Issue 2026-027

Alfio Costa & Stefano Piazzi — Morgana 1994 - 2024 An Unconventional Celebration

Jan Buddenberg

Where some ideas never lift off the ground, there are also those that are spontaneously formed and materialised within months. Such an occurrence took place in February 2024, when Alfio Costa (Daal, Fufluns, Tilion) met up with Stefano Piazzi to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Prowlers' debut album, Morgana, in which they were both involved.

Looking back on that time with a sense of aged melancholy and pride while enjoying their beers, they decided that evening to fully reinterpret this album, which ultimately resulted in Morgana 1994 - 2024 An Unconventional Celebration, released in 2025.

Joining Costa (piano, keyboards, vocals) and Piazzi (guitars, vocals) are Prowlers' original vocalist Laura Mombrini and Simone Colzani on drums and percussion. While their contributions are an essential part of the songs in which they feature, Colzani's overall contribution is relatively modest. He can only be heard in a few compositions, where his percussion adds extra depth, rhythm, and colourful vibrancy. The same goes for Mombrini, who through her wordless chanting voice lends a beautiful sense of ethereal supernaturalism to the songs in question.

The key ingredients defining these songs are Alfio's sensitive piano playing and his Roli Seaboard-generated sound collages, Piazzi's weeping guitar and his often soft and melancholic vocal parts, and the omnipresent psychedelic background vocals sung in Bergamo "English".

With respect for Morgana's original 1994 running order, the individual songs have all been fully deconstructed, experimentally washed, freshly rearranged with darkly shaded colouring agents, and finally reassembled with a sedative coating of dreamy drowsiness, polished with luminous melancholic sheen. Earth And Rain is a newly written composition shaped by a palpable sense of melancholy through bluesy guitar, piano, and mournful, hypnotising proclamations. The other resulting songs all flow seamlessly into one another and ultimately create the illusion that one is actually listening to a single, continuous composition. This feeling is further reinforced by the overall atmosphere these tracks collectively exude.

Staging the mood, Day After Day (Night After Night) opens with a nightmarishly creepy yet dreamily rich atmosphere, its lethargically developing melodies illuminated by classical piano and enveloped in eerie chants. I See Love In Your Eyes follows this by sharing warm Pink Floyd impressions with room for romantic piano, before its melodies ultimately drown in psychedelic, droning reverb generated by the Roli Seaboard. The mysteriously gripping Lookin' At The Sky provides a fascinating sonic montage of atmospheres that somehow brings both Costa's solo album Frammenti and several of Daal's cinematically orientated efforts to mind.

Solitude showcases a more song-oriented approach with dynamic percussion, tense psychedelic atmospheres created by alienating vocals, and a concluding melancholic closure shrouded in melodies that vaguely evoke thoughts of Pink Floyd during their pre-Obscured By Clouds era. Finally, Morgana's Shadows fittingly concludes the proceedings with a delightful shadow-play of light percussion, piano, and softly sung vocals, whose echoes mesmerically shift from left to right from time to time.

The short conclusion after all this is that Morgana 1994 - 2024 An Unconventional Celebration is a fascinating recreation of the original album that takes time and effort to digest and fathom. It certainly isn't an album to be listened to in the background, but one that frequently demands one's sharpest attention. My advice: take a seat and enjoy it in the dark with headphones and your beer of choice for a fully immersive, thoroughly tasty experience.

The Gatekeepers — Diary Of A Teenage Prophet

Edwin Roosjen

The Gatekeepers is a project by writer/director/composer Alex Wroten and features many contributors. With The Gatekeepers, Alex created a project with a mixture of rock, classical music and avant-garde chaos. This new album Diary Of A Teenage Prophet is the third instalment of a trilogy. It deals with the story of Bonnie Brown, a high school girl who is cryogenically frozen, to awaken 4000 years later to discover her high school diary is the basis of the world's major religious belief. I would not be surprised if the name Bonnie Brown was derived from the character Bobby Brown created by Frank Zappa. The music of The Gatekeepers sounds like, and has the same challenging complexity of some music created by Frank Zappa.

With Diary Of A Teenage Prophet the trilogy is completed that started in 2022 with The Gatekeepers and continued in 2024 with Nostalgia for the Great American Monoculture. Just like its predecessors, this new album features a huge collection of musicians with a wide variety. Lots of musicians from various jazz ensembles but also Duncan Mackay (Cockney Rebel, 10CC) and Morgan Agren (Kaipa, The Tangent, Karmakanic). For a complete list of the musicians and more information, I would like to refer to The Gatekeepers website.

The first thing I noticed about this album was the uplifting opening sounds. Some nice friendly chanting and all is very relaxed. With AP Doomsday there comes a twist in the sound. About the first album of The Gatekeepers, my reviewing colleague wrote: "The music is made to please the avant-fans and does not really care if the newcomers like it". This applies even more so for this new album. What at first sounds like a pleasant friendly album with nice melodies turns into a complex album with challenging compositions.

Compared to the previous albums by The Gatekeepers, the vocal lines are even more challenging, up to a point that to my taste it is overly complex. I do not mind some odd stuff, but on Diary Of A Teenage Prophet some tunes are just floating endlessly. Of course, this was to be expected from an album with Zappa influences and avant-garde choas. Their previous albums I could handle, on this new album I feel this is taken a step too far. I know these albums need a lot of spins, but even after really trying hard and listening to this album several times over, it just did not click with my taste.

This does not mean it won't click with yours. The Gatekeepers is a band for the fans of avant-garde music. The downside of reviewing is you don't have a year to let the album sink in. With Diary Of A Teenage Prophet the level of complexity has increased, and while I could handle their previous releases, this one feels overly complex. Probably a lot of readers reading this review will think this might be a perfect challenge for them. Check it out to see if you can handle it, for sure The Gatekeepers is an impressive project.

Kristoffer Gildenlöw — Humanised

Andy Read

Both myself and DPRP have followed Kristoffer Gildenlöw's career closely since he parted ways with his brother, Daniel, and Pain of Salvation after their fifth album, the confuddling Be in 2006.

A talented multi-instrumentalist and singer, Kristoffer had relocated to The Netherlands. He went on to record and tour with artists such as Neal Morse, Damien Wilson, Lana Lane, For All We Know, The Shadow Theory, and Epysode, as well as recording four albums as a member of Kayak.

The first album with which he could directly be associated was the one by Dial; the project with Liselotte Hegt which sadly only produced the one disc, Synchronized in 2007.

We had to wait much longer for his debut solo album, Rust in 2014. It was followed two years later by The Rain, and then we gave his third effort, Homebound a resounding 10 out of 10 in 2020.

His solo releases have tended towards a melancholic kind of progressive music for the soul. There is a strong leaning on the lyrics, and the music is heavily acoustic. I'd be reluctant to use the term "progressive rock", as little on these albums rock. I enjoyed Let Me Be A Ghost in 2021, while two years ago Empty infused a bit of blues into his styling.

Onto the present day, and I was particularly excited to hear that Kristoffer's sixth solo offering was being hailed as a return to his progressive-metal roots. That's because I have always considered his composition style and playing to have been a big factor in the sound of those early PoS records. The band certainly lost something when he left.

Even though his solo works have been gentler affairs, they usually retain something of the vibe from his days with his first band.

promo photo by DCH Photography

Anyway, my hopes were not disappointed. If, instead of Be, Humanised had been released by Pain of Salvation as their fifth album, no one would have batted an eyebrow. For sure, it brings in some fresh influences, to stand as a modern-day version of that formative progressive metal/heavy prog sound. But there is no doubting that Humanised is a very classy collection of songs.

I like to spin this as two sides of a vinyl. Rendering is an extended instrumental that builds carefully into three songs that perfectly meet my expectation of a return to the early sounds of Pain of Salvation. The Almosts is probably my favourite track.

Turn over in my head to Side B and Intermezzo is a gentler instrumental opening to the four remaining songs. The Fields stands out as a little different, bringing in some sleaze-rock styling to good effect. Binary invites some electronica to the party.

Before I Fall Asleep has a little more variety amidst the crafting of its complex rhythms. It's a slow grower. Actually, this might be my favourite song on Humanised. I dunno. I will probably have another favourite next week. This is an album definitely staying on my playlist for a long time.

I won't go into any more details, as it would spoil your pleasure in discovering the intricacies of these varied songs for yourselves.

Kristoffer has always brought in guests musicians on his solo works where needed. He never played in Pain of Salvation with Leo Margarit, but did on the three albums with For All We Know. So Margarit was the perfect drummer for these new songs.

Kristoffer did perform in Pain of Salvation with Daniel Magdic. The guitarist (now with PreHistoric Animals) contributes a guitar solo on Landfill. There is a similar contribution from Dutch guitarist Thijmen van der Meer, who will join Kristoffer's live band for some tour dates.

Those who've enjoyed the more laid-back energy of Kristoffer's previous solo albums might want to tread carefully with this one, especially if they dislike music with a more metallic edge. However, for prog-metal fans and heavy-prog aficionados who have a longing for music in the style of the first four Pain Of Salvation albums, then Humanised is an absolute banger of an album. Buy it blind. Trust me, it's that good.

Spirits Burning & Michael Moorcock — The End Of All Songs - Part 2

Jerry Kranitz

I discovered Michael Moorcock in the late 1970s when I was a member of the Science Fiction Book Club. I recall reading An Alien Heat and The Hollow Lands, which it would take until the internet era for me to understand were the first two books in Moorcock's The Dancers At The End Of Time, the trilogy chronicling the adventures of Jherek Carnelian and Mrs. Amelia Underwood. The End Of All Songs - Part 2 concludes Don Falcone's ambitious collaboration with Moorcock. Under the Spirits Burning & Michael Moorcock banner, they released An Alien Heat in 2018, The Hollow Lands in 2020, and The End Of All Songs - Part 1 in 2023. (The books were published in 1972, 1974 and 1976.)

As with all Spirits Burning albums, this 16-track set is chock-full of contributors from all walks of rock, prog, psychedelic and space rock life. We've got Albert Bouchard (Blue Oyster Cult), David Jackson (Van der Graaf Generator), Chas Cronk (Strawbs), Nick Saloman (Bevis Frond), Paul Sears (The Muffins), Dave Newhouse (The Muffins), Bridget Wishart (Hawkwind, Spirits Burning), Mr. Dibs (Hawkwind, Spacehead, Evil Blizzard), Scott Heller (Øresund Space Collective), Jonathan Segel (Camper Van Beethoven), and many more. Moorcock handles either lead, backing or co-vocals on all tracks (sung and spoken).

The album is a varied set of song-oriented rock / progressive / space / psychedelic music. When Will We Hear is a space-metal rocker that opens the set. I love the way Moorcock interacts with Susie Loraine on verse / chorus vocals on Remember Those Who Have Died At Least Once The vocals are just as critical as the music on this album.

Some of my favorites are the string of four acoustic psychedelic / folk-psych / folk-prog songs: The Ballad Of Lord Jagged Of Canaria, Forward To Go Back, Seven Days Of Infinity and A Flurry Of New Worlds. Other highlights include the intricately composed and intense Bring Back The Living. It's psychedelically bluesy, but also has a trippy Reggae-ish vibe. Bridget Wishart takes lead vocals and lightly soars in tandem with Jonathan Segel's violin and Jerry Jeter's guitar on As If Possessed. I like the ominous drone and vocal vibe of Peace & Love, as well as the saucy swinging elements of The Sun Had Risen.

This is as "concept album" as they come. Don and company do a great job of creating a music and lyrical thematic flow that tells the tale, which will please fans of the books and maybe tempt the Moorcock uninitiated. This and its Dancers At The End Of Time predecessors would make a great rock theatre production.

Sykofant — Red Sun Leaves

Ignacio Bernaola

When I reviewed Sykofant's debut a couple of years ago, I closed saying I had the feeling these Norwegians could improve on an already very interesting proposal. Well, here we are. Short version: they have, and by quite a margin.

A quick word on the format. Red Sun Leaves is their sophomore album, but it first came out as two EPs, Red Sun in 2025 and Leaves in early 2026. Two complementary sides of the same coin, as the band puts it, and that's how it plays. The first half punches harder, the second half breathes and opens up. As a full album, it makes much more sense.

The first thing that grabs you is the playing. These four guys are seriously good, and they don't make a fuss about it. Tempo changes happen because the song needs them, not to fit in another time signature. Prog, a jazzy passage here, a heavier section there, all of it flows. Emil Moen's voice is one of the album's quiet weapons, warm and full of character, and the harmonies and choirs add real depth. I love how they fit into the songs.

The reference points are spread all over the record rather than locked into specific tracks. The Pink Floyd flavour is very present in Red Sun, but also in the dreamier passages of Heart of the Woods and in many of the guitar tones. The Rush vibe shows up in how the rhythm section locks in on the heavier moments. Add a psychedelic streak running through the whole thing, a good dose of classic hard rock with a touch of Deep Purple here and there, and the kind of heavy, hypnotic groove that fans of Elder will pick up straight away.

And somehow Sykofant never sound like a copy of anyone. The second half is where the surprise really kicked in. Roots and Canopy and Mycelium March are two short pieces, very different from each other and both entertaining, almost like the band is clearing the room. And then comes Heart of the Woods, sixteen minutes long and the kind of song that makes you stop whatever you're doing. Everything above is in there, developed with a maturity I didn't see coming so soon. It will end up on plenty of "best songs of the year" lists. Mine for sure.

The production is excellent throughout, with room for every instrument and the choirs sitting nicely in the mix. Where does this leave Sykofant? In the conversation for albums of the year, for me. Recommended for anyone who likes prog with actual rock in it, has a soft spot for Floyd or Rush, and isn't allergic to a necessary bit of psychedelia. That promising debut wasn't a one-off, and Sykofant are clearly here to stay. So let me borrow my own closing from that debut review: let's see what they have planned next, because I have the feeling they can improve on this one too.

Duo Review

Yes — Aurora

Patrick McAfee

In recent comments, Steve Howe noted that Aurora, represents the band “carrying the spirit of Yes forward” but not trying to “echo the past.” That is an honorable aspiration, but his words could also be viewed as an attempt to set realistic expectations. Understandably, every Yes album of the past three decades has been released under the daunting shadow of the band's golden age of the 70s and 80s. Regardless of who is in the line-up at any given time, a high standard of expectation comes with the moniker.

Does Aurora meet that standard? Notwithstanding unfair comparisons to classics such as Close to the Edge, this is a very entertaining modern-day Yes album. It is admirable that this incarnation of the band continues to create new music, and they've hit their stride with this release.

The opening title track immediately impresses with its cinematic approach, solid songwriting and flawless production. Other highlights include the infectious Turnaround Situation, Ariadne, with its majestic orchestration and the upbeat Love Lies Dreaming.

Countermovement is the fourteen-minute centrepiece of the album. Effectively melding nostalgic elements with strong performances, it compares favorably to many of the better Yes epics. The band shakes up expectations with the hard rocking All Hands On Deck and the quirky, mostly instrumental Outside The Box. Rounding out this strong album is Emotional Intelligence, a wistful tune composed by singer Jon Davison.

The bonus tracks consist of Jambusting, a lighthearted romp and the exceptional Watching The River Roll which deserved to be included within the main track listing.

Successfully embracing the band's legacy while also pushing boundaries, this album finds them clearly refusing to rest on their laurels. That alone is worthy of celebration! Ultimately, Aurora is a strong validation of the continued significance of Yes and one of the best releases of 2026 thus far.