Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of a 4 CD clamshell boxed set that gathers together all the recordings made for the classic “Potatoland” album by Spirit. The album was born in 1973 following the release of guitarist Randy California’s “Kaptain Kopter and the Fabulous Twirlybirds” album (made shortly after his departure from Spirit). To promote his solo album California assembled a band to tour featuring original Spirit drummer Ed Cassidy and bass guitarist Larry “Fuzzy” Knight. Initially playing concerts in the Los Angeles area, the trio recorded two live performances at the studios of KPFK-FM in September 1972. Soon after the trio reverted to the name Spirit to undertake live work in Europe. Following these concerts Randy California and Ed Cassidy began work on the album “The Adventures of Kapt. Kopter and Commander Cody in Potatoland”…

Charisma were a band from the Hartford, Connecticut area, and were very typical of the confused American year of 1970. It basically means that bands were throwing any and everything against the wall hoping it would stick - or in practical terms - obtaining radio airplay. And Charisma falls in line with their mix of blues, hard rock, progressive, psych, and old fashioned rock and roll. It's a mess basically. But some of these albums had gems in the midst of the ordinary, and that's where we come in. Charisma has a strong Hammond organ and overall keyboard presence, and there are a couple of tracks that display this in an instrumental progressive rock format ('Street Theatre', 'Ritual Dance of the Reptiles'). There are other very good proto-prog/bluesy numbers in 'Leopold's Ghost' and 'The Age of Reptiles'. The rest is take it or leave it…

Small Faces was a British rock group whose music was heavily influenced by American rhythm and blues. The band was founded in 1965 by singer-guitarist Steve Marriott, singer-bassist Ronnie Lane, drummer Kenney Jones and keyboardist Jimmy Winston; Winston was replaced that year by Ian McLagan.The Small Faces remain in the public mind as one of the most recognized and influential mod bands of the 1960s. Their best known hits are Itchycoo Park, Lazy Sunday, All or Nothing and Tin Soldier. From 1967, the band's music began to incorporate elements of psychedelic rock, the best-known example of which is one of the first concept albums of rock music, Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, released in 1968. After the breakup of the Small Faces in 1969, Steve Marriott formed his band Humble Pie. His three friends went on to make music with two members of The Jeff Beck Group, Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, under the name Faces.

Italian group formed in the early 70s in the region of Tuscany. The band had its peak in 1971 when they signed with the Italian subsidiary of RCA Records to release an album that was finished only after some time. Also in that year, the band played in festivals in their hometown, Viareggio and still came to opening for Led Zeppelin in Rome for thousands of people. The record is composed of only four but fabulous tracks, being the first a true gem worthy of what we know as Italian Progressive Rock. The track of almost 19 minutes, gives its name to the record and is conducted with extreme perfection with beautiful flute passages throughout its course. At times it is noticed a distinct similarity to the style of Ian Anderson playing his lead instrument but not forgetting the soft touch that only the Italian Progressive Rock can offer to the most discerning ears…

Eye in the Sky is the sixth studio album by the British rock band The Alan Parsons Project, released in June 1982 by Arista label. It was recorded in London's Abbey Road Studios. Songs on this album are in a number of different styles, from cool and funky to lyrical and heavily orchestrated. It is variously reported as The Alan Parsons Projects' best-selling album, and was the last platinum record from the band. Vocal performers are Eric Woolfson, David Paton, Chris Rainbow, Lenny Zakatek, Elmer Gantry and Colin Blunstone. Eye in the Sky contains the Project's biggest hit, the title track with lead vocals by Eric Woolfson. The album itself was a major success, reaching the Top 10 (and sometimes the #1) in numerous countries.

EXCELLENT 1981 BROADCAST RECORDING FROM MIKE OLDFIELD Mike Oldfield's fifth album, Platinum, was released in November 1979 and marked the start of his transition from long compositions towards mainstream and pop music. Oldfield performed across Europe between April and December 1980 with the In Concert 1980 tour. Later in 1980, Oldfield released QE2, named after the British ocean liner, which featured a variety of guest musicians including Phil Collins on drums. This was followed by the European Adventure Tour 1981 , during which Oldfield performed at a free concert celebrating the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer at Guildhall. He wrote a new track, Royal Wedding Anthem , for the occasion. One of the finest and most revered concerts of the new tour took place at the Eilenriedehalle, in Hannover, Germany, on 2nd April 1981. Featuring tracks from all of his albums to date, the show was record for live FM Radio Transmission across the Fatherland, but has rarely been heard outside its country of origin. All that changes with this superb release which features the entire Hannover show across 2 CDs, which, almost 40 years after the event, is released here for the first time in superb broadcast quality.

Finally on a 4CD-box, the complete works of Celeste, starting from Il Sistema to Saint Tropez! Many records in this box were out of print for a long time! Stunning bonus tracks included! Apart from the classic and seminal recordings of Il Sistema (including one track that would later become 'Zarathustra' of Museo Rosenbach and originally was featured only on the vinyl version of Viaggio Senza Andata), this deluxe box set features their symphonic magnum opus 'Principe Di Un Giorno', but also the haunting 'Celeste 2' and the follow-up project 'Saint Tropez'. All tracks have been carefully remastered by Celeste's Ciro Perrino. But the most incredible bonus is the original and complete demo recording for the Celeste debut called 'Prince Of One Day', recorded with a female singer and with English lyrics. A stunning historical document! This limited oversized deluxe box-set also features a huge, glossy 44-page book with the complete history of Celeste and the Liguria prog-scene with more than 100 rare pictures, directly from Ciro Perrino's archive.

The band was formed in 1973 by Eduardo Biebla (guitar), Joan Punyet (drums) and Paco Ortega (keyboards), two years later this line-up produced the EP The Beginning Of The End. One year later Atila released the highly acclaimed album Intencion and then in 1978 Reviure, both with the new line-up featuring Eduardo A. Niebla (guitar), Benet Nogue (organ, Mellotron, piano, Moog and vocals), Miguel A. Blasco (bass) and Joan Punyet (drums). At the end of 1978 the band dissolved but in 1999 Atila reformed with Joan Punyet (drums), Benet Nogue (keyboards), Ignasi Bosch (guitar), Pere Martinez (bass) and Joan Cardoner (guitar) and did a reunion-concert, playing their best material. The sound of Atila has elements from Vanilla Fudge, Cream, The Nice and Emerson, Lake & Palmer but in general … it's Atila presenting an unique prog stew with lots of own musical ideas…

The predecessor band of Scope was called Strange Power and was founded around 1969 in Zwolle/Holland. Rik Elings, Henk Zomer (drums) and bassist Erik Raayman had founded the fusion project and had already released a 7"-single that was added to the first Scope CD as a bonus. With the entry of guitarist Rens Nieuwland in 1972, Strange Power became Scope. Subsequently, the Dutch jazz rock foursome made a name for itself in both Holland and Germany. A talent scout from WEA/Atlantic became aware of the band and hired them for his label. In 1973 the band entered the Hamburg studio Maschen to record their debut album Scope under the direction of Jochen Petersen. The result was an exciting, varied fusion/jazz rock album, which contained a lot of improvisations and perfectly reflected the craftsmanship of the four musicians…

Bible Black are a Japanese progressive rock trio formed in 1984. They released one previous album in 2011 and now they have emerged with their second release. Here they augment their power trio sound with the appearance on the album of KBB keyboardist Tomshimitsu Takahashi. Comparable in a lot of ways to Bi Kyo Ran if Bi Kyo Ran were a little less Crimso fixated.

Embark on a captivating sonic voyage with the mesmerizing new album "Embers" from the internationally acclaimed instrumental band, GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT!

Recorded in the Autumn of 1975 at Abbey Road studios (with some sessions also taking place at AIR studios in London), ‘Sunburst Finish’ was the third album by Be Bop Deluxe and the first to feature the line-up of Bill Nelson (vocals, guitars, keyboards), Charlie Tumahai (bass, vocals), Andy Clark (keyboards) and Simon Fox (drums).
It was also the first Be-Bop album to be co- produced by Nelson and John Leckie. An album of immense musical inventiveness and creativity, ‘Sunburst Finish’ was one of the finest albums of its era, a perfect cohesion of ten classic songs written by Nelson (featuring his highly imaginative guitar playing) and a stylised and striking artwork package. Including such classic tracks as ‘Heavenly Homes’, ‘Crying To The Sky’, ‘Sleep That Burns’, ‘Life In The Air Age’, ‘Crystal Gazing’ and ‘Blazing Apostles’, the album also spawned the hit single ‘Ships In The Night’ and launched Be-Bop Deluxe as one of the major breakthrough acts of 1976…

J.E.T.’s name is not only known to progressive Italian rock fans, but also to a wider audience, given that from their ashes, already in the mid-’70s, the soon-to-be-famous Matia Bazar were born: this new incarnation was able to rework J.E.T.’s last phase most ‘commercial’ hints, leading to a long successful career that still goes on today. Contrarily to what these words might suggest, J.E.T.’s only LP, originally published in 1972, is so far from the term ‘commercial’ as close to the Italian prog of the golden age: four long and complex tracks – plus the short ending “Sfogo” – with religion-themed lyrics, strong hard rock influences, a solid rhythmic section, keyboards always in evidence and beautiful vocal harmonies, sometimes reminiscent of the typical New Trolls’ falsetto. A timeless album, which still today leaves the listener astonished for its beauty and magniloquence, but also a bit disappointed by the fact that the band didn’t manage to release a follow-up to this masterpiece.

Bananamour is ripe with Kevin Ayers' most mature and accessible compositions to date. Ayers grounded himself in a newly formed trio for his follow-up to Whatevershebringswesing. With bassist Archie Leggett and drummer Eddie Sparrow at the hub, Ayers selected guest artists for a handful of the tracks: Whole World colleague Dave Bedford ("Beware of the Dog"), Gong's new guitarist Steve Hillage ("Shouting in a Bucket Blues"), and former Soft Machine mates Robert Wyatt ("Hymn") and Mike Ratledge ("Interview"). "Interview" is easily one of the album's strongest, most original tunes, charged with a rugged, positively electrifying guitar sound courtesy of Ayers and psychedelic organ flourishes by Ratledge. And "Shouting in a Bucket Blues" is Ayers' inspired pop/blues groove…

Steve Schroyder's (ex Tangerine Dream) super krautrock band, featuring many guests (from Ash Ra Tempel, Agitation Free, etc.). Recorded in 1975, "Magical Mind" is a psychedelic tour de force for electric guitar tones, Moog synth textures and discreet pulses from percussions. Ethereal soundscapes and freak out kraut-improvisations.