Ed’s Letter

Hello, and welcome to the new issue of Prog. Again,

Untitled

“We’ll keep doing this as long as we’re enjoying it

Bloody Well Write

I’m sure many lovers of the often-maligned genre that is

STEVE HOWE EXPLAINS THE MEANING OF LOVE ON NEW CD

It took Steve Howe several years to work out how

STEVE ROTHERY GETS SPACED OUT

Marillion guitarist Steve Rothery is inviting fans to take part

NICK D’VIRGILIO REVEALS HIS INVISIBLE CONCEPT

Drummer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Nick D’Virgilio releases Invisible, his second

SIMON COLLINS’ SUPERB REBIRTH

After a six-year absence, former Sound Of Contact multi-instrumentalist Simon

INTRO extras

Marco Minneman of The Aristocrats has formed a new project

PROTEST THE HERO RETURN AT LAST WITH FIFTH ALBUM

FROST* CONFIRM THAT THEIR OTHERS EP IS DUE OUT IN

LONELY ROBOT SHARE SOME GOOD FEELINGS

Lonely Robot’s fourth album Feelings Are Good arrives on July

MAGENTA BECOME CINEMA SHOW-OFFS

Magenta leader and keyboardist Robert Reed has offered assurances that

COVID-19 FORCES MORE PROG PLAN CHANGES

Coronavirus and its associated restrictions continue to affect the plans

FAD GADGETS

As someone who spent a decade having his spirit crushed

ADRIAN VANDENBERG

“My love of prog started with Focus and Jan Akkerman

PROG IN BRIEF

Arjen Lucassen’s upcoming Ayreon album Transitus stars Doctor Who icon

JONATHAN HULTÉN

IN HIS BAND Tribulation, guitarist Jonathan Hultén hurls himself around

TALKING HEADS

For their fourth album, provisionally titled Melody Attack, Talking Heads

SAVE OUR VENUES

Mark Davyd didn’t do too well at school and admits

PROG IN BRIEF

Camel bassist Colin Bass (right) has joined forces with keyboardist

SEIL LIEN

WITH A RICH blend of emotional and industrial tones, Seil

EBONIVORY

“I GREW UP on a lot of Australian rock bands

MOOD TAEG

IF CANTERBURY HAD prog and the Bronx had hip-hop, then

Q&A MARTIN GRECH

Best known for the haunting Open Heart Zoo, a song

Locked Down But Not Out

Coronavirus has generally proved a great leveller. But there are

The Order Of The Universe

From the early days of Anderson Rabin Wakeman, the trio

PROG… WITH A CAPITAL

Wakeman’s second solo release (his first being 1971’s disowned Piano

Rise of The Horsemen

At a time when the world is in turmoil, optimism

Caravan In The Land Of Grey And Pink

The feelgood British summer of 1970 may have been one

THE PROG INTERVIEW SIMON NICOL

Within weeks of enjoying the renewed communal experience of a

HAKEN

It was mathematician ET Bell who said that time makes

AIRBAG

Airbag have long been one of Norway’s greatest modern art

ADJUSTER

Throw a rock in Alice Springs and you’ll be hard

ARABS IN ASPIC

Arabs In Aspic have quietly risen to become one of

ASIAN DEATH CRUSTACEAN

Apparently formed from the ashes of a jazz fusion project

ATTRAKTORS

Attraktors are a trio operating out of Nottingham, described as

CITY OF SOULS

It’s common to see bands try and cram every idea

COLIN BASS & DANIEL BIRO

This is a deceptive album. One listen can lead you

NICK D’VIRGILIO

Big Big Train man serves up an unusual kind of

GOLDRAY

Goldray must have been hitting the musical gym somewhere between

EBONIVORY

Ebonivory’s The Long Dream 1 is the first installment in

ECHO RAIN

Lee Abraham has been an extremely busy lad over the

FISH ON FRIDAY

Despite the presence in their ranks of bassist Nick Beggs

GUM

As Tame Impala have steadily moved nearer to pop’s mainstream,

IO EARTH

Birmingham symphonic proggers IO Earth have long applied an independent

JUPITER HOLLOW

Continuing a musical trajectory and narrative arc from 2018’s debut

PROGRESSIVE METAL

Obscenely gifted guitarists are ten-a-penny in prog metal, but Christian

KOOBA TERCU

Now on their third album, this Greek psychedelic collective formed

KYROS

A dash of 80s art pop and a dose of

MAGIC BUS

It may be mere serendipity rather than the result of

KANSAS

The enduring US pomp rockers have still got what it

HEDVIG MOLLESTAD

Fans of berserk psychedelic rock will already be familiar with

MODERN STUDIES

Regardless of genre - and they’re so fluid one can’t

THE OPIUM CARTEL

Marcel Proust famously said, “Remembrance of things past is not

THE RESIDENTS

As brilliantly bewildering as ever, The Residents’ late-career splurge continues,

SCHIZO FUN ADDICT

Listening to New York/New Jersey trio Schizo Fun Addict, it’s

JASON SIMON

California’s Dead Meadow have released a steady stream of albums

SONAR WITH DAVID TORN

Swiss band Sonar have spent several years carefully building momentum

PROGRESSIVE FOLK

Ned Roberts’ third album Dream Sweetheart (Aveline) opens on the

AA WILLIAMS

It’s easy to see why AA Williams has called her

ROMAN SPEKTOR

It’s common to see artists presenting their work to the

TENGGER

TENGGER (their caps, not ours) are a prolific South Korean/Japanese

THEM MOOSE RUSH

Them Moose Rush are one of the more exciting bands

STEVE THORNE

Steve Thorne’s sixth album is a gentle ride through the

TIGER MOTH TALES

The opening song from this Dutch concert, Toad Of Toad

WIRE

Already their second release this year - January’s Mind Hive

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

There are shades of John Mitchell’s Lonely Robot on Red

GANDALF’S FIST

Prog has famously never cared much for economy of expression,

BE-BOP DELUXE

Be-Bop Deluxe’s debut as a glam rock outfit failed to

BILL BRUFORD

Gradually Going Tornado/The Bruford Tapes/Live At The Venue/4th Album Rehearsal

CIRCUS

Although best known as the group’s saxophonist, Mel Collins quit

PETER GABRIEL

It made sense when Peter Gabriel began to drift from

DEVIN TOWNSEND

Can it only be just over a year since Devin

THE MOODY BLUES: ON TRACK

The reader’s enjoyment of a volume of this largely excellent

NEKTAR

Nektar were still playing gigs in early March, and captured

SMALL HOURS: THE LONG NIGHT OF JOHN MARTYN

This highly readable biography begins with a 2005 interview in

TANGERINE DREAM: FORCE MAJEURE - THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

For over seven years before succumbing to a pulmonary embolism

MY PROG

Clapton in Hackney, London. I’ve been here 20 years -

A DECADE OF DESIRE

Ambition has never been something that Haken have lacked. Ever

Pilgrim’s Progress

“We felt like The Beatles!” Kansas guitarist Zak Rizvi is

The Logician

I’m heading north up Manhattan’s Eighth Avenue in August’s broiling

Baby’s Coming Back

At the very beginning of 2017, Roger Manning Jr had

The Colour of Success

There are those musical collaborations that are solely driven by

THE MOST INFLUENTIAL ALBUMS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROGRESSIVE ROCK

Before we start, a word about what this list of

NO PANE, NO GAIN

If this year has proved anything, it’s that making plans

It’s The End Of The WORLD As We Know It

When they started working out how to follow their electrifying