PROGROCK.COM’S Essentials
At a time when progressive rock labels seem to be closing faster than they are opening, this indie is going from strength to strength. Owners Mark and Rayna Monforti take a moment to draw breath and reflect on their 2025 successes.
Words: Stephen Lambe
It’s a tough time for independent progressive rock labels. With so many inactive or producing only the occasional release, the previously thriving scene has contracted to a handful of participants. One relatively new organisation that’s very much bucking that trend is Progrock.com’s Essentials, run by husband-and-wife team Mark and Rayna Monforti. They’ve hosted concerts in their Chicago home for some years, but when the duo bought the Progrock.com domain name in 2013 from mailorder retailer Shawn Gordon, it was initially just a home for their online radio station. However, an opportunity arose in 2019 to partner with Detroit-based band Discipline on a reissue of their classic Unfolded Like Staircase. The album was remixed during lockdown by Rush producer Terry Brown and released in 2022. Since then, the label have signed several established progressive artists, most notably Australians Unitopia and the resurgent Solstice. But they’ve also attracted a growing roster of British and American artists, and 2025 has seen excellent releases from Spriggan Mist, Tribe 3 and Ghost Of The Machine. But a label was not their initial intention.