PROG IN BRIEF

Discovering

Boasting an eclectic catalogue of more than 240

Ed’s Letter

Hello, and welcome to the new issue of

Bloody Well Write

Send your letters to us at: Prog, Future

TWEET TALK

Follow us on twitter.com/ progmagazineUK CECILIA FAGE @ccfage

HIT AND MYTH – TULL ARE BACK, ALREADY!

Just a year after the Top 10 success of The Zealot Gene, Ian Anderson and his band return armed with electric guitars, umlauts and tales of Norse mythology on album 23, Rökflöte.

BUNDLES OF NEWS FROM SOFT MACHINE!

Drummer John Marshall steps down but the band tour on, with new LP on the way.

GENESIS AT THE BEEB MAJOR BOX DUE WITH RARITIES

Previously unavailable material amid these BBC Broadcasts.

NEW DANGER FROM EXPLORING BIRDSONG

With a little help from Sir Paul McCartney, the piano-led trio are back with a fresh EP.

INTRO extras

ASIA’S FANTASIA NOW ON VINYL

PETER GABRIEL’S I/O HOVING INTO VIEW

First single Panopticom is out now, with a guest appearance from Brian Eno.

THE OCEAN MARK END OF AN ERA WITH UPCOMING ALBUM

Holocene is “the closing chapter” in their geological cycle.

RAIN BREAK RADIO SILENCE WITH LP TWO

Andy Edwards says that, this time round, the production values are “off the scale”.

INTRO extras

AMPLIFIER TO DROP MINI-ALBUM While fans await the

STARS ALIGN ON NEW PROG COLLECTIVE LP

LaBrie, Hillage and Downes among Billy Sherwood’s guests on Seeking Peace.

NEW BOOK MARK 50 YEARS OF PINK FLOYD’S DARK SIDE

Unseen tour photos and more in this anniversary celebration.

FAD GADGETS

Rhodri Marsden on three of the latest must-have gizmos currently putting the prog in progress.

SID GRIFFIN

Bill Nelson: the thinking man’s musician, according to

CELESTIAL SON

Danish trio whose third long-player is touched by the hand of a prog demi-god.

AVATAR

FEATHERS & FLESH

ALL AROUND THE WORLD

Our far-out trip to far-flung prog

QUATERMASS III

Sci-fi fans whose evening down the boozer led to stranger things…

AIMING FOR ENRIKE

Norwegian ambient electro duo view dystopia through a more playful lens.

SOLAR CORONA

Meet the Portuguese quartet taking instrumental stoner rock into trippy new frontiers.

JIM McCARTY

Former Yardbird discusses his time in Renaissance and Illusion, and reveals what he thinks of the current line-up playing his old songs.

Off With Their Heads

In the early 70s, not long after he’d joined Yes, Rick Wakeman turned to the history books for his solo debut, The Six Wives Of Henry VIII. Inspired by the spouses of one of England’s most famous monarchs, the six complex instrumentals had record label execs chewing down their nails and tearing their hair out. In the wake of its 50th anniversary, Wakeman recalls the making of the album that launched his solo career.

Imagine That!

With A Gallery Of The Imagination due for release at the end of February, Rick Wakeman reflects on childhood memories, climate change and some of the best advice he’s received. Plus he puts paid to those rumours of ongoing friction in the Yes camp

Identity Crisis

After a break to focus on other projects, Riverside are back with their eighth album, ID.Entity. But instead of revisiting the melancholic sounds on 2018’s Wasteland, their latest finds them embracing their 80s influences. Vocalist and bassist Mariusz Duda tells Prog why it was time to break the formula and rekindle the band’s passion for pop.

THE PROG INTERVIEW

TODD RUNDGREN

The Musical Box

Edited by Dave Everley prog.reviews@futurenet.com Illustration: Jonathan Edwards

TAKE A BOW

Peter Nicholls onstage and fighting a cold –

DAVE KERZNER

The great and good of progressive music give us a glimpse into their prog worlds. As told to Grant Moon

“This band will be colossal – it’s that good…”

In 1980, Robert Fripp formed what would become a new configuration of King Crimson. Originally called Discipline, the quartet featuring Bill Bruford, Adrian Belew and Tony Levin went on to record three albums with a very different sound from that which had helped to shape prog’s golden years. As Discipline, Beat and Three Of A Perfect Pair are reissued on superheavyweight vinyl, Prog explores the makings of King Crimson’s 80s trilogy.

MERGED IN DREAMS

After a creative two years, the (mostly) Berlin-based Elder have unveiled their sixth full-length album, Innate Passage. Prog catches up with guitarist and vocalist Nick DiSalvo to find out more about the personal journey captured across the four-piece’s latest long-form release.

Thrill Seeking

After 32 years in the shadows, Katatonia are finally allowing sunlight to pierce their darkness. Vocalist Jonas Renkse refuses to call their 12th album happy, though, insisting that the upbeat, up-tempo Sky Void Of Stars was born from the need for adrenaline at a time when the stage felt very far away. This is the story of the Swedish band’s enigma.

Food Of Love

Italians Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso are celebrating their 50th anniversary with the release of Orlando: Le Forme Dell’Amore, an ambitious concept album based on a 16th-century epic poem. Founding keyboard player Vittorio Nocenzi reveals why the band chose an elaborate tale of love, war and chivalry in the Middle Ages for their latest, and why its message still resonates today.

The God Mystery

What unites a mysterious god who may be older than Odin, the motto of Blackadder ’s General Melchett and a cross-country skiing blastbeat? The surprising answer is Heimdal, the new album from Enslaved. Grutle Kjellson and Ivar Bjørnson take Prog inside the making of their new prog metal masterpiece.

The Shock Of The NEU!

Formed in 1971 by two early members of Kraftwerk, Neu! became not only an important band in the emerging krautrock movement but also kosmische pioneers. With the expansive new box set, 50!, out now, Prog catches up with surviving member Michael Rother to revisit the band’s core albums and explore their influence on modern music.

Progg On!

Swedish psychedelic proggers Dungen are back with their first full-band studio album since 2015. En Är För Mycket Och Tusen Aldrig Nog was recorded over a five-year period and finds them embracing a plethora of musical genres, but as bandleader Gustav Ejstes and guitarist Reine Fiske reveal, its creation owes more than just a tip of the hat to radical 60s counterculture.

EMPIRES And Dance

Grammy-winning Texan improv collective Snarky Puppy are back with the ambitious Empire Central, which was recorded live in front of a studio audience. The double album celebrates the rich musical history of Dallas and captures the troupe at their most powerful. Bandleader Michael League and keyboard player Bill Laurance tell Prog the story of its creation.

Devil’s On His Way

In their first new release since the ambitious two-part ‘Clockwork Saga’, Gandalf’s Fist have left Cogtopolis behind to explore the history of superstition on Widdershins. Instrumentalist Dean Marsh and vocalist Luke Severn explain why the cosmic steampunks opted to keep things compact on a standalone album that pays tribute to their favourite records of the 70s and 80s.

Ghosts In The Machine

Four years after their bewitching debut, Jane Weaver’s experimental side-project Fenella have regrouped for the otherworldly The Metallic Index. Their second album finds Weaver, Raz Ullah and Pete Philipson jamming in the Scottish Highlands, inspired by the true story of an eyebrow-raising English psychic from the 1920s. Prog found out more.

“The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

On 2019’s Blood Year, post-rock trio Russian Circles made some of the heaviest music of their lives. However, behind the scenes, guitarist Mike Sullivan was struggling to play through chronic hand pain. He tells Prog about his recovery – and how new album Gnosis contains his band’s loudest and most intricate work to date.

HERBIVACIOUS!

Experimental pop proggers Kitten Pyramid return with their third album Kiddo, which explores some rather dark ideas. Prog catches up with Scott Milligan to find out more about the driving forces behind their latest psychedelic extravaganza.