guitar and some pastoral sounds add interest. Barratt really does have a lovely soft touch to his voice.
Now, the observant among you will have noticed that in dishing out praise, I have selected every other track (one, three, five, seven, and nine).
That's because Barratt sings on these. The others feature Breeze mainman Hansi Arnold. Let's just say that his voice has a relationship with tuning that I do not appreciate.
Recognising that limitation is I guess the reason for Breeze bringing in a guest singer. So why that singer has not been used on every song is a mystery. Especially when David Barratt really delivers on the five tracks on which he does appear. Bizarre.
It's not just the vocals on these other five songs that disappoint. None of the compositions nor the playing on this album are particularly adventurous, but the five songs with Barratt did feature some nice touches and variation that helped to tell the stories.
On the five tracks featuring Arnold, a sluggish pace and tediously-plodding rhythms are the norm. When Angels Travel is like lift music. It's so trying to be inoffensive, that it becomes highly-offensive. With 12-minutes ahead of me on the final song Rain, I couldn't get past the opening vocal line.
So as they say elsewhere, this is a game of two halves. Five tracks deliver some very listenable neo-prog-lite, with the opening track well worth a listen. As for the other half, I'd strongly recommend that you try before you buy.
Castle Mountain Moon — Six Tales Of Perception
2024 is almost at a close. Yet by the looks of it I will be busy well into the new year before I can actually round off this exceptional prog year in terms of reviews. Especially when such delightful efforts like Castle Mountain Moon's debut keep on appearing on my radar. An excellent and perfectly recommendable album that I instantly took a shine to.
Behind Castle Mountain Moon (CMM) one finds Dirk Krause (vocals, guitar, bass) and Robert Köhler (keys) who in December 2023 set out to compose, record and then finalise a three-track EP in a three-month time span. Creative juices flowing they however within that time frame ended up with six songs. Upon which they decided their band name and then ask Gerry Wasong (drums), Frank Piontkowski (cello) and Johanna Köhler (trombone) for assistance in completing their debut Six Tales Of Perception.
Conceptually reflecting on how we as humans perceive our world and ultimately ourselves, it is in the opening overture Perception that CMM promptly shift their starting perspective to a realm in close vicinity to Cygnus X-1. At least, that the impression given through foreboding sound fragments, the intro's omnipresent dark and tension building spacious atmospheres, and the actual voice over that resonates deeply with Rush's namesake composition.
Blue Sky Machine quickly zooms in on earth and following a crystal clear EM intro soothingly pick up melodic pace. Excellent harmonies and musically still manoeuvring well within the greyish atmosphere spectrum, the intricately construed bridge here leads into a lovely dreamy passage that thrives on delightful synths. Graciously flowing guitar melodies instigates memories of Barclay James Harvest, late era Anyone's Daughter, Camel and Leo Cornicella.
The outstanding Elephant surpasses this great start many times over. Spooky, with epic grand ghoulishness complemented by suspenseful piano parts at the start. this beautifully construed composition showcases plenty of dynamic melodic diversions and pleasing melodies that compels with vintage organ-driven IQ attraction. Although the overall impression that the seamlessly accomplished transitions and the vocalised drama brings into view is the delicious resemblance to Crayon Phase. Completed in beauty through rich vocal deliveries, and rounding off with a rerun of its captivating opening statement, this is without doubt my personal favourite on the album.
Fly offers sparkling, almost Christmas-like keyboard play. The progressive crossover style is reminiscent of Asia in both drive and vocal delivery. It also provides plenty of harmonious highlights to please (neo)-progressive rock fans. Within this well-composed song, Krause's steady vocal qualities akin to Greg lake also comes strongly to the fore. As well as his smooth guitar sound and the beautiful classical symphonic influences that steers my thoughts towards recollections of contemporary Comedy Of Errors efforts.
Over the next two songs, To The Moon and Who?, it's neigh impossible to then avoid an association with Pink Floyd and Glorious Wolf. First, thanks to the brooding slow moving atmospheres created. And second, because of the lovely bluesy guitar solos in style of David Gilmour that both songs are blessed with. To make it all the more interesting, it is in To The Moon that impressions of The Flower Kings come into view. In Who?, the lush synth-driven melodies and classical injections featuring church organ adds another charming moment of Eloy and Comedy of Errors respectively.
Suddenly finally parts saddening ways with melancholic melodies, emotional cello, and acoustics, guided by minimal classic piano, soothingly flows into a grand emotively growing orchestrated finale. The wonderful guitar solo in spirit of John Lees (BJH). This magnificent and well-written composition marks a fantastic moving conclusion to the album and similar to Elephant shows great promise and huge potential.
Captured in production values that beautifully strengthens the shadier aspects of the comfortingly soothing melodies, I'll round up by saying that the continuously growing Six Tales Of Perception has provided me with many satisfying listening hours. If you're a fan of neo-progressive rock that includes the likes of Starfish 64, Red Sand, and the many names mentioned above you will likely experience the same satisfaction. Bring on album number two!
Isbjörg — Falter, Endure
At the end of my review of Isbjörg's full length debut album Iridescent I stated that "I feel that a masterpiece by Isbjörg may only be two or three more releases away", and that still holds. Falter, Endure sees the extremely high standard of Iridescent continued and is so close to standing up to all those absolute classics of song-focused heavy prog.
This second album sees Isbjörg adding in a more heavy prog feel by turning up the twin guitars in their line-up (Dines Dahl Karlsen, Lasse Gitz Thingholm), letting them loose on some magnificent riffing, but still accommodating the signature piano of Mathias Bro Jørgensen. Also remaining in the line-up are the hard hitting rhythms and melodic bass of Frederik Ølund Uglebjerg and Mathias Schouv Kjeldsen.
Isbjörg (promo photo)
Since their debut though, Isbjörg have gained a new singer, Jonathan Kjærulff Skovlund. His vocals are strong, melodic, wide-ranging and very listenable. Possibly the best and most engaging new, at least to me, vocalist I've heard since I first heard Teramaze's vocalist Brett Rerekura back in 2014.
On Falter, Endure you get a superb collection of powerful prog songs full to the brim of energetic riffs, pounding but often subtle piano, cracking vocals and vocal harmonies. Structured with complex arrangements that are consistently engaging and often surprising. Helped by brilliant production and a clear warm mix.
Along the way Isbjörg add in other colours. Saxophone on Solitaire and female dual lead vocals on the beautiful Inure. The closer The River Of You sees them consolidating and making them their own, the kind of nuances found in Anathema, Riverside, Porcupine Tree and RPWL. They are not a band for lengthy solos if that is your thing. Instead, they concentrate on the songs and weaving their melodic magic.
Isbjörg's Falter, Endure improves on their last album, as difficult as that task might seem to be if you are at all familiar with Iridescent. Falter, Endure is a hairs breadth away from being the only album you absolutely need to hear this year.
Timelock — Atomic Swap
Timelock saw the light of day in the early nineties, when Julian Driessen (keyboards) and Ruud Stoker (vocals), who had been playing together covering top-40 songs after their original outfits Ywis and Harvest disbanded, decided to form a new band, involving other members of those two bands. As Timelock, they released two albums in the fist half of the nineties and two in 2002 and 2008 respectively, before going on a long hiatus which ended in 2021, when the two founding members revitalised the band. It now includes previous Timelock members Rob Boshuizen (drums and percussion), formerly with Dutch peers ICE and Maryson, and Martin Hendriks (guitars), plus newcomers Laura Eradus (backing vocals, lead vocals on track 4), Coby van Oorschot (backing vocals), Arjan van den Bosch (orchestral keyboards and piano), and David Guurink (bass). This line-up released two albums, Sygn Yn, and Contemporary Vintage, plus one EP ...Stay Awake..., reviewed positively also on this site.
Timelock used an expression from the world of cryptocurrencies as eponym for their most recent release. Not being very familiar with this matter, I learned that atomic swaps "are a way for two people to trade tokenized assets across different blockchain networks without relying on a centralized intermediary." Not having discovered any connection with cryptos in the songs' lyrics, I join some peer reviewers' interpretation that the album's title relates to the musicians' ability and willingness to exchange musical ideas and preferences among themselves in all kind of directions within a process of creativity.
This process of creativity has resulted in the realisation of a fruitful combination of various prog sub-genres. For me, the dominating one is neo-prog with its style-defining elements: atmospheric guitar and synths soloing, floating keyboard layers neither sounding vintage nor analogue, emphasis on melodic elements. Hence, there a similarities with the familiar neo-prog names such as Jadis, Pendragon, and Marillion, with the Dutch peers Triangle, Knight Area, and Plackband amongst others, plus those mentioned above in which some of the Timelock musicians were previously based.
However, Timelock's music also incorporates some harder-sounding elements, such as it was and is known from bands like Twelfth Night, and Pallas but also from mid-period Eloy. The presence of a dedicated musician for orchestral keyboards suggests a reference to symphonic prog as well, although that style's characteristics, such as complex time signatures, and long song formats, whilst being present, are not very pronounced in my opinion. The border between neo and symphonic prog is hard to draw anyway. Although counting as "neo-prog", Atomic Swap displays some retro feel for me, their music reminding me of what some prog bands were doing at the beginning of the eighties. Additionally, there are hints at the guitar playing of Pink Floyd and the drama inherent in some of Steve Wilson's songs as well. Lost In Your Mind is the best example for that and is my favourite track.
The album offers a good mix of longer, slightly more elaborated, and shorter, more compact and dense songs. While all of them bear the label neo-prog, some, such as Stranger Within, and Watch The Crime (Do We Care) show a higher degree of complexity (without being over-complicated, though, everything stays at an accessible and straightforward level) than one would expect from an average track of that style of prog.
Others, such a Baychimo, A Passage To Rapa Nui, and especially Until Darkness Calls are moving into straightforward rock terrain. What I am missing a bit altogether are the stellar moments, the "wow-effect" in the songwriting. Except Lost In Your Mind — great vocals! No doubt, this is a very solid, and varied album with catchy melodies, but not in a way that made them stay in my mind for a long time.
I very much enjoy what I do as a reviewer of prog rock albums. It gives me the opportunity to constantly discover and intensively deal with new releases, to indulge in one of my favourite pastimes "listening to progressive rock", and to share my passion for that kind of music with existing and would-be fans visiting our site. However, every now and then, in reviewing an album I am confronted with what I call the "subjectivity / objectivity dilemma", causing me to look at an album from two different perspectives. Atomic Swap by Timelock is such a case where this dilemma came to the surface.
Objectively speaking, this album offers no reason whatsoever to complain. It is performed by experienced, and talented musicians without gallery play, melodic, accessible, easy to listen to, varied, unpretentious but efficient. From a subjective point of view, it grew upon me after repeated listening, but I didn't really manage to make friends with it. And I cannot even tell exactly why! Is it the absence (to my ears) of goosebumps-producing hooks and choruses? The perceived lack of delicacy and subtleties here and there? The wall-of-sound keyboards that sometimes seem to wrap the music in cotton wool and to polish away the rough edges? Probably a litte bit of all of that.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution to resolve that dilemma: forming your own individual opinion. Let me thus encourage you prog fans to put your headphones on, to listen attentively to Atomic Swap and to confirm the truism that ultimately it comes down to the individual taste and impression in valuing a piece of music.
The Windmill — Mindscapes
Prog sweet tooths, rejoice!
Not getting the hype it deserves (or on the contrary, enjoying the well-deserved lack of unnecessary attention) the Norwegian sextet The Windmill continues releasing quiet symphonic prog masterpieces in 2024, nailing it yet another time. If you don't have time to read further, this statement, basically, is a synopsis of the entire review, by the way. Indeed, Mindscapes, despite being an awfully banal prog title (come on, it's already 2025 around the corner, we're not in 2003 any more!), offer some of the best sympho of the year, or, could be, of the third decade of the century.
If you are familiar with the previous releases (To Be Continued and The Continuation, both reviewed by Gert Hulshof), you should know what to expect from the band. This relative predictability is probably the only “stain” on the otherwise wonderful tapestry, weaved by the Norwegians. Take Karfagen/Sunchild romantic and mysterious atmosphere, add Guy Manning/Damanek's taste for melody and flute parts, mix it with well-thought compositions in the vein of Unitopia and Neal Morse. Enjoy the final result as a prog equivalent of a multi-level Swiss chocolate dessert. Yes, it's a “high-calories” music, very rich in texture, not for everyday consumption, but absolutely irresistible all the same. If you assume that the release is a lengthy one, no, on the contrary. The band manages to say everything it wants during a brief 40-minute run, and it's a perfectly good timing for holding a listener's attention.
All the four tracks hold their precious individuality and mutually complement each other, starting with the superb 22-minute Fear. Opening with Pendragon-style synths in the intro and a dreamy, slightly Camel-esque first singing part, the epic gains pace from there and features a load of good ideas, dynamical variety and emotion. Erik Borgen behind the microphone rack sounds quite competent with his melodic voice, somewhat close to Edward Reekers of Kayak / Ayreon fame and Matt Trueack from Unitopia. The song itself easily reaches the same level with epics from Transatlantic and Phideaux.
The second track, Calton Hill features an infectiously groovy bass line and a curious mix of retro-Hammond and modern synths, flirting with pop-prog. I Still Care takes the band to piano-driven-ballad territory, reminding me a bit of Arena's slower and more lyrical numbers, and the closing Nothing in Return is an emotional pinnacle of the record, a dark rocker with more groove riffs, superb singing from Erik and equally stellar flute playing.
A few words should be said about the flute parts. It's commonplace to compare every new flute-featured prog with Tull, but here Morten Clason manages to sound really very close to Ian Anderson's style, with the same playful and mostly aggressive approach, featuring a lot of “grace notes” (see the closing track, for instance). However, when the music requires it, he easily shifts to Latimer / Gabriel approach, making the instrument sound more tender and elegiac. It's not often you have a flute player of that flexibility! And this should not overshadow the fact that the rest of the team is equally competent in their musical trades.
Along with Karfagen, Cast and fellow countrymen from Wobbler, The Windmill continue to carry the classic sympho-prog flag high. Nostalgic prog purists may be scared off by modern synths and pop influences, modern prog lovers may find Mindscapes too conservative (no breakdowns! no alternative riffs!), but I wholeheartedly enjoyed every minute of playtime.