Abacus - Destiny ($15.99)
Titles are arranged alphabetically with the latest additions highlighted in yellow.
Abacus - Destiny ($15.99) Abacus formed in 1971 with both German and English members, but the version of the band that released Destiny (2010) is all-German. Still, they sound British. The music here is AOR-flavored progressive rock, between ELP and the first Asia album, between Yes and 90125 Yes. Abacus put their more radio-friendly material (radio-friendly for circa 1980 that is) in the first half of the CD, then acquit themselves nicely in the second half with excellent symphonic rock tracks, especially The Light (13:21) and The Fight (8:24), which are not as vocal-heavy as the earlier tracks. The shortest track is 6:53, so maybe not so radio-friendly after all.
Abarax - Blue Room ($15.99) Abarax are a six-man band that includes four members of the same family: father and three sons! They are very Pink Floyd influenced. They’re German, so by association one could also compare them to Eloy, Solar Project, or RPWL (minus the playfulness and Beatles influence). Abarax are very good at this style, with excellent lead guitar and strong harmony vocals, at times quite majestic and beautiful.
Their 2006 debut Crying of the Whales is out-of-print. Blue Room (2010) is their second. Here Abarax take the Pink Floyd influence much more in the direction of Jane, early Eloy, and other similar 1970s German symphonic bands. With the 70s fuzz guitar tone, roaring Hammond organ, and a harmony vocal style that also belongs to the period, this is utterly convincing as a 1970s German progressive rock record, except that at 58-minutes it’s too long to be an LP!
Adaro - Schlaraffenland ($15.99) Adaro (who disbanded in 2006) were arguably the most important band in the German Mittelalterrock (medieval rock) genre. The bands in this movement run the gamut from folk to metal, with most on the heavy end of the spectrum. Adaro were the proggiest of the bunch, simply more sophisticated, nuanced and sensitive than the metal-oriented bands. Adaro feature male and female vocals singing German texts from the 13th-14th centuries or thereabouts. They augment the usual rock instrumentation (including electronics) with hurdy-gurdy (sometimes run through guitar effects), crumhorn, flute, recorders, bombard and bagpipes. Issued in 2004, Words Never Spoken extended edition takes Adaro’s 1999 four-track EP and adds a whole lot of high-quality 2004 live material until the CD is bursting at 78-minutes. Schlaraffenland (2004) is their final studio album. The title translates to Cockaigne or Cockayne, a medieval mythical land of plenty. Both CDs are varied and a few tracks are better skipped, but overall Adaro were a special band. Ritchie Blackmore is a big fan, and fans of Blackmore’s Night should definitely give Adaro a listen. Read the DPRP review of Schlaraffenland. And if you can’t find loads of Adaro’s songs on YouTube, you’re just not trying.
Agitation Free - Live ’74 (At the Cliffs of River Rhine) ($16.99) 
Agitation Free - Malesch ($16.99)These are the 2008 remastered digipack reissues on SPV’s Revisited Records label of some classic Krautrock albums. Malesch (1972) was Agitation Free’s first, followed by 2nd (1973). They are notable for combining cosmic synth work with Middle Eastern motifs, the ethnic element more prominent on Malesch. The music features that typical Krautrock blend of extended psychedelic jams, laid-back attitude and grooves, and experimentation. The presence of acoustic guitars and bouzouki (more prominent on 2nd) emphasizes the easygoing nature of the music, along with Stefan Diez’s elegant guitar soloing, while occasional free-form passages keep things on the edge. It runs the gamut from pure Krautrock to prog rock and fusion. The band’s synthesist was Michael Hoenig, who later had brief collaborations with Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Manuel Gottsching; released the well-known Berlin School Departure from the Northern Wasteland, then moved to the U.S. to compose film and television scores. Malesch has a 15-minute bonus track plus a bonus Quicktime video. 2nd has a 7:42 bonus track.
Last was released posthumously in 1976, its three (two very long) tracks recorded at two concerts and in the studio. It is more cosmic and electronic than the earlier albums, closer to Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, and Yatha Sidra. This CD adds an 11-minute 1971 bonus track.
Live ’74 (At the Cliffs of River Rhine) was originally released in 1998 and contains a 1974 concert plus a 9-minute 1972 live bonus track. The 1974 concert has excellent sound and contains four tracks from 2nd plus one unreleased. This is considered the essential Agitation Free live recording.
Alias Eye - In-Between ($13.99) 
A Different Point of You (2003) is the second album from a very good German neo-prog band that shares lead singer Philip Griffiths with the band Poor Genetic Material. Philip’s father Martin was the singer for Beggars Opera, a Scottish early-70s prog band. The music has some of the laid-back Pink Floyd atmosphere, also a bit of Kansas, Saga, and Spock’s Beard, and like the great 1970s prog bands, the musician’s skills serve the song rather than a technical exercise. The CD is well recorded, quite arty and finely crafted. Because both Alias Eye and Poor Genetic Material rely heavily on Griffiths’ excellent voice, fans of one band will probably like the other as well. Alias Eye is a bit more mainstream than PGM, but the appeal is similar.
In late 2005, Alias Eye’s guitarist left and they found a new one shortly after. As a result, their album In Focus (2006) reveals a heavier Alias Eye, and they’ve adopted more of the contemporary prog sound, i.e., harder-edged and not as symphonic or as warm. It varies quite a bit from track to track though, as a few tracks are prog-metal while the majority thankfully omit the metal. Most of the positive qualities from the previous Alias Eye albums are further developed here, and Griffiths sounds stronger than ever.
In-Between (2012) is “a return to the melody-driven arrangements of their debut Field of Names, while retaining the heaviness of In Focus. In-Between highlights Alias Eye’s approach to songwriting: strong vocal hook lines are paired with lavish choir arrangements and meticulously arranged instrumental passages.” The album includes a new rendition of Beggars Opera’s classic Time Machine, featuring both original singer Martin Griffiths and son Philip on the vocals. Read reviews of all their CDs.
Amon Düül II - Vortex ($16.99)
Amon Düül II - Pyragony ($16.99)
Amon Düül II - Hijack ($16.99)
Amon Düül II - Tanz der Lemminge ($16.99) These are the 2005-2008 remastered editions on Revisited Records. Each comes in a digipack with an enhanced booklet and liner notes, and most have several bonus tracks. Amon Düül II was one of the pioneering Krautrock bands. Even when singing in English, they were uniquely German, playing a light progressive style with avant-garde elements.
Yeti (1970) was Amon Düül II’s second album, originally a 2LP and now a 68-minute CD. It is a definitive Krautrock album, containing some structured songs but mostly long improvised psychedelic jams. Tanz der Lemminge (Dance of the Lemmings) followed in 1971, another 2LP now a 69-minute CD. It’s probably the best of their first three albums, after which the band started focusing more on structured songs and less on drugs. These two albums are definitely products of their time.
Wolf City (1973) was their fifth studio album and may be the best introduction to Amon Düül II for those coming from the symphonic prog side of things. The songs here are more concise, as opposed to the long improvisations of the earlier albums. An excellent and unique blend of progressive rock, psychedelic rock, and psych-folk.
Vive La Trance (1974) was their sixth studio album and has four bonus tracks added. This album sees the band turning to more song-based structures and mostly shorter tracks, reining in their excessively avant-garde and psychedelic tendencies. It’s still unconventional enough to belong in the progressive realm, as even the more straightforward material tends to have a veneer of electronic or psychedelic effects.
Their seventh studio album Hijack (1974) is not one of their best, but despite some misfires, it’s not a bad listen. Lemmingmania (1975) was a compilation of the band’s shorter acid rock classics and included four tracks that had only been available on singles. This reissue adds four bonus tracks plus a bonus video.
Made In Germany (1975) was originally a double-LP; this CD contains all of it. This album is usually considered to be the last absolute classic in the Amon Düül II catalog. In a few short years, Amon Düül II had become a completely different band than the one that recorded their first album Phallus Dei. Made In Germany is a conceptual work, almost a musical, a tongue-in-cheek look at German history. It features solid songwriting that is uniquely German, with orchestrations, lovely vocals from Renate Knaup, and spacey instrumental breaks.
Pyragony or Pyragony X (1976) immediately faced mixed criticism from the press and the loyal Amon Düül II fanbase. Here Amon Düül II began to attempt more conventional symphonic prog, which fans of the early albums considered to be too commercial. Maybe if they had changed the name of the band at this point to Amon Düül III, these later albums would have been reviewed more even-handedly.
While Almost Alive (1977) and Only Human (1978) may be considered to be after the classic period of the band, prog fans more interested in symphonic rock than Krautrock or psych will probably like these more. The significant change is the addition of keyboardist/vocalist Stefan Zauner, who joined the band for their 1976 album Pyragony X. While Only Human is their most mainstream record, incorporating styles not typical of the Amon Düül II sound, it is also their most symphonic. It still manages to remain experimental, comical, and unique, sounding quite a bit like Zauner’s excellent Prism & Views solo album, recorded around the same time. The bonus tracks on both Almost Alive and Only Human are in the older Amon Düül II style. Zauner is in a guest role on Vortex (1981), which was an attempt by Chris Karrer to reform the band, and the only album they recorded in the 1980s. While the reformation didn’t last, the album itself is successful.
Amon Duul - Airs on a Shoe String ($11.99) The German Amon Düül II ended after Vortex, but a British incarnation followed that included Hawkwind’s Dave Anderson, who had been a member of Amon Düül II prior to his tenure with Hawkwind. Advertised as a “best of”, this is actually a collection of previously-unreleased tracks from that early 1980s UK line-up. This is the Abstract Sounds USA edition.
Anyone’s Daughter - Calw Live (2CD, $19.99) 
Anyone’s Daughter - Requested Document Live 1980-1983 Vol. 2 (CD+DVD, $18.99)Anyone’s Daughter was Germany’s best Genesis-style symphonic rock group, who sang their first two albums in English, then switched to German for the last three (of the original lineup). Why this band isn’t much better known among prog fans is a mystery as there are few newer bands producing music on this level. Adonis (1979) is their first, an excellent album in a symphonic rock style close to Grobschnitt circa Rockpommel’s Land and Merry-Go-Round, though Anyone’s Daughter would develop a more distinctive and personal style on their German-language albums. Piktors Verwandlungen (1981) is their third, based on the Herman Hesse fairy tale. It was their first German language album, though on this album the vocals are primarily spoken word, and the album is heavily instrumental. It was recorded live but sounds like a studio album. It’s common to take longer to get into this Anyone’s Daughter album as it’s not song-based like their others, but it is the favorite of many. It is widely considered a masterpiece of German progressive rock, packed with grandiose atmospheric music and magical passages.
These are the remastered editions of Adonis and Piktors Verwandlungen on the Tempus Fugit label. Both come in jewel box + slipcase with a concert poster and booklet that includes new liner notes and unseen photos. Adonis has two long live non-LP bonus tracks plus a video track, about 27 minutes in all. Piktors has a 27-minute bonus track, a 1977/78 demo version of what would become the Piktors album.
The full artist name for the Calw Live 2CD is Anyone’s Daughter mit (with) Heinz Rudolf Kunze. With more than 30,000 copies sold, Piktors Verwandlungen is Anyone’s Daughter’s most successful release. In the summer of 2002, on the 125th anniversary of Herman Hesse’s birth, Anyone’s Daughter performed Piktors Verwandlungen in Hesse’s birth town of Calw in the Black Forest region. They performed the entire concept album, framed by three older songs and a few tracks from their latest release Danger World. German master poet Heinz Rudolf Kunze, himself a fan of Hesse and with his charismatic timbre destined to recite Hesse’s text, joined the band for this concert. A rapt audience of over 9000 witnessed this historic spectacle on the market square of Calw. Kunze spoke Hesse’s words which had been fluidly woven into the piece. The unforgettable concert reached its finale with the John Lennon song Imagine. This 2011 double-CD contains the entire concert.
Requested Document Live 1980-1983 Vol. 2 is a CD plus a DVD. (Assume the DVD is PAL. There is no indication on the packaging, but there was an NTSC version which did indicate that.) The CD includes 13 live tracks from Anyone’s Daughter’s heyday, four of which are previously-unreleased. One of those is a cover of UK’s In the Dead of Night translated into German! The DVD is of the band preforming in Frankfurt in 1981, over two hours long. It’s not the best quality, but the material is priceless, including a complete 40-minute Piktors Verwandlungen, 28-minute Adonis I-IV, Moria, an early version of their masterpiece Tanz und Tod (a track we’d want on our desert island jukebox), and much more.
Apogee - Mystery Remains ($15.99) 
Apogee - Sisyphos ($14.99)Arne Schäfer is the leader, along with keyboardist Ekkehard Nahm, of the German band Versus X (see below). Apogee is the solo vehicle for Schäfer, though on The Garden of Delights (2003, 70-minutes) he is assisted by Versus X drummer Uwe Völlmar, and in practice Apogee and Versus X sound pretty similar. Schäfer handles keyboards, guitars, and vocals. The five ambitious symphonic pieces on The Garden of Delights express Schäfer’s thoughts on the human race, conscience, and perception. Schäfer’s lyrics and vocal style are in the verbose Peter Hammill style, and there is a strong Van der Graaf Generator influence along with King Crimson and the darker side of Genesis. Apogee offer complex, sophisticated structures and musical themes, shifting atmospheres, airy acoustic and intense electric passages, enveloped by Mellotron (lots of Mellotron!), organ, and other keyboard sounds, and enhanced by subtle dissonances.
The Border of Awareness (1995, 76-minutes) and Sisyphos (1998, 64-minutes) are earlier albums in a similar style. On the Aftertaste (2006, 68-minutes) is not actually a new Apogee album but rather contains material recorded during the sessions for The Border of Awareness and Sisyphos.
The drums on Mystery Remains (2009, 69-minutes) are divided between Völlmar and new Versus X drummer Thomas Reiner. This album is not a departure in style except that the lyrics, though still verbose, flow more naturally as does the music itself. The sophisticated orchestrations are one of the things that distinguishes Apogee from Versus X, and they are very good here.
Argos - Circles ($15.99) Argos’ self-titled 2008 debut CD may be the most British-sounding progressive rock record to come out of Germany. It was keyboard-dominated and 1970s-styled, with vocals in English from a singer who sounds sort of like a cross between Peter Gabriel and Pye Hastings. The music displayed influences of Genesis, Camel, Caravan, Hatfield and the North, and Stackridge. Argos’ MySpace page lists other influences as well, of which Fruupp and England are also good references. One of the characteristics of much classic British prog is whimsy, which Argos have understood.
Circles (2010, 59-minutes), their second, is even better. All those British influences are again very strong. When Argos do Peter Hammill, there’s no mistaking it -- it’s almost better than the real thing. The Canterbury styles are still there, old Genesis is still there. To some extent, you could call Argos the German equivalent of The Tangent, in that it’s all about classic British progressive rock done extremely well. If your first love is 1970s British prog, this music provides that magical feeling -- you can’t say exactly what it is, but you know it when you hear it. Part of it is emotional warmth, an accusation rarely leveled at modern-style prog. Musea didn’t keep the first Argos CD in print for even two years, so don’t let Circles slip away. Read the DPRP and Prog Archives reviews.
Arilyn - Alter Ego ($14.99) out-of-stock 
Tomorrow Never Comes (2002) is the 64-minute debut from a German band mixing rock, space rock, and progressive, with vocals in English as is de rigueur these days. On Virtual Reality (2005), Arilyn sounds like a modern rock band with keyboards and other progressive touches, heavy enough to appeal to prog-metal fans, but the vocal sections aren’t always of tremendous interest to fans of real prog. It gets better during the instrumental passages, which are sometimes of a Floydian nature and the keyboards get some licks in.
Alter Ego (2007) is an improvement. On a couple tracks, Arilyn sound similar to RPWL, though not quite as luxuriant, while on other tracks they do a very good Hawkwind. Still other tracks carry on with the style found on their previous CDs, modern rock with spacey and progressive touches.
Blind Ego - Numb ($16.99) out-of-stock Blind Ego is the side project of RPWL guitarist Kalle Wallner. Among the musicians assisting on Mirror (2007, 61-minutes) are John Jowitt, John Mitchell, Clive Nolan, Paul Wrightson (Arena), and RPWL’s Yogi Lang. Mitchell and Nolan are present as vocalists only. Surprise, the album is guitar-oriented. There is David Gilmour/Pink Floyd influence (RPWL’s main influence), and most of the album is decent Floydian neo-prog, but the inclusion of some modern rock/metal means this falls a bit short of the average RPWL album. Read reviews at Prog4you and DPRP.
Wrightson is the sole lead vocalist on Numb (2009). Jowitt is on board again, along with Sebastian Harnack (Sylvan) and several other musicians, with Yogi Lang producing. While Mirror would have benefitted from more keys, Numb has none at all and is noticeably heavier. Read the review at DPRP.
Brainstorm - Smile a While ($15.99) Brainstorm was a German Canterbury-style fusion band offering complex songs full of sax, flute, and distorted organ, recommended to fans of Soft Machine, Supersister, Caravan, and Frank Zappa. While instrumental content dominates, there are some vocals in English. Smile A While (1972) was their first release under the name Brainstorm. The CD includes three bonus tracks recorded for German radio in 1971.
Central Park - Unexpected (CD+DVD, $19.99) This digipack combines the 2006 studio CD by German progressive rock band Central Park with a PAL DVD. The CD runs 78:45, the DVD 47:57. The DVD contains the Live and Unexpected 2006 feature (preview here), a featurette titled Decades to Reunion, a 1986 video from German TV and a 1986 live video.
Cinnamonia - The Scarlet Sea ($14.99) This 2002 release is by a German duo of a female singer and a male instrumentalist providing electronic textures, with help from three other musicians on electric and acoustic guitars. This is moody, low-key, atmospheric art-folk-pop, like a female David Sylvian, though not quite that melancholy. The English-language vocals sound a bit like Barbara Gaskin, and there are arrangements of two English traditional songs among the 11 tracks on this 59-minute CD.
Country Lane - Substratum ($15.99) This collectable progressive album was remixed for this CD reissue on Musea. As Musea describes it: “Country Lane’s only album was initially released in 1973. This Swiss band created an original rock music, mixing heavy influences such as Deep Purple with progressive ones such as The Nice and the other English progressive bands. Straight rock moments, dreamy atmospheres, and good English vocals are the basis of an excellent 70s album, full of freshness and sincerity.”
Curt Cress Clan - CCC ($17.99) The Curt Cress Clan was nearly the same band as Snowball, and this 1975 album the predecessor to the Snowball albums. Curt Cress (Passport, New Triumvirat, many others) is often considered to be the most accomplished drummer in Germany of that time. The rest of the clan comprised keyboardist Kristian Schultze (Passport, solo, Cusco), bassist Dave King (many sessions and tours), respected guitarist Volker Kriegel, and Ack van Rooyen on flugelhorn. This is the digipack CD on Sireena Records. The music is high-quality jazz-rock.
Dark Suns - Orange ($11.99) German one-time metal band Dark Suns have, with their fourth album Orange (2011), emerged from adolescence and completely embraced progressive rock. They’ve brought in the big guns (Hammond, Mellotron). As the label says: “The dark tone colors of their previous albums have given way to a more vivid orange hue. Instead of once more serving up complex and elaborate slabs of prog-metal, Dark Suns’ mode of operation is a lot more spontaneous and rocking in 2011, flagrantly flirting with classic (prog) rock of the seventies and more easy-going than ever before.” Read reviews at Alternative Matter and Scorpio Reviews.
Deyss - Vision in the Dark ($15.99) This Swiss band’s 1987 album, originally a 3-sided double-LP, was one of the best symphonic prog albums of that decade. Much of it is Marillion and IQ-inspired neo-prog (the vocalist is named “Jester”), but the 17-minute title suite is mostly-instrumental and harkens back to classic 1970s prog.
Eela Craig - One Niter ($17.99) This is the 2010 edition on Esoteric’s Reactive imprint, newly remastered from the original master tapes. One Niter (1976) was the second album by Eela Craig, Austria’s best-known progressive rock band. Their self-titled 1971 debut was more of a psych-prog, Krautrock album, but by the time they released One Niter five years later, they were a keyboard-centric, spacey symphonic prog band. Three of the six members were keyboardists! Pink Floyd is certainly a reference point, but it’s really a unique style they developed. For many, this is the best progressive rock album to come out of Austria. Read reviews at VintageProg.com and Prog Archives. The two main members of Eela Craig, Hubert Bognermayr and Harald Zuschrader, went on to form Blue Chip Orchestra, a more electronic music oriented band that released several albums on the Erdenklang label in the 1980s and 1990s.
Eloy - Visionary ($14.99) Eloy is Germany’s well-known symphonic space-rock band, who really hit their stride with Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes (1979) and Colours (1980), and peaked on Planets (1981) and Time to Turn (1982). While they may have been influenced by Pink Floyd, Eloy became a reference to which other prog bands could be compared. In simple terms, they combine the symphonic progressive and space rock styles like no one else.
In celebration of Eloy’s 40th anniversary, founder/guitarist Frank Bornemann returned to the studio to create the band’s first studio album in 10 years: Visionary (2009). Bornemann’s goal was to recreate the vintage sound of their most popular period. To that end, he assembled a lineup featuring members of Eloy’s past. Time was spent recording at world-renowned Horus Sound Studios in Hannover, Germany. Actually owned by Bornemann, it is the place where the classic Eloy sound was created. This is the U.S. edition, which comes in a jewel case with a 16-page booklet. The CD includes a video entitled The Making of Visionary.
Eroc - Changing Skies ($16.99) 
Eroc - 2 ($16.99)These are the latest remastered digipack editions. Eroc (Joachim Ehrig) was the drummer for Grobschnitt, leaving that band in 1983. But he was much more than a drummer, adding electronics to Grobschnitt’s live shows and having a successful solo career, releasing the albums Eroc 1 (1975, 54:54), Eroc 2 (1976, 67:30), Eroc 3 (1979, 79:10), Eroc 4 (1982, 79:10), and Changing Skies (1986, 79:10). The times shown are for these CD editions, which contain a huge number of bonus tracks.
The music on his first two outings is full of electronic effects and musical cut-ups that Eroc created for Grobschnitt’s live shows. Some are sound collages, others lunatic jokes, but for the most part they are beautiful, harmonious instrumental pieces that technical wizard Eroc turned in to clever gems.
“The third solo release from Joachim Ehrig is a compilation of assorted curiosities; some, such as Falke Whips It Out, with its Keith Emerson/Rick Wakeman-like organ solo, recorded as early as 1968. The collection also features live Grobschnitt cuts such as About My Town and eccentricities such as the audience participation drum solo of Euer Lied, as well as previously unreleased pieces by Grobschnitt’s predecessor, Crew Blues Session, that prefigure the later band’s spacey, improvisational feel.” [Muze]
“The normally extrovert German prog rock musician Eroc created an uncharacteristically reflective set of instrumentals for his fourth solo effort. But though the album features such meditative, almost ambient keyboard and guitar pieces as Tausendwasser and Vogelfrei, the bonus tracks included in this re-release feature enough of the Grobschnitt drummer’s distinctive eccentricities, including the manic disco of Alles Inordnung and the accordion-laced Die Kinder Ziehen Fort, to keep diehard prog rock fans amused.” [Muze]
Changing Skies might have been named Eroc 5, but having left Grobschnitt, things were different and Eroc was free to concentrate on his solo work. The music on Changing Skies is as diverse as should be expected. There are a lot of instrumental pieces with the typical Eroc charm and wistfulness, reflective of the Scandinavian landscape where he composed much of this album. There are also humorous pieces and demented fairground music. But there are also new styles for Eroc, including a collaboration with a medieval group called Consortium Terpsychore using bombard and crumhorns. Eroc reworked some of the material more recently and feels that this CD is the first proper release of the album.
Esthetic Pale - Long Forgotten Words ($14.99) Esthetic Pale is a German neo-prog sextet of keys, guitar, bass, drums, and two female vocalists singing in English. They favor long tracks and sometimes come across as a modern version of Octopus (a German prog band from the 1970s also featuring female vocals). Long Forgotten Words is from 2005, Hope from 2000. (To find the audio clips, click the mp3 icon above, then click ‘Discography’.)
Eureka - Silverware: The Best of Eureka 1997-2010 ($14.99) 
Eureka is the project of German multi-instrumentalist Frank Bossert, best known for his fourth album Shackleton’s Voyage, which was released by InsideOut. That album operated at the interface of progressive rock, symphonic electronic, and Celtic music, the two biggest influences being Mike Oldfield and Vangelis, while also containing some mainstream symphonic prog in the later Yes mold, and a couple tracks with pipes and whistle in Iona territory. The compilation Silverware: The Best of Eureka 1997-2010 is drawn from all four previous Eureka albums and includes a new song and three re-recordings. Bossert put a lot of effort into this retrospective, as the 20-page booklet guides the listener through Eureka’s history, providing a story and background information for each track.
The Full Circle is the second Eureka album, first released in 2002, later reissued in this 2008 edition. The third Eureka album The Compass Rose (2005) features over a dozen guest musicians. These are musts for Oldfield and Celtic-rock fans.
Flaming Row - Elinoire ($15.99) Flaming Row is an international band project organized by German multi-instrumentalist Martin Schnella. His idea was to create a concept album with many different musicians, particularly singers, both male and female. Marek Arnold (keyboards, sax) of Toxic Smile and Seven Steps to the Green Door is one of the four core instrumentalists in Flaming Row, while this 80-minute 2011 album has at least 17 singers and around 30 musicians total participating. Among those are Gary Wehrkamp and Brendt Allman from Shadow Gallery (they play or sing on most of the songs), Billy Sherwood (Circa, Yes, World Trade), and Jimmy Keegan (Spock’s Beard). The results are impressive. The music is in the modern prog rock and prog-metal styles, so if that all sounds like Ayreon, then consider Flaming Row the German Ayreon, or as Music in Belgium described Elinoire in a very positive review, a cross between Ayreon and Caamora’s She. Read the Sea of Tranquility review.
Frames - Mosaik ($14.99) Frames are a young German instrumental band playing a brand of modern prog and post-prog that in some ways resembles Porcupine Tree, Pineapple Thief, Oceansize, and Godspeed You Black Emperor. Mosaik (2010, digipack) is their first full-length album. Frames use loads of keyboards including Mellotron, yielding lots of lush textures and atmosphere. But what distinguishes Frames is that one can hear the ghosts of the original Krautrock bands such as Neu! and Kraan underlying the music. It often has the hypnotic quality of Neu! or La Dusseldorf, but rather than those bands’ more minimalist approach, Frames’ sound often builds to bombastic and powerful climaxes. Read the reviews at Sea of Tranquility and Lords of Metal.
Frequency Drift - Ghosts ($13.99) 
Bavarian band Frequency Drift create atmospheric, melodic yet challenging music that they call ‘cinematic progressive rock’. Personal Effects part one (2008, 61-minutes) is a concept album set in a dystopian future. The band say they are influenced by movies or television series such as Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner and Cloverfield, and their music aims for similar moodiness. The Musea label compares this album to Marillion’s Brave or Sylvan’s Posthumous Silence, if those two bands had a female singer as Frequency Drift does. It isn’t as accomplished as those two albums, nor would one expect that of a debut album. Personal Effects part one has a somewhat sparser sound, with most of the keyboard work done on piano, which is essential to the mood. The album has compelling atmospheres, a solemnity and melancholy that are maintained even through the heavier passages, with Floydian tempos and deliberate pacing. The booklet contains a storyboard-like picture for each song that helps illustrate the story.
Frequency Drift drifted over to the Cyclops label for Personal Effects part two (2010, 64-minutes). The promise of the first CD is fulfilled here, with the band showing the hoped-for growth and a unique style emerging. The surreal atmosphere here is fantastic, spacier and denser than Part One. The music is more intricate, with more musicians involved. The use of classical musicians on violin, harp, and woodwinds adds new dimensions to the sound, while the female vocals keep the music grounded -- these are extended arrangements of songs rather than abstract soundscapes. Now we’re completely won over.
Making the rounds of prog labels, Ghosts (2011, digipack) is on ProgRock Records. “While the story of Personal Effects was set in a dark urban and futuristic setting, the new songs are connected by a different theme. They are about things that haunt us, things that cannot fully be grasped, things we carry with us, emotions that echo from former times. The band conveys this with a slight change in their music and in the atmosphere created. Although the cinematic approach is still there, the music is enhanced by increased use of guitar. Furthermore, there is now an even larger variety of stylistic influences such as jazz or even heavy metal. Other highlights are the new hauntingly beautiful yet adventurous violin solos, 1970s style flute parts, and intriguing electric harp sections.” Read reviews at Prog Archives.
Galaad - Vae Victis ($15.99) Galaad is a Swiss neo-prog band with a charismatic vocalist singing in French. While their debut was very Ange-influenced, their second album Vae Victis (1995) is heavier, like a meeting between Ange and Dream Theater, while maintaining the lyricism and melodrama.
Thomas Glönkler - Goldstadt ($14.99) Thomas Glönkler was the guitarist for the German band ICU, who released three CDs during the 1990s. His first solo CD Auszeit (2004) is a tasteful set of instrumentals that features both his acoustic and electric guitar playing, actually favoring the acoustic. Various tracks are augmented with bass, synths, low-key percussion, and flute (played by Eva-Maria Baumann). On tracks where Glönkler keeps it entirely acoustic, you might compare his music to Steve Hackett or Anthony Phillips’ acoustic pieces, but replacing their Englishness with a slight spaciness more characteristic of German artists. Glönkler’s electric leads are sometimes in the Andy Latimer vein, but again a bit spacier. But even with the spacey touches, the music is warm and comforting.
Goldstadt (2010) is a larger-scale work that exceeds all the ICU albums. On this atmospheric concept album, Glönkler is joined by singer Ralf Grossmann, drummer Patrick Fiedler, and Eva-Maria Baumann on flute, plus guests. This is a major progressive rock work, but one that is in danger of being lost in the shuffle. Sung in German (though heavily instrumental), the subject of this album is the city of Pforzheim on the edge of the Black Forest, nicknamed ‘Goldstadt’ (Golden City). On the evening of 23 February 1945, 369 aircraft of the Royal Air Force destroyed the city in minutes, killing one quarter of the population. (Many of the Allied air raids late in the war had more to do with retribution than real military targets; it was Britain’s policy to destroy German cities.) Think of Novalis performing one of Camel’s later conceptual albums with help from Anthony Phillips, then update that so that the music sounds more profound, with richer ambiences. This is Glönkler’s Brave (the Marillion album). Given the serious subject matter, much of the album is permeated by a feel of sadness, though the second half of the album is frequently hopeful and uplifting. It is often quite moving, and even at its saddest, the music is warm, elegant and beautiful. Even if you don’t understand German, the power of the music is such that you can easily forget about the literal meaning of the lyrics. Great music transcends that and is what separates progressive rock from more vocal-centric styles. For us, having works of progressive rock in languages other than English only enriches the musical landscape.
Grobschnitt - 2008 Live 2010 (2CD, $20.99) 
Grobschnitt - The International Story (2CD, $17.99)These are the 2006-2009 digipack editions on SPV’s Revisited Records label of Illegal and Solar Music Live. Unfortunately, the others have gone out-of-print following SPV’s bankruptcy. Grobschnitt were one of the top few German progressive rock bands, quite possibly the best. Though they began as more of a Krautrock band, by the time of their 1975 third album Jumbo, they had become a very refined, melodic symphonic progressive band singing mostly in English, Germany’s counterpart to Genesis, with a sense of humor usually evident. A string of great symphonic prog albums followed before it all went horribly wrong, as with so many other 70s prog bands who didn’t make it out of the 80s.
The track Solar Music was originally released in 1974 on Ballermann. The piece was expanded and improved live, the energy greatly increased and reaching 50-60 minutes on stage, always accompanied by an immense fire-show celebrated by the crew interacting with the musicians. It is mostly instrumental, spacey, and jam-oriented, quite a contrast to Rockpommel’s Land. Solar Music became Grobschnitt’s signature piece, and in 1978 Solar Music Live was released by the Brain label on vinyl, running 55-minutes. This LP became a milestone in Grobschnitt’s history, and many still consider it the best live recording of any German progressive or Krautrock band. This digipack reissue adds two bonus tracks, one inconsequential, the other called The Missing 13 Minutes, material originally omitted to fit everything onto one LP.
Illegal (1981) was the last good Grobschnitt album. Those who relish the jamming style of Solar Music won’t find much like that here, but Illegal does contain some excellent songs in Grobschnitt’s unique style (as did the previous album Merry-Go-Round). In fact this is the best-selling Grobschnitt record after Rockpommel’s Land and Solar Music Live. We all know what was happening in popular music at this time, so while Grobschnitt were forced to modernize some, Illegal is better than one might have expected. This CD edition was remastered by drummer Eroc in 2008 and contains three bonus tracks: an 11:30 live version of the title track and two alternate mixes.
Eroc remastered live material from throughout Grobschnitt’s career into a series of 2CDs (and one 3CD) called Grobschnitt Story. These didn’t receive wide distribution. The International Story compiles material from that series into a double-CD with each CD over 79-minutes long, plus a 16-page booklet in English. One track, Magic Train (10:15), is a previously-unreleased version, and there is an entire performance of Solar Music. The sound quality of this set is excellent.
The original Grobschnitt gave their last concert in 1989. The band reunited nearly 20 years later for a series of concerts, with the original members sometimes joined by their sons! 2008 Live 2010 is Sireena Records’ digipack double-CD that combines the Live 2008 and Live 2010 albums they’d released previously on vinyl. A new studio single Another Journey was added as a bonus track. Live 2008 is taken up mostly by Sonnentanz 2008, a new interpretation of Solar Music, while Live 2010 is a performance of the complete Rockpommel’s Land, Grobschnitt’s masterpiece.
Harlis - Night Meets the Day ($17.99) Harlis was an offshoot of Jane whose first album became the first release on Sky Records. The superior second Harlis album Night Meets the Day (1977) is a pirate-themed rock opera of sorts, proggier than their debut and approximately in the style of Jane or Omega. This is the 2009 digipack edition on Sireena Records.
The Healing Road - Backdrop ($15.99) The Healing Road (the name taken from Neil Peart’s book) is a studio project led by German keyboardist Hans Peter Hess with a number of other musicians contributing drums, bass, guitars, and more keyboards. Timanfaya is the second The Healing Road album, initially released independently in 2007 before being picked up by Musea in 2008. This is instrumental keyboard-dominated symphonic rock with aspects of both classic and neo-prog. Hess lists Yes, Genesis, Mike Oldfield, Spock’s Beard and Rush as influences. Of those, Genesis is the strongest, followed by Oldfield, the others not so much. Camel should probably be included -- isn’t the track Crater Camels a reference to Moonmadness? These are tasteful compositions full of nuance, a very exciting and satisfying progressive rock record. Read the reviews at Progressor and Prog Archives. Note the third The Healing Road album was released only as an inseparable CD+vinyl LP package, which makes no sense.
Backdrop (2011) consists of two long pieces of music. To create something different from the previous albums, Hess set certain guidelines: less piano, less synths and Hammond; the album should have an acoustic, rural, pastoral atmosphere and contain as many acoustic instruments as he could get and play. Guests include a guitarist, keyboardist/singer, and accordionist. Simply put, this is Mike Oldfield’s Incantations Parts 5 & 6, and the fact that Oldfield was not involved in no way diminishes the beauty of this work. Sublime, mesmerizing and, for 2011, quite unexpected. Watch the official promo videos: Clip 1 and Clip 2.
High Wheel - Live Before the Storm (2CD, $23.99) 
High Wheel - Remember the Colours ($16.99)With the exception of Back from the Void, these are Progress Records’ 2007 remastered reissues of the studio CDs from High Wheel, a German symphonic progressive band who improved with each CD. Back from the Void (2002, 64:30) is their fourth studio album and was good enough to get High Wheel invited to NEARfest 2003. (Back from the Void has not been reissued by Progress; this is the original edition.) There (1996, 76-minutes) is their third CD, Remember the Colours (1994, 75-minutes) their second, and 1910 (1993, 56-minutes) their first. 
Call it neo-prog if you must, but High Wheel’s reliance on organ and analog keyboards gives them a 1970s-oriented sound. There is a little Gentle Giant influence and a little spaciness. At times they touch upon the style of early Kayak or Anyone’s Daughter, though darker, more aggressive and not as strong melodically. (Few bands are.) On a few tracks, Marillion or Echolyn are better references, and other tracks have a hard edge to them, though still a long way from prog-metal. The lyrics are in English. The sound on the original editions of the earlier CDs was a bit dull, so it’s good to have the improved sound on these remastered editions.
The double live CD Live Before the Storm (2006) not only serves as a 2 hour, 17-minute greatest hits, but the recording quality is better than their studio albums. This is the obvious place for newcomers to start. Here is an mp3 of the complete Void track. Read reviews here.
Ines Project - Slipping Into the Unknown ($15.99) 
Ines - Hunting the Fox ($15.99) 
Led by female keyboardist/composer Ines Fuchs, Ines has always been a project involving many talented musicians and singers from Germany, Italy, and elsewhere. Probably most influenced by Tony Banks, her music is complex, keyboard-oriented prog rock with strong English-language vocals. She has always chosen high-quality singers, including Harald Bareth of Anyone’s Daughter on the first two albums, and Asgard’s Chicco Grosso on all four albums. Two other members of Asgard also joined Ines, so there is much in common between the Asgard and Ines styles. Hunting the Fox is the 72-minute debut CD from 1994, in the neo-prog style with a noticeable IQ influence. Eastern Dawning (64-minutes) followed in 1996, where a more original style begins to emerge.
1999’s The Flow is where Ines really matures, and Slipping Into the Unknown (2002) picks up where The Flow left off. There’s a palpable Peter Gabriel feel to a number of tracks, and she has spiced the mix with folk instruments such as accordion, violin, hurdy-gurdy, flute, and bagpipes, some courtesy of Christoph Pelgen of Adaro. Read the DPRP reviews of Slipping Into the Unknown and The Flow.
Inquire - Melancholia (2CD, $21.99) 
Melancholia (2003, 94 minutes) is the third album by this German progressive band. It is comprised of two albums: the first CD is a concept album about Jean-Paul Sartre’s novel La nausée. The second CD rearranges parts of an organ symphony by the French composer Louis Vierne, created at the beginning of the 20th century, and a forerunner of rock and roll. Inquire play a carefully written and arranged music, a generally dark progressive à la Pink Floyd or the German band Versus X, with influences from classical composers such as Mussorgsky. One might also liken Inquire to some of the darker French progressives such as Pulsar or Halloween, though Inquire are a bit less lyrical and more heavy-handed. Vocals are used sparingly. The sound and production are excellent (with mastering by Grobschnitt’s Eroc).
These are the MALS label editions of Inquire’s first two CDs: Inquire Within (1999) and The Neck Pillow (2000). The Neck Pillow is now deleted, last copy. Read the DPRP reviews of Inquire Within and The Neck Pillow.
InVertigo - Next Stop Vertigo ($16.99) Next Stop Vertigo is the 2010 debut CD by a German quintet singing in English. InVertigo play the contemporary version of neo-prog, the descendant of Marillion’s and Pendragon’s style of melodic symphonic rock, close to Satellite, the current Dutch bands (Knight Area, Silhouette, Seven Day Hunt, etc.), and at times, Spock’s Beard. The six tracks, all in excess of 7-minutes, are balanced between complexity and catchiness. Despite the length of the compositions, the song and the melodies remain paramount, without the excessive melancholy or the metal that is almost unavoidable these days. InVertigo had been performing these songs live for some time, resulting in a very polished debut that is almost certain to have wide appeal. Read the Sea of Tranquility review.
Jack Yello - Xeric ($13.99) Jack Yello is a German quintet that includes former members of German neo-prog bands Darius and Jagiello. No one in the band is named Jack though. The departure point for Jack Yello’s style is the first two Marillion albums, with the larger sound of typical modern production and the addition of some metal guitar for the kids. If that suggests Arena, that may be the best reference. Singer Dirk Bovensiepen has a fair amount of Fish in his voice, and the lyrics are also in that typically verbose style. Thorns of Anger is their 78-minute 2003 debut. Xeric (2009) is their second, also 78-minutes long. They may be heavier and more bombastic, but as Marillion-influenced bands go, Jack Yello are among the most complex and interesting.
Jane - Live at Home (2CD, $19.99) out-of-stock
Jane - Here We Are ($16.99)Jane was a melodic, sometimes progressive rock band from Hannover, Germany. These are the 2007/2008 Revisited Records digipack editions of Jane’s second, third, and fourth studio albums and their 1976 live album. Here We Are is from 1973, III from 1974, Lady from 1975. Here We Are has two bonus tracks, both single edits of songs from the album.
Live at Home was originally a double-LP. This double-CD adds the equivalent of another album, Jane’s complete January 1977 concert at the WDR radio studios for the Nachtmusik radio show. Read the reviews at Prog Archives of Here We Are, III, Lady, and Live at Home.
Junk Farm - Didn’t Come to Dance ($14.99) The self-described German “fusion trio from hell” consists of a keyboardist (favoring organ), guitarist/singer, and drummer. The band has metal roots, so Ugly Little Thing, their 2007 second CD, is heavy rock/fusion with a strong progressive flavor, much more rock than fusion. Like prog-metal, this is music that is something-else first and progressive rock second, but for the most part it is really well done. Junk Farm shift gears rapidly, playing an appealing mash-up of styles with great finesse, comparable to the band Mörglbl.
Didn’t Come to Dance (2009) is not a radical change, but the songs and melodies here are much stronger and Junk Farm have put more work into the vocal arrangements, sometimes adding a Zappa feel to the proceedings. Start here.
Kraan - Dancing in the Shade ($14.99)
Kraan - Live 2001 ($14.99)These are the 2005 remastered digipack deluxe editions on Revisited Records, with bonus tracks and enhanced booklets with new liner notes and photos. Kraan is an influential and legendary German krautrock and jazz-rock band that formed in 1967, continued into the 1980s, then took the 1990s off before reforming for both recording and gigging.
Wiederhören (1977) foregoes the psychedelic and experimental tendencies of the earlier Kraan albums to concentrate on a mostly-instrumental jazz-rock that is melodic, light and quick. It includes the 19:28 bonus track Ein Wiederhören mit einem Bass Solo (Live at Fellbach), which is an extended live version of the title track.
Flyday (1978) features a unique mélange of melodic jazz rock with some Eastern elements. It includes a 9:26 live version of Gayu Gaya as a bonus track.
Kraan’s eighth studio album, Dancing in the Shade (1989), features Peter Wolbrandt’s idiosyncratic, beautiful songs and cinematic instrumentals. Kraan entered the 1990s using samplers and sequencers integrated into their sound cosmos. The three bonus tracks on this CD are all demo versions of tracks from the album. Live 88 was recorded by a newly re-united Kraan, along with trumpeter Joo Kraus. It focuses on melodic instrumental jazz-rock, plus a few vocal rock numbers. It includes the bonus track Ausflug (6:39), recorded live in Munich in 1987 on the same tour, taking the total length up to 79:33. Live 2001 reflects back on Kraan’s 1970s fusion era, with mixes of spacey, jam-oriented tracks played by an excellent group of musicians.
Liliental - Liliental ($16.99)The Liliental album came about in 1976 when electronic music pioneer Dieter Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia) wanted to record an album with Okko Bekker and Asmus Tietchens at Conny Plank’s studio. This time, Plank participated in the recordings as a musician. Kraan’s bassist Helmut Hattler and saxophonist Johannes Pappert had just finished working on an album and were happy to stay on at the studio. So six musicians with different personalities who had never worked together before ended up creating a great document of German electronic music. It was rather atypical for its time and conveyed a certain lightness, revealing complex structures on closer inspection. This 2007 digipack edition on Revisited Records is the first official CD release.
Martigan - Vision ($15.99) For many, German band Martigan will be the best neo-prog band you’ve never heard. They were founded in 1994 and have made steady progress with each album, and with Vision (2009, 79-minutes), they are at least on a par with Collage and Deyss at their peak, and ahead of any other continental band who play or played a style similar to early Marillion or IQ. Which is exactly what Martigan play, the original neo-prog style without metal, excessive melancholy, or other modern downgrades. The music is melodic, exuberant, dramatic and majestic, with soaring Rothery-style guitar leads and excellent vocals, and like the best neo-prog bands, the ‘neo’ tag is not always necessary. The 23-minute track that opens Vision will hook any fan of the style immediately.
Metamorphosis - Dark ($13.99) out-of-stock Metamorphosis is a Swiss band headed up by Jean-Pierre Schenk (vocals, keyboards, drums). Schenk founded the progressive rock band Nature in 1971 with Giovanni Esposito, who is the guitar player in Metamorphosis. Nature began very Pink Floyd influenced, then evolved towards Genesis. Metamorphosis, which began circa 2000, also began very Pink Floyd influenced. Dark (2009, 62-minutes) is the fourth Metamorphosis CD. Here the music is an intoxicating blend of Pink Floyd and early Marillion, full of great melodies. The vocals (in English) remain in the Pink Floyd style, that is, the Marillion influence is instrumentally only. There always was a bit of David Gilmour in Steve Rothery’s guitar style, so the blend feels quite natural. Good stuff that will probably appeal to a large segment of the Porcupine Tree fan base as well.
This is the MALS label edition of the third Metamorphosis CD Then All Was Silent (2005). Read the Prog Archives reviews.
Flavio Mezzodi - Elements ($11.99) Drummer Flavio Mezzodi was a member of the Swiss prog band Thonk, though his experience goes far beyond that. Elements (2009) is his first CD under his name, containing symphonic prog with fusion touches. Mezzodi also plays piano and synths and contributes backing vocals, while numerous other musicians appear on vocals, guitars, bass, soprano sax, and more drums. There are two songs with English-language vocals and six instrumentals. This is really brilliant. Mezzodi’s masterful drumming is something to behold. No matter how complex the drum parts become, he maintains the groove and doesn’t turn the songs into drum solos. Except for the last track that is, which is a drum and percussion workout with three drummers playing at once. The music is carefully composed and arranged, and the immaculate production makes it especially powerful. In addition to the audio, there is an 8-minute video set to a medley of the Elements songs. It’s well-known among retailers that some prog fans are incapable of buying a CD under an unknown individual’s name, even though for decades studio tracks have been recorded one part at a time, with no need now for the musicians to ever be in the same room together. If ever there was a CD that makes the stupidity of that bias evident, this is it.
Patrick Moraz - Change of Space ($17.99) 
Patrick Moraz - Future Memories I and II ($17.99) 
Patrick Moraz - III ($17.99) 
Mainhorse - Mainhorse ($17.99)Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz is known to most for his stint in Yes on the Relayer album, where his playing style had a large impact on Yes’ sound, and for his 1978-1991 tenure with The Moody Blues, which paid the bills. Moraz also recorded two studio albums and a live CD with Bill Bruford: check our British page for those. The CDs here are all the 2006 or later editions on Voiceprint, many appearing on CD for the first time. Patrick personally remastered them all.
Mainhorse’s 1971 album was their sole release and might have been forgotten had their keyboardist not gone on to some fame. Which would have been unfortunate as it’s a very good heavy progressive rock album with similarities to The Nice, early Deep Purple, Ekseption, and Quatermass. The use of violin and cello is a welcome touch.
The Story of i was Moraz’s debut solo album, recorded in late 1975 during a period when all the Yes members recorded solo albums. The album is a concept piece based around a story Patrick had written. The album features Brazilian musicians and rhythms, demonstrating that progressive rock musicians were doing world music before it became fashionable, and doing it better. Other featured musicians on the album are jazz drummer Alphonse Mouzon and bassist Jeff Berlin. This is without a doubt Moraz’s best solo album. Not only that, it is unique and is a progressive rock classic. Two bonus tracks.
Out in the Sun (1977) is Moraz’s second solo album, a good album though not as progressive as The Story of i. It was recorded in Switzerland and Brazil, shortly after Patrick left Yes. As with The Story of i, Moraz uses Brazilian percussionists, giving the album a very percussive feel throughout, but it is made up of eight individual pieces rather than one thematic piece. One bonus track.
The self-titled third album from Patrick Moraz (which we’re calling III) is widely considered to be one of his best solo recordings. The album has a theme running through it of primitive culture versus modern culture. The album is largely instrumental and features performances from Bill Bruford on the track Temples of Joy. Moraz again employs a large number of Brazilian percussionists. One bonus track.
Coexistence was Moraz’s 1980 release. At the time, it was considered a very forward-thinking album. The musician going by the name Syrinx plays pan pipes. The music blends most of Moraz’s influences: pop, classical, jazz, and ethnic percussion. Note the album was reissued in 1989 under the title of Libertate. Two bonus tracks are included.
1984’s Timecode is the most (synth-) pop-oriented release from Moraz, possibly influenced by the likes of Thomas Dolby and other then-current trends. The album features Bill Bruford on electronic percussion on one track. No Latin influences on this one. Moraz uses lead vocalist John McBurnie, who was also on Out in the Sun, and some female vocalists. The two bonus tracks are remixes of album tracks.
After reissuing the Future Memories I and Future Memories II LPs on separate CDs just months earlier, Voiceprint has released them both on one 73-minute CD logically titled Future Memories I and II. There are some slight differences, bits of the LPs that did not make it onto this CD, but the important stuff is here. Actually, there was a CD called Future Memories I and II released in 1985 on the French Carrere label, and Voiceprint’s version is almost identical -- it omits the 2:30 After the Year After but adds the 5:04 Here Comes Christmas Again, which is a remake of a Mainhorse track. Future Memories was considered a brave experiment at the time (1979). The music was performed live in Moraz’s studio for a Swiss television program and recorded directly to tape as the program was broadcast. It was all new material however, not appearing on any of Moraz’s studio albums. Future Memories II followed five years later. The two combined are more of an electronic music CD than Moraz’s other albums, though there is also piano and drum machine, and vocals on one track. It ranges from synthetic classical to Vangelis to horror movie soundtrack to keyboard-rock comparable to Wakeman and Emerson, but featuring Moraz’s trademark lead sounds and style.
Moraz decided at the beginning of the 1990s to compose and perform music strictly for piano. Windows of Time was first released in 1994, the music drawn from 14 hours of performance material, edited down to the best of it. Moraz briefly revisits a couple songs from his earlier albums. The audio has been remastered by Moraz for this 2007 CD.
ESP (Etudes, Sonatas, Preludes) was originally released in 2003, reissued in this edition in 2008. ESP features sixteen classical piano compositions by Moraz. “Some of [the pieces] are Romantic in style. Others, such as the three movement Sonata in C, are deliberately written in the style of Mozart, but with subtle little twists and turns of phrase entirely characteristic of Moraz. Although some of the pieces, especially the Etudes, sound fiendishly difficult to play, their musicality is never in doubt. Moraz is one of THE great piano virtuosos of our time, but unlike most classical virtuosos, he also happens to be an exceptional improviser and composer. There is, to my knowledge, no improv on this CD; all the music is thoroughly composed. However, the beauty of Moraz’s playing makes it seem as though he’s playing this stuff right off the top of his head. I can’t emphasize enough just how transcendent Moraz’s playing has become over the years. This CD captures a uniquely gifted musician at the peak of his powers and in full flight. Awesome!” [The Mentalist, Prog Archives]
After years of solo piano music, Patrick Moraz finally returned to rock and his progressive roots with Change of Space (2009, 60-minutes). The CD is a collection of songs and instrumental pieces composed, recorded, mixed and polished between 1989-2003. Moraz then spent the two years prior to this release assembling and mastering it with engineer Jean Ristori at MTX Mastering Studios in Switzerland. Other musicians on this album include Alex Ligertwood (ex-Santana) on lead vocals, Bunny Brunel (ex-Chick Corea) on bass, Kazumi Watanabe (Japanese guitarist extraordinaire), and many others. Given that the material was recorded in different years with different musicians, there is more diversity here than on any other Patrick Moraz album. Read the Music Street Journal and Sea of Tranquility reviews. Check our DVDs page for Moraz’s DVDs.
Morphelia - Waken the Nightmare (2CD, $17.99) Morphelia are a German heavy neo-prog band who, while not ready to displace Martigan at the top of our list of German neo-prog bands, are providing healthy competition. They debuted in 2003 with Prognocircus (72-minutes) and followed that with the ambitious Waken the Nightmare (2009, 117-minutes), a double-CD in a beautiful fat digipack. To oversimplify their style, take the first two Marillion albums and add some metal, with a predominance of darker moods and epic length tracks. There is also some Pink Floyd influence, especially on the 27-minute final track. The second disc is actually stronger than the first, where Morphelia slide into metal less frequently, yielding more unadulterated progressive rock. Read the reviews at ProgressiveWorld.net and Background Magazine.
Prognocircus is similar, though Morphelia honed their playing and production skills in the time between their two albums. One criticism that could be leveled at Waken the Nightmare is that, for an album of its length, it sticks pretty closely to the same script (for a jester’s tear). Prognocircus has a Saga influence heard right off the bat, and overall feels a bit more varied. Start with Waken the Nightmare, and if you enjoy it, you’ll almost certainly want Prognocircus as well.
Neuschwanstein - Alice in Wonderland ($15.99) Battlement is the CD reissue of the 1979 album by Neuschwanstein, remixed in 1992 for improved sound. This is essentially a clone of Gabriel-era Genesis, but so well done that it is rightly considered a minor classic of German progressive rock. Vocals in English.
Alice in Wonderland is a virtually unknown album recorded in 1976, appearing on CD in 2009. It predates the arrival of singer Frederic Joos, so the music here is almost entirely instrumental, with brief narration auf Deutsch tying pieces together. (The inspiration for this album was Rick Wakeman’s Journey to the Center of the Earth.) There is some Genesis influence present, but here the music is closer to Snow Goose-era Camel, flowing and nimble, with lots of flute in addition to keys, guitar, bass and drums. There is audible distortion at times, but in Machiavellian terms, the end easily justifies the condition of the master tapes. The booklet provides the history of the band (in English) with several period photos. A fantastic relic from the golden age when prog was prog, played by great bearded men in strange clothing.
Novalis - Letztes Konzert 1984 (2CD, $17.99) Hamburg’s ‘romantic rockers’ Novalis were one of the best German symphonic progressive bands of the 1970s, and actually achieved some success. After singing in English on their debut Banished Bridge, they switched to German lyrics beginning with their 1975 self-titled album. Many of the lyrics were actually poems of the band’s namesake, Novalis, the most important German poet of early romanticism (also author and philosopher). As a rough approximation, Novalis were musically between Camel and Pink Floyd.
The double-CD digipack Letztes Konzert 1984 contains the last concert performed by Novalis, with a song selection spanning their career. The live versions sound more energetic and raw than the studio versions.
Nucleus Torn - Golden Age ($21.99) All of these CDs come in non-standard packaging: a 7.5" x 5.5" tri-fold cardboard sleeve. Nucleus Torn is quite a unique progressive band from Switzerland, whose leader has been a member of Thonk and New Grove Project. We previously sold their first full-length album Nihil (2006). Nucleus Torn were eclectic and difficult to describe then, and their style has continued to evolve significantly. Nihil had fragile Celtic-flavored neo-folk, chamber music, dark symphonic prog, and metal, vaguely similar to the likes of Anekdoten. There is virtually no metal on the CDs here, yet you’ll still see Nucleus Torn categorized as some sort of metal and reviewed mostly on metal sites. Travellers (67-minutes) compiles recordings from EPs that predate Nihil, plus two previously unreleased tracks from the Nihil sessions, all recently remixed and remastered. Presented in chronological order, one can hear Nucleus Torn’s early evolution. The first four tracks are from 1998 and are bandleader Fredy Schnyder solo on classical guitar. The next four tracks are from the 2000 Silver EP. The energy level ramps up, with vocals (male, in English) making their first appearance, and keyboards, bass, electric guitar and drums joining in. The 2002 Submission demo and the two extra Nihil tracks follow, and the music continues to get stronger.
Andromeda Awaiting (2010, 46-minutes) is Nucleus Torn’s third full-length album. There are both male and female vocals here, part of a larger lineup that includes flute, cello, violin, drums/percussion, and Schnyder playing piano, organ, electric/acoustic/classical guitars, bass, recorders, bouzouki, hammered dulcimer, saz baglama, oud, and mandolin. So there are a lot of acoustic textures, and the music is a blend of dark folk, medieval flavors, and progressive rock. There are suggestions of the pastoral, early Genesis sound, and Andromeda Awaiting always feels close to the natural world. Like Travellers, this is an album that starts gentle and becomes more intense later on, but it remains calmer than the band’s previous work, with no harsh outbursts. It manages to tie early music, classical and progressive music together in an unexpected way, with an almost sacred feel throughout.
The title of Nucleus Torn’s fourth full-length album Golden Age (2011) is presumably a reference to the golden age of progressive rock, because the label calls it “an album that more than any of Nucleus Torn’s previous works looks back to 1970s progressive rock, paying homage to masters of the form such as King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, and Änglagard. Still, it also contains the broadest stylistic diversity you have ever heard on an album by Nucleus Torn.” Unfortunately the label also dramatically increased the price to their U.S. distributor. “If you ever wanted to know what the link between someone like Kate Bush and female-led folk metal is then you might want to check this band out. This is folk-prog not unlike some of Opeth’s recent output, but with a very interesting female vocalist. Quite a bit of this music can be quite jarring at times, especially on the title track. While this is not metal, it certainly has a certain heaviness to it that might attract the more open-minded heavy rocker. Some of the tracks are both jarring and beautiful at the same time. Sometimes the band is described as avant-garde, which might be because they have a habit of throwing every type of acoustic instrument into the mix they can possibly find.” [Marty Dodge, Blogcritics]
Octopus - An Ocean of Rocks ($17.99) These digipacks are the first legitimate CD reissues of the first two CDs by German progressive rock band Octopus. The Boat of Thoughts (1977) is their best. An Ocean of Rocks (1978) is in the same style; after these albums it went downhill rapidly. Octopus’s music here is similar to early Camel, while the booklets also mention Beggars Opera, not a bad reference either. Most of the keyboard work is done on organ. What alters the character of Octopus’s music most are the vocals of Jennifer Hensel. She has a unique voice with a more masculine timbre than most, close to the singers for Frumpy, Babe Ruth, Earth and Fire, or a smoother Janis Joplin. We’ve always been fond of these albums, though they are very much a product of their time and place. The booklets contains previously-unseen photos and new liner notes in both German and English. Read reviews at Prog Archives.
Ornah-mental - Testimony ($13.99) Mostly-instrumental ethno-prog and space-dub with some similarities to Peter Gabriel’s world music or a mellower, slower Korai Öröm. The main musician in the group is Dirk Schloemer, who played guitar for Ton Steine Scherben. Generally long tracks taken at a leisurely pace, relying on hypnotic percussion grooves with guitar, keyboards, and voice layered on top. Note the mp3 icon above links directly to a single mp3 file.
Os Mundi - 43 Minuten ($16.99)This is the 2007 digipack reissue of one of the most highly-prized Brain label albums. This 1972 album was the second for Berlin’s Os Mundi and very different from their first. 43 Minuten (the CD runs a couple minutes longer than the album title) blends progressive rock, fusion, classical, folk and psych in a unique way, an under-recognized gem of the German early progressive scene. File next to Kraan, though Os Mundi may have been better. The CD comes with a 16-page booklet with extensive liner notes in both German and English.
Ougenweide - Wol Mich der Stunde ($17.99) For the past several years, bands influenced by medieval music have been very popular in Germany. Adaro was one of the most important, and Blackmore’s Night, though not German, are often included in this genre. The bands cover a broad spectrum from folk to progressive rock to metal. It’s a fascinating movement, but the father of all the current German medieval bands is Ougenweide, a folk-rock band whose initial period of activity was 1970-1984. Their impact in Germany is comparable to that of Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Gryphon, and Pentangle in the UK, or Malicorne in France. Both of these CDs are collections of unreleased tracks, mostly live, compiled by the band. Here are reviews of Wol Mich der Stunde and Ouwe War.
Out of Focus - Four Letter Monday Afternoon (2CD, $17.99) The Kuckuck label was responsible for releasing many great albums in Germany in the early 1970s, including the three by Munich-based band Out of Focus, whose members included Moran Neumuller (vocals, sax, flute), Remigus Dreschler (guitar), Hennes Hering (keyboards), Stephan Wisheu (bass) and Klaus Spori (drums). The double-LP Four Letter Monday Afternoon (1972) was the band’s final album and saw Out of Focus look towards acts such as Soft Machine or Colosseum for some of their inspiration, heading in more of a jazz-rock direction and adding a brass section. The lengthy piece Huchen 55 took up both sides of the second LP in the set. This is the 2010 remastered edition on Esoteric. Read reviews at Prog Archives.
Poor Genetic Material - Island Noises (2CD, $17.99) 
Poor Genetic Material - Winter’s Edge ($11.99)Poor Genetic Material is a five-man German symphonic progressive band with an exceptional lead singer from the UK in Philip Griffiths, whose father Martin was the singer for Beggars Opera. The music on their 2001 CD Summerland (out-of-print) was melodic and atmospheric, in the direction of bands such as Saga or Jadis, highlighted by the 12-minute title track. Their 2002 CD Leap Into Fall (out-of-print) was certainly a step forward from their debut, an outstanding symphonic rock album for fans of Pendragon or Jadis, though PGM don’t strongly resemble either. Their 2003 CD Winter’s Edge was yet another step forward for a band that by this time can no longer meaningfully be called neo-progressive. The compositions here are quite sophisticated and richly-textured. Spring Tidings (2006) completes the seasons series and continues the trend of steady improvement with each album, making this the best of the series.
Having run out of seasons to use as album themes, PGM focused on songwriting on 2007’s Paradise Out of Time. While there may be no 20-minute tracks on this CD, the sound of the band is much the same, symphonic rock with strong vocals in service of more concise songs. A lot of other prog bands could stand to hone their songwriting skills as PGM have done.
Island Noises (2011) is a double-CD concept album based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Martin Griffiths provides recitations, while other guests include Pia Darmstaedter on flute and former member Martin Lengsfeld on piano. This is the least immediate of the PGM albums, which in progressive rock is often a point in the music’s favor. Island Noises is expansive and has great depth, the yin to Paradise Out of Time’s yang, and requires multiple listens. One of the highlights is the 20-minute title track, containing many Genesis-isms. It’s not surprising that it took nearly four years for this album to manifest.
Free to Random (2005) is a different animal. Before Philip Griffiths joined, PGM was an instrumental project with a different style. The pieces on Free to Random date to this period (1998-2000) but were re-recorded in 2005 to bring the old material up to PGM’s current musical and technical standards. The music here is a languid, atmospheric, ambient style of progressive, owing a debt to Robert Fripp and Frippertronics (though not that ambient). There are touches of Pink Floyd as well as classical and jazz influences.
Popol Vuh - Seligpreisung ($15.99) 
Popol Vuh - Letzte Tage Letzte Nachte ($15.99) 
Popol Vuh - Coeur de Verre ($14.99) Popol Vuh was founded by mastermind Florian Fricke in Munich in 1970 and are known as pioneers of sacred rock, world music, new age and electronic music, as well as predecessors of the 1990s ambient and trance genres. With a huge discography, their music can’t be easily categorized, but they were undoubtedly pioneers in a number of areas. These are the latest reissues on SPV, all in digipacks with bonus tracks.
Seligpreisung (1973) is the beginning of Popol Vuh’s best period. Amon Düül II’s drummer and guitarist Daniel Fichelscher joined Popol Vuh for this album. This was the first album of a mystic trilogy devoted to holy books: Seligpreisung, Einsjäger & Siebenjäger, and Das Hohelied Salomos. Simultaneously pastoral and celestial, this is peaceful, uplifting prog. The bonus track Be In Love is a special performance enhanced with violin and oboe from the same line up as 1972’s Hosianna Mantra.
Einsjäger & Siebenjäger (1974) is sterling example of Popol Vuh’s sound in their prime, and one of their most energetic and melodic albums. The side-long title track, featuring the infrequent but beatific vocals of Djong Yun, is a sophisticated composition and a gorgeous piece of music. This edition adds two bonus tracks.
Das Hohelied Salomos (1975) is arguably one of Popol Vuh’s two best albums. Here they play a near-acoustic progressive: contemplative, mellow, and mostly instrumental, with Indian percussion adding an eastern element. There is plenty of electric guitar, just not the usual type of rock guitar. Letzte Tage Letzte Nachte (1976) is probably the closest that Popol Vuh came to straightforward progressive rock, though still shrouded in a mysterious and enchanting atmosphere. The sound is loud, dominated by electric guitar and drums plus Djong Yun’s majestic (female) voice, and there are none of the ambient, meditative pieces of earlier albums. These two CDs include three bonus tracks each.
Brüder des Schattens - Söhne des Lichts (1978) is the previously unreleased “demo” version of the Nosferatu soundtrack and is among Popol Vuh’s most beautiful and most melodious albums. The bonus track Sing, For Song Drives Away the Wolves is a 1993 version of the original song from the Werner Herzog film Herz aus Glas, revised and rearranged by Guido Hieronymus with powerful guitars and a full sound.
Die Nacht der Seele / Tantric Songs (1979) is more of a world music album than a rock album, largely acoustic, with influences of Indian music and a pervading sense of the ancient, the mysterious, and the sacred. The CD includes four bonus tracks. Coeur de Verre (Herz aus Glas, Heart of Glass) is the soundtrack to Werner Herzog’s 1976 film and is one of Popol Vuh’s better works. It easily stands on its own without the film. It blends some traditional East Indian classical music with progressive rock, and from there Florian Fricke takes the listener on a blissed-out trip that one might compare to Mike Oldfield circa Ommadawn or Incantations, though less English and more eastern. The lineup is Florian Fricke (piano), Daniel Fichelscher (electric & acoustic guitar, drums & percussion), Al Gromer (sitar), and Mathias von Tippelskirch (flute). The CD contains two previously-unreleased bonus tracks.
The soundtrack to yet another of Werner Herzog’s films, Fitzcarraldo (1982) is fairly bizarre. The film is the story of an opera house being built in the South American jungle for an appearance by Enrico Caruso. The soundtrack is a mixture of typical atmospheric Popol Vuh music with a lot of opera music. So if you wanted to hear Enrico Caruso singing alongside Popol Vuh...
City Raga is the 1994 CD by Florian Fricke, Daniel Fichelscher, and new collaborator Guido Hieronymus. Fichelscher is only on one song here. Fricke is primarily writer and producer, while Hieronymus is responsible for much of the new sound. It’s certainly different from Popol Vuh’s 1970s albums, but still very good. This is Popol Vuh’s attempt at a Deep Forest or Cirque du Soleil style. Each song is driven by drums loops and programmed rhythms, with female vocals on most tracks from Maya Rose. Her voice is used as an instrument. The world music here suggests the Mayans or Aztecs. The sound is much more synthetic than earlier albums, reflecting the ambient dance music popular at the time in Europe.
Poverty’s No Crime - Save My Soul ($11.99) 2007 release from German prog-metal band on InsideOut.
Rebekka - Phoenix ($14.99) Phoenix (1982) is the sole album from Rebekka, a German romantic progressive band with female vocals, close to Renaissance or Illusion. A 12-minute bonus track from the same sessions is included.
Rejoice - Rejoice ($16.99)Fantastic German instrumental keyboard-dominated progressive rock, with a lot of ELP influence but also a lot of originality. These tracks were originally composed between 1979-1982 but not recorded until 1995-1996.
Ricochet - Zarah: A Teartown Story ($12.99) Zarah (2005) is an ambitious 72-minute concept album, the second release by a German prog-metal quintet along the lines of Threshold, Queensryche, and early Dream Theater. Vocals in excellent English of course. To find the band’s mp3’s, click the mp3 icon above, then click on “discography".
Rigoni / Schoenherz - Victor ($15.99)Victor was released as a lavish double-LP in 1975 on the German Bacillus label, though Rigoni and Schoenherz were Austrian. This 2011 digipack CD reproduces the 24-page book that was part of the gatefold 2LP. Victor was an ambitious work that attempted to combine progressive rock with a symphony orchestra. As with many such early attempts (e.g., The Moody Blues’, Deep Purple’s), the orchestra and the rock band were never fully integrated, nevertheless this is quite good. Peter Hauke (producer for Nektar and many others) produced this album, and it does resemble Nektar at times. You can find two chunks of the album on YouTube here and here.
Andrew Roussak - No Trespassing ($14.99) Andrew Roussak is a Russian expat keyboardist/composer living in Germany, where he has risen to some prominence. On this 2008 CD, he leads a full rock band. The instrumentals are classically-influenced and often give the impression of a Rick van der Linden album. Two pieces are arrangements of Bach compositions; another excellent classical-rock instrumental was written as a tribute to Keith Emerson. The instrumentals share the CD with English-language vocal songs that are similar to things found on Rick Wakeman albums. The album is rich in melody, with Roussak’s classical piano a frequent highlight. Read the DPRP review.
Rousseau - At the Cinema ($14.99) 
Rousseau - Flower in Asphalt mini-LP ($15.99) Rousseau are a German band that released three well-regarded albums between 1980-1987. Flower in Asphalt (1980) is the first of those albums, Retreat (1983) the second, and Square the Circle (1987) the third. These albums feature a flowing, melodic, romantic style of symphonic prog close to Camel. The band was primarily instrumental during this phase, their style based on layers of fluid keyboards, airy guitar, and lots of flute. These mini-LP editions of Flower in Asphalt and Retreat are the 2009 editions released by the MALS label under license from Musea, which come in heavyweight cardboard sleeves.
Rousseau reformed to release At the Cinema in 2002, and though the flute player is gone, guest musicians on oboe, viola, and accordion compensate. The album’s instrumentals remain close to the band’s old style, and fortunately they dominate the album. You do have to put up with a few vocal ballads that have more in common with The Eagles than with prog rock, but on balance this is a fine album.
RPWL - The Gentle Art of Music (2CD, $17.99) 
RPWL - World Through My Eyes ($14.99)
RPWL - Trying to Kiss the Sun ($14.99)RPWL traces its roots to the band Violet District but was originally formed as a Pink Floyd cover band. They soon turned to writing their own songs, leading to their acclaimed first album God Has Failed in 2000. Some of the tracks on this album are very Pink Floyd-influenced and very symphonic, while others are lighter and playful, with a Beatles influence at times. Throughout the album, the dominant feature is RPWL’s exceptional songwriting. Put all that together and you have an end result close to Porcupine Tree of that same era. Their second, Trying to Kiss the Sun (2002), sees them developing more of their own sound. The 9-minute Home Again is very Floydian, but otherwise the Floyd influence is not quite as obvious as on their debut. There’s at least as much Beatles influence, which leads to comparisons with another Beatles-influenced prog band, Spock’s Beard.
Stock, RPWL’s third, is a collection of previously-unreleased tracks, but it doesn’t sound at all like a bunch of leftovers. It’s a very strong album containing more traditional progressive content than before, including a Genesis influence that is not present on their first two albums. In addition to an audio CD, this 2-disc set contains a PAL DVD (all-region). The DVD contains all the songs in both DTS 96/24 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround formats, as well as a tour and history video.
World Through My Eyes (2005, 70-minutes) is their brilliant fourth album. Here they seem to integrate the two main aspects of their style more effectively than ever before: the symphonic Pink Floyd style and the lighter, playful Beatles style. There is also a little early Genesis influence, which was previously only apparent on their Stock CD. RPWL’s songwriting is exceptional, and the end result is often close to Porcupine Tree. Ray Wilson guests on vocals on one track. The Special Edition Hybrid SACD version includes SACD surround, SACD stereo, and CD stereo audio. It adds a slipcase and a 7-minute bonus track.
Live - Start the Fire is the first live album from RPWL and contains highlights from their 2005 European tour. This double-CD features several songs that have not appeared on previous RPWL studio albums. The Pink Floyd covers Cymbaline and Welcome to the Machine are included, as well as Not About Us, a Genesis song with Ray Wilson appearing here on vocals. There is a bonus studio track, the previously-unreleased 13-minute New Stars Are Born.
This is the special edition of RPWL’s 2008 fifth studio album The RPWL Experience, which adds two bonus tracks and a slipcase. RPWL continue their remarkably high level of creativity here. RPWL are usually considered alongside Porcupine Tree and Riverside, and while they do belong in that contemporary progressive camp, RPWL are the most traditionally-progressive of the lot, and easily the most melodic. RPWL’s original Pink Floyd influence is still easy to hear, and their playful Beatles side is still present in spots. Mellotron strings add to the lush textures, while metal intrudes only infrequently. The second bonus track on the special edition, the 7:33 Reach for the Sun, is very Genesis-like. (For some reason, RPWL’s Genesis-influenced songs tend to end up as bonus material -- most of the rest are on Stock.
RPWL celebrated their 10th year with the double CD The Gentle Art of Music, which comes in a hardcover digibook. The first disc is a compilation, a career-spanning ‘best of’. On the second disc, RPWL present nine of their classics reworked as acoustic arrangements plus two new songs. These feature many special guests, including Ray Wilson, Tom Norris of the London Symphony Orchestra, and acclaimed Hang (a percussion thing) player Manu Delago. Read the Sea of Tranquility and DPRP reviews. Check our DVDs page for The RPWL Live Experience DVD.
Scaramouche - Scaramouche ($15.99) CD reissue of a 1981 record from a German band with a taste for Genesis and Yes plus more conventional rock influences, close to Machiavel at times. Good instrumental sections, fairly Anglo sounding.
Schicke Führs & Fröhling - Ticket to Everywhere ($17.99) 
Führs & Fröhling - Ammerland ($17.99)The instrumental trio of drummer Eduard Schicke, keyboardist Gerd Führs and guitarist/bassist Heinz Fröhling, otherwise known as SFF, made three classic German progressive rock albums in the 1970s, while the duo of Führs & Fröhling made three more excellent albums. These are (aside from the Live 1975 CD) the newly remastered 2010 Esoteric editions on their Reactive imprint, dedicated to reissues of classic German and Austrian rock. The booklets feature restored artwork, photos and liner notes. Symphonic Pictures was released on the Brain label in 1976, followed by Sunburst in 1977 and Ticket to Everywhere in 1979. The consensus is that Symphonic Pictures is SFF’s best, followed by Sunburst, with Ticket to Everywhere bringing up the rear, but all are worthwhile. This edition of Symphonic Pictures includes an entire live album on a bonus CD, a 1975 live performance. It appears to be the same recording as the SFF - Live 1975 CD released in 2002. Ticket to Everywhere includes three 1978 live bonus tracks.
Ammerland (1978) is the first and best of the three Führs & Fröhling albums. The other two have not seen a legitimate CD reissue. Ammerland is more acoustic, pastoral and classical than the SFF albums, a German equivalent of Anthony Phillips’ The Geese and the Ghost perhaps. It is one of the most beautiful progressive albums ever made. Read the review at VintageProg.com.
Schwarzarbeit - James Gordon’s Story mini-LP ($15.99) German symphonic prog band Schwarzarbeit began with a self-titled debut LP in 1979, followed by Traum oder Wirklichkeit in 1982. Neither of these has been reissued on CD. James Gordon’s Story (1994) is their third, containing instrumental sympho-prog approximately in the later Camel style. Three bonus tracks are included. This mini-LP edition is the 2009 limited edition released by the MALS label under license from Musea, which comes in a heavyweight gatefold cardboard sleeve.
Scythe - Divorced Land ($15.99) This 2001 CD is the first official album by this German symphonic progressive band (with English vocals). Scythe draw their influences primarily from the 1970s prog bands, with a few Marillion-isms. At various times one can detect Genesis, Yes, Van der Graaf Generator and others, but no one influence dominates. A lot of long tracks, with the nearly 17-minute Denied being the highlight. 74-minutes. Read the Progressive World review.
Seven Steps to the Green Door - The? Book ($17.99) 
The Puzzle (2006, 74-minutes) is one of the most intriguing modern takes on progressive rock that we’ve heard. In true postmodern fashion, this German band integrate many different styles into a cohesive whole, but there is little doubt that it is symphonic progressive at its core. The classically-influenced piano playing of Marek Arnold is a key feature of the music, and he also adds some woodwinds. There is a good deal of metal influence, and prog-metal fans owe it to themselves to give this a spin. Most prog-metal bands alternate rather than integrate the prog and the metal. Seven Steps to the Green Door on the other hand blend the two well. They are able to maintain the melody and the song when adding the crunchy guitar, and the music never gets ugly. They have excellent male vocals (and some female vocals) in English. The whole thing is surprisingly sophisticated and very well recorded.
Step in 2 My World (2008, 66-minutes) is even better. It is more melodic and the metal guitar plays only a minor role, but where the band have really taken things to the next level are the vocals. They use one female and two male singers, both in lead and harmony roles, plus a guest spot for Larry B., the singer from the current Stern Combo Meissen and Toxic Smile.
The? Book (2011) comes in the mediabook (digibook) format, hardcover with 52-page booklet (in German and English). Larry B. again guests, as well as Flaming Row leader Martin Schnella. This concept album is the band’s most ambitious to date, more intense than the first two. While it’s their most mature work, it’s still tainted by metal in spots, so there’s still room for more maturation. “The conclusion this time is simple: the best (retro)-progressive album of the year. Melodic but never dull, diverse without being unstructured, both gentle and fierce, sustained by an elaborate story that focuses on what seems for a lot of people to be currently burning in their soul.” [Musikreviews.de, translated from German] “...the album offers everything the proggies’ heart desires: springy melodies, complex rhythms, delicate vocal harmonies, fast-paced keyboard and guitar riffs, and a pinch of metal for seasoning here and there... Certainly one of the best German (prog) rock releases of recent years.” [Babyblaue Seiten, translated from German] “Seven Steps to the Green Door have clearly reached the premier league of the German prog scene... My absolute buy recommendation!” [proggies.ch, translated from German] Check below for the related band Toxic Smile.
Shaa Khan - Live 2009 ($17.99) 
These 2009 digipacks include the first-ever CD reissues of the two studio albums by German progressive rock band Shaa Khan, who debuted in 1978 on Sky Records with The World Will End on Friday. On this album, Shaa Khan sound very close to Grobschnitt circa Rockpommel’s Land. There may be a bit of Solar Music in there too, but the guitar style especially is reminiscent of Rockpommel’s Land. Shaa Kahn followed in 1979 with Anything Wrong?, which includes two live bonus tracks from their 2009 comeback concert. Anything Wrong? is more polished than their debut, as the band had more studio time to work with. The music is similar enough to their debut but with a broader progressive style, taking a step closer to Jane and Eloy. Both booklets contain previously unseen photos, with new liner notes in both German and English.
The Live 2009 CD is the live recording of one of the unlikeliest progressive rock reunion concerts ever, featuring 10 tracks, 66-minutes total.
Shades of Dawn - Graffity’s Rainbow ($15.99) This German band released the CD The Dawn of Time in 1998, a very good and definitely overlooked symphonic neo-prog album. From Dusk till Dawn (2007) comprises tracks originally recorded in 1994 on 16 tracks. Work began in 2003 to rework and enrich those recordings with additional overdubs, with four songs from that period entirely re-recorded for this CD. The result is a symphonic rock album influenced by the likes of Pink Floyd, Camel, and Genesis, or to choose some German bands, Eloy, Novalis, Ramses, and Jane. It’s significant that Shades of Dawn don’t seem to be influenced by Marillion but only directly by the 70s bands. You can still call it neo-prog because it is derivative of the 70s bands and generally not on the same level, but the same was true for many of the earlier German symphonic bands, most of whom remain obscure. This is very melodic music with little darkness or tension, often led by lyrical guitar and including many dynamic and lively instrumental sequences as well as spacey atmospheres.
“Graffity’s Rainbow (2011) is the band’s most symphonic and ambitious output thus far. This third album consists of four long tracks, while the epic 25-minute title track features themes by Schubert and Mussorgsky, perfectly woven into Shades of Dawn’s own sound.” You can find the song The Eternal Recurrence of the Same (Pt. 1) on YouTube.
Sieges Even - Playgrounds ($14.99) |     |
Snowball - Defroster ($17.99) This is the digipack reissue on Sireena Records of the 1978 album by Anglo-German band Snowball, their first and best. On this album, Snowball comprised drummer Curt Cress (New Triumvirat, Passport, many others), keyboardist Kristian Schultze (Passport, solo, Cusco), bassist Dave King (many sessions and tours), and singer/guitarist Roye Albrighton (Nektar). Cress was often considered to be the best drummer in Germany at the time. The music is a melodic, accessible 1970s style jazz-rock with lots of electronic keyboards, close to Passport’s style at that time (minus the sax), while the tracks featuring Albrighton’s familiar voice are more rock and song-oriented. The booklet has new liner notes in both German and English. Check above for the related Curt Cress Clan.
Solar Project - Chromagnitude ($15.99) The German band Solar Project are well-known for their Pink Floyd-influenced concept albums. They sing in English. Force Majeure (2004) is their sixth album, and they still build mid-tempo Floydian atmospheres, with floating organ and keyboard sounds, expressive guitar solos, and a mix of instrumental and vocal passages. New musicians on sax and bass join Robert Valet (keyboards & acoustic guitars), Paul Terhoeven (electric & acoustic guitars, basses) and Volker Janacek (drums), plus a new female singer. Four tracks span 68-minutes.
Chromagnitude (2007, 64-minutes) is their seventh. The lineup is nearly the same as on Force Majeure and no major changes to their style other than that they remind us more than ever of Eloy on this album. Solar Project continue to make steady improvement with each album, and this one is exceptional in the varied and subtle details in the mix.
Subsignal - Touchstones ($14.99) The German/Dutch band Subsignal was founded in 2007, originally intended as a side project of Sieges Even members Arno Menses (vocals) and Markus Steffen (guitars). But Sieges Even is no more, and Subsignal is now a fully functional quintet who can be viewed as Sieges Even goes to grad school. Sieges Even were at the height of their progressive powers when they disbanded, and Subsignal advance further in this direction, using a full-time keyboardist, something Sieges Even usually lacked. The Yes influence that was introduced on the final two Sieges Even studio CDs is now much stronger.
Sylvan - Force of Gravity ($13.99) Sylvan returned in 2009 with their eagerly-awaited seventh studio CD Force of Gravity (69-minutes). Sylvan have continued to gradually transform themselves from their beginnings as a Marillion copyist into a modern art-rock band of the top echelon. With a new guitarist, this album adds more me-too metal guitar, but not enough to diminish the overall result of a worthy successor to Posthumous Silence and Presets. A string quartet appears on four tracks, a female vocalist on one. Keyboardist Volker Söhl impresses with some classical piano that John Tout would be proud of. Read the Sea of Tranquility reviews.
Sylvan - Posthumous Silence: The Show DVD ($19.99) In September 2007, Sylvan performed a big production concert in Hamburg, Germany, which included a guest guitarist, cellist, and three-woman choir. Leaving Backstage is a double live CD audio recording of that performance. Disc One is their performance of the complete Posthumous Silence album, their magnum opus. Disc Two is a nine track greatest hits live from Sylvan’s other albums dating back to 1998, concluding with the 19-minute title track from Artificial Paradise. The companion DVD (NTSC, all-region) includes just the Posthumous Silence portion of this set plus Artificial Paradise, in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo audio. Bonus features include In the Studio 2005-2006 (behind-the-scenes footage of the recording of Posthumous Silence and Presets), 34 Days (behind-the-scenes footage of the production of the live show), interviews with Sylvan and their main technicians, and a slide show. There are English subtitles for the interviews. Everything from the lightshow to the audio and video quality is excellent.
Sylvan - Presets ($13.99) 
Sylvan - Artificial Paradise ($13.99) 
Posthumous Silence (2006) is the 70-minute fifth CD by German progressive rock band Sylvan, their first concept album, and absolutely their best work to date. They can no longer be called a neo-prog band, as their music no longer relates strongly to the 1980s British prog bands. Rather, they are a modern prog band with moody, melancholy vocals similar to Riverside and other recent bands sharing this aesthetic. Sylvan have a tremendous singer in Marco Glühmann, and this is his most powerful performance on record. The music is dark and somewhat heavy but only metallic in a few spots. It is really sumptuous, emotionally intense and heartfelt, amazingly powerful and majestic without crossing over into bombast. Based on Sylvan’s earliest albums, few could anticipate that they would one day create this masterpiece.
Presets (2007, 62-minutes) was actually recorded and produced in parallel with Posthumous Silence. It is amazing how far this band has come, and the music here is every bit as sumptuous, majestic, and emotionally intense as on Posthumous Silence. Relative to Posthumous Silence, the songs on Presets are shorter and more direct. In traditional prog-speak, that is usually a negative, but not here. Presets showcases Sylvan’s songwriting and Marco Glühmann’s vocal talents like never before. With this album, Sylvan are now easily on the same level as Porcupine Tree and Hogarth-era Marillion, yet listening to Presets makes one wonder, have P.Tree or Marillion ever put this many great melodies on one album?
Sylvan began in the late 1990s as a prototypical neo-prog band, but while so many others who derived their sound from Marillion have disbanded, Sylvan have persevered, becoming more professional and their music much stronger. They have a great singer with a powerful and expressive voice, singing in flawless English. X-Rayed (2004) and Artificial Paradise (2002) are both 69-minutes long. Both are strong albums, with X-Rayed showing more influences of modern rock, making for a more serious and moody sound. The more contemporary influences are blended with Sylvan’s original neo-prog style, notable for the Rothery-like lead guitar lines, and it all comes together most effectively on their epic length tracks.
These are the 2010 re-editions of the first two Sylvan albums: Encounters (2000) and Deliverance (1998). The early Marillion influence is more evident on these. Encounters is centered on the 12-part title suite. Deliverance has five tracks that exceed 9 minutes, the best of which is the 16:44 A Fairytale Ending (reworked for this edition), an ambitious musical story with narration, similar to things Glass Hammer did on their earlier albums. This new edition adds a bonus CD with the 12:26 epic The Lie, a song recorded in 2010 but based on unreleased material from the Deliverance writing sessions.
t - Anti-Matter Poetry ($13.99) t is the moniker used by Thomas Thielen, formerly singer/guitarist of the band Scythe. Voices (2006, 73-minutes) is the second t album, a seriously under-recognized work of modern symphonic prog. Thielen’s voice has similarities to Steve Hogarth and Peter Gabriel, and the music has similarities to Brave and other later Marillion, to Gabriel, and to bands such as No-Man and Product. The predominant mood is dark, atmospheric, surreal, dramatic and profound. There are lots of richly-textured, detailed, dense instrumental arrangements that often include Mellotron and strings. These tracks supposedly deal with the voices we hear in our head in various life situations, and Thielen’s voice has a distant quality that evokes that. This is the MALS label edition, which is identical to the Galileo edition apart from label boilerplate.
Four years in the making, Anti-Matter Poetry (2010, 65-minutes) is stunning. What we said about Voices is just as applicable here, but everything has been perfected. Some bands in the ‘modern progressive’ category are not capable of playing convincing classic symphonic prog, but parts of Anti-Matter Poetry are exactly that, with the largest debt owed to Pink Floyd (as is also the case with Porcupine Tree and many of the other modern prog bands). And some bands are in the modern prog category mainly because they’ve diluted and dumbed down their music with metal, grunge, etc, but that’s not the case with t. What does put t in the modern prog category is the prevailing mood of melancholy and alienation, the skillful use of samples and loops to augment but not form the basis of the music, and the finely-detailed atmospheres. It is majesty without bombast.
Veteran prog reviewer Jurriaan Hage had this to say about Naive, the first t CD from 2002, and t has only gotten better since then: “This extremely intimate and seemingly very personal catharsis is one of the most original and, I feel, timeless albums to grace progressive rock in some time. I have to admit this may not be everyone’s cup of tea; that is simply a question of what you expect in music. Main references are Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, Hogarth’s Marillion (Brave era) and No-Man. The quality and expressiveness is apparent throughout with maybe a bit of experimentation, but never without purpose. Do yourself, the label and the artist a favor and let the emotions and melodies that haunt me now haunt you too.”
Tea for Two - Twisted ($14.99) 
Recorded in 2000, 101 is the second studio album for German neo-prog band Tea for Two, following their 1993 debut and a 1996 live album Snapshots. Neither of their previous albums was anything to write home about, but they made great strides with 101. Sung in English, this is similar enough to Clepsydra or just about any of the Marillion-derived European neo-prog bands to appeal to the same fans. There are plenty of 1970s-inspired passages as well, suggesting Machiavel and others. There is a lot of excellent symphonic prog on an album that has been overlooked in the U.S.
Tea for Two take their time between albums, but each has improved significantly on the previous, and Twisted (2006) is their best yet. After opening with a prog-flamenco song, there are many medieval/renaissance touches from recorders, mandolin, and acoustic guitar (think Jethro Tull), plus guest musicians adding fretless bass, cello, female vocals, and more. The music is no longer in Marillion territory but is more original, high-caliber melodic progressive rock.
Michael Schumpelt is the keyboardist of Tea for Two, and Mirror of My Soul (2006) is a solo grand piano album. It’s hard for many prog fans to get tremendously excited about solo piano albums, but this one is quite entertaining because the songs sound like piano arrangements of rock songs. Well, that’s what at least some of them are, since there are Tea for Two songs here. Schumpelt is influenced by Tony Banks, though that is only one aspect of his style. “Michael Schumpelt’s Mirror of My Soul is in many ways a remarkable album of rather extraordinary piano music and should be essential listening for anybody having respect for any kind of good symphonic music, as well as those art-rock fans who are able not only to recognize their beloved music in the absence of a rock component, but also to accept it in such a form”. [Progressor.net]
Tetragon - Nature mini-LP ($15.99) This is the CD reissue of a 1971 LP that had been a real collector’s item, as only 400 copies were pressed on vinyl. The CD adds a 14-minute bonus live track from 1972. Read reviews at Prog Archives. (There is an audio sample there.) The mini-LP edition is the 2009 limited edition released by the MALS label under license from Musea, which comes in a heavyweight cardboard sleeve. Read reviews at Prog Archives.
Thonk - Earth Vision Impact ($15.99)Earth Vision Impact is the 2001 debut by a Swiss trio of keys, bass/guitars, and drums, engineered and produced by Pär Lindh. This is solid keyboard-dominated progressive rock, ELP and Pär Lindh Project being obvious references, but with many other influences incorporated. There is a bit of Anekdoten-style darkness and dissonance here, and plenty of power. Here is an mp3 sampler from the CD. See also Flavio Mezzodi’s CD above.
Toxic Smile - M.A.D. 10th Anniversary ($16.99) 
Toxic Smile - Overdue Visit (CD-EP, $7.99) Toxic Smile is the other band of keyboardist/composer Marek Arnold of Seven Steps to the Green Door. Toxic Smile is the longer-running band, and in Germany at least, Toxic Smile is the better-known band and Seven Steps considered the side project. Given that the two bands have the same composer and some overlapping personnel, Toxic Smile sound quite similar to Seven Steps to the Green Door, and all the good things said about Seven Steps apply here. Listening to RetroTox Forte (2004, 69-minutes), you have the sense that anything is possible. If they sound like Dream Theater one moment, Toxic Smile have the good sense to change to something different the next moment, and the end result is original and exciting. Read the Sea of Tranquility review.
Overdue Visit (2009) is a four song, 23-minute CD-EP with two excellent energetic songs and two mellower songs; the latter are arguably where Arnold’s songwriting is best displayed.
I’m Your Saviour (2011, 62-minutes) displays a more mature Toxic Smile. There is metal guitar present at times, but to call this prog-metal is selling Toxic Smile short. The music mixes many influences but overall is closer to Martigan or Pallas than to Dream Theater, and Toxic Smile singer Larry B. has a voice much better suited to progressive rock than to metal; that is, he sings in his natural, unaffected voice and doesn’t over-sing, posture or growl. The bulk of the material here has little to do with metal, and even on the tracks with metal guitar, the music is too melodic, arty and tasteful to be saddled with the prog-metal tag. After all, Toxic Smile’s leader is a keyboardist. This may not be Genesis or Yes, but it is classy neo-prog with plenty of clever bits and 1970s flavors from Marek Arnold’s keyboards making it an excellent CD. Here are YouTube videos for the songs The Abyss, Liquid Wall, I’m Your Saviour, and Endless Cycle. Read the Sea of Tranquility review.
M.A.D. is Toxic Smile’s debut. Cold war veterans probably assume that M.A.D. stands for Mutual Assured Destruction, but it’s actually short for Madness and Despair. The album was originally released in 2000 in Germany and picked up by Sony/BMG Korea for a 2001 release in Asia. This is the 2011 digipack reissue on Progressive Promotion Records, limited to only 500 copies. The audio has been remastered and includes the two additional tracks on the Asian edition, 63-minutes total. This album overall is a bit heavier, but when it is prog-metal, it is a very melodic prog-metal with as many aspects of classic progressive rock as metal. Saga deserve mention as an influence, and as the CD includes an energetic cover of Owner of a Lonely Heart, put Yes in there too. On the ballads, singer Larry B. starts to sound like Phil Collins, while the 13-minute Arirang will leave few prog fans wanting. M.A.D. is a very strong debut where Arnold’s writing skills and the musicianship of the band members is immediately apparent. And they would only get better...
Traumhaus - Die Andere Seite ($17.99) There aren’t many active prog bands in Germany who sing in German, but for some reason, all the ones whose name begins with “Traum” (“Dream”) do. Traumhaus debuted in 2001 with a self-titled CD stylistically similar to neo-prog bands such as Ziff or early Sylvan, but with German vocals reminiscent of the old East German bands such as Stern Meissen, Lift and Electra. And some of the material was on the same level as those bands.
After a 2005 EP and some personnel changes, Traumhaus returned in 2008 with Die Andere Seite (63-minutes, digipack). About half this album is neo-prog and prog-metal, while half is classic prog that exceeds their earlier work. The keyboardist favors vintage sounds, and the album is chock full of Mellotron, Hammond, Minimoog, Fender, etc. In fact, it’s one of the most Mellotron-heavy albums in recent years. There are times when Traumhaus cause flashbacks to prime-period Stern Meissen and Novalis, with an even more powerful sound. Unfortunately, the guitarist switches to metal mode on some tracks, and the music becomes rather ordinary. Well, extraordinary for prog-metal, because the keyboardist does everything he can to keep the music symphonic, but ordinary relative to Traumhaus’s other material. On balance though, this is one of the most under-recognized progressive CDs in the U.S.
Traumpfad - Aufbruch ($15.99) 
Traumpfad are that rarity today among German progressive rock bands, one that sings in German. Serious prog fans are familiar with bands such as Novalis, Stern Meissen, Lift, etc., German bands who sang in German. There were more during the 1970s and 1980s, but as part of the homogenization of progressive rock, non-English vocals were outlawed in many countries. Now you commonly find Americans (and Brits) who call themselves progressive rock fans even though they’ve only ever listened to bands that sing in English. So we find a band such as Traumpfad refreshing because the German vocals do change the character of the music, but that’s not the main reason. While Traumpfad’s members are young, and their second CD Die Kreise schließen sich (2006, 54-minutes, digipack) was recorded in RPWL’s studio, it is mostly in the classic German symphonic prog style, or at least an update of that style. The keyboards are piano, organ, Mellotron, and analog synth, including Teutonic electronics on one track. Their singer is very good, and the vocals bring to mind the old DDR prog bands (e.g., Stern Meissen, Lift, Electra), but Grobschnitt, Novalis, and Anyone’s Daughter are also good references. Given how many classic-style German progressive rock records have been recorded in the previous 20 years (approximately none), this for us may be the best German prog album since the first generation bands packed it in. (Yes, bands such as RPWL and Sylvan have made some great albums in a more modern style, but they may as well be British. There is nothing in their music that suggests they’ve ever listened to the prog bands from their own country.)
RPWL’s Yogi Lang produced Aufbruch (2011, digibook), Traumpfad’s third. Relative to Die Kreise schließen sich, Aufbruch is heavier, with guitar more to the fore. The vintage keys and powerful Teutonic vocals still tie the music to the classic era, the end result being a more contemporary sounding variation on the style of Die Kreise schließen sich.
Traumpfad’s 2004 self-titled debut CD (64-minutes) is more varied and a bit wilder, not as symphonic nor as melodic as their later albums. It is still 1970s-styled, a mix of progressive rock, period hard rock, and Krautrock. Those who prefer the numerous 1970s Krautrock bands to the symphonic German bands will prefer the first CD, which comes in non-standard packaging that resembles a hardcover book. (None of their CDs are factory-sealed.) In addition to the audio on Traumpfad’s MySpace page (2nd mp3 icon above), here are mp3 medleys from Die Kreise schließen sich and Traumpfad.
Trilogy - Here It Is mini-LP ($15.99) This is the CD reissue of the 1979 album from a German ELP-style progressive rock band, with one bonus track. Trilogy were a quintet however, featuring two keyboardists, guitar, bass, and drums. They also have a melodic/romantic side comparable to Rousseau. This mini-LP edition is the 2009 limited edition released by the MALS label under license from Musea, which comes in a heavyweight cardboard sleeve. Read reviews at Prog Archives.
Various Artists - Jazzkraut ($14.99)These two CDs are compilations featuring the artists on the German Sireena label. Jazzkraut (2011, digipack) features tracks from German jazz-rock bands Moira, Embryo, Real Ax Band, Aera, Uli Trepte, Annexus Quam, Kraan, Klaus Doldinger, Holde Fee, Munju, Missus Beastly, Guru Guru, Volker Kriegel, and Wolfgang Dauner’s Et Cetera.
The Spirit of Sireena Vol. 5 (2010, digisleeve) covers a wider range of styles and features tracks from Snowball, Curt Cress Combo, Out of Focus, Mott the Hoople, Gillan, Grobschnitt, and ten others. Counts as only one-half CD for shipping.
Versus X - Primordial Ocean ($15.99) 
Versus X is a German band led by guitarist/singer Arne Schäfer (who also has several albums under the name Apogee) and keyboardist Ekkehard Nahm. They are most inspired by Van der Graaf Generator and Peter Hammill; additionally the darker side of Genesis can be heard, also King Crimson and Pink Floyd could be mentioned. It’s an original and complex music with long tracks, dark atmospheres, and philosophical lyrics (in English). The instrumental sections are beyond reproach, while opinion will probably be divided on the vocal sections. Schäfer’s voice is fine, but the lyrics are verbose even by Hammill standards.
Live At The Spirit (2002) is the recording of a memorable show given by Versus X in Belgium. The result is four long tracks taken from their three previous studio albums. Primordial Ocean (2008) is a 73-minute CD with five tracks, and if you ignore the short piano piece, the remaining four tracks are all over 15-minutes long. It is again classic 1970s-style symphonic prog, with references to the aforementioned bands, and should have great appeal to fans of Anglagard as well.
After being unavailable for years, Versus X’s eponymous 1994 debut was remastered from the original tapes and reissued by Musea in 2010 with one bonus track.
Vinc Project - My Story ($15.99) Vinc Project is primarily the work of Vincent Zermatten (Vinc for short) of Switzerland. His regular job is guitarist in the band Ever Since, who apparently are one of the three million metal bands in Europe. But My Story (2008) has very little to do with metal. Vinc plays just about everything here: keys, acoustic & electric guitars, bass, drums and vocals, and is assisted by a violinist, a cellist, and two singers. The music is melancholy, full-sounding symphonic rock that sounds very much like a full band. Some tracks are sonically dense, featuring Mellotron strings sometimes in combination with violin and cello, a fairly unique approach. In contrast, some passages are airy and delicate. The vocals (lyrics in English) are processed to sound somewhat disembodied, and while there are vocals with real melody lines, a few are more spoken than sung, altogether adding a psychedelic flavor. The music is lush and atmospheric, with varying climates that are often quite lovely, yet underlined with sadness. The album is accessible and especially appealing to those who love the Mellotron. Now give those MySpace audio samples a listen so this description begins to make sense.
Yacobs - Time Machine ($15.99) Time Machine (2011) is the fourth solo album of Argos’ drummer Ulf Jacobs. Lyrically it’s about the fascination of time travel, freely adapted from the famous novel by H.G. Wells. Jacobs sings (in English) and takes care of drums and keys, while other musicians play bass, flute, acoustic and electric guitars. The music is lush, melodic, Genesis-derived symphonic rock with a relatively subdued energy and understated vocals. Along with the Mellotron, Taurus bass pedals, and other vintage keyboard sounds, this belongs in the classic prog genre. On a couple tracks, Jacobs includes an analog sequencer playing a simple ostinato that will remind you of the German band P’cock (unless you’ve never heard P’cock, in which case it won’t.) Watch the official album montage video.
Zenit - Surrender ($15.99)Zenit is a Swiss band from the Ticino, the Italian-speaking Swiss canton, formed by members of or musicians who have worked with Clepsydra, Changes, and Shakary. That’s pretty much every progressive band in the canton. Surrender (2006, digipack) is their 64-minute second CD and it’s an excellent prog rock album that relates to all the aforementioned bands, though it’s not as Marillion-influenced as Clepsydra. In fact, it reminds us quite a bit of Flame Dream, who are probably still the best symphonic prog band to come out of Switzerland. At least it sounds like what Flame Dream might produce in 2006 if they were active and wanted to make a progressive rock album. (Like many bands of their era, Flame Dream’s final output was commercial.) mp3 of Surrender album medley (7:08) • mp3 of track The City (4:26)
Zenobia - Delayed ($14.99)Berlin-based prog quintet Zenobia debuted in 1999 with the 70-minute October, an entertaining if unspectacular neo-prog work. After a seven year hiatus, Zenobia returned with Delayed (2006). This is a much-improved 74-minute neo-prog opus including a very long multi-part epic. “The German Spock’s Beard” might not be far off the mark. There are touches of prog-metal as is required these days, but the exciting keyboard-dominated instrumental passages are more the highlight. English-language vocals of course. Read the ProgNaut and Prog-Nose reviews.