Seldom these days does an album capture your attention in the very first few bars and then for the ensuing 70 minutes, whisks you away on a magical musical journey like no other. But Barock Project, an exciting relatively new young band from Italy, do just that with this, their fourth album Skyline, which should now be every young musician's “go to” album for how to create the total prog album. Why it works so well can be summed up simply: they are virtuosos at playing their instruments and this is coupled with an innate talent for combining so many musical elements into each of these ten wonderful compositions.
Two world class special guests: Vittorio De Scalzi (leader and founder of New Trolls) on vocals and flute and Paul Whitehead (icon of 70's progressive visual cover art) to paint and sign the cover…

The style of this little-known Swedish quartet from the mid-70's is hard to describe as it escapes most comparisons; the closest would be Finnforest, and perhaps Danish fusion band Secret Oyster. This is fusion at its best: energetic instrumental jazz-rock featuring dual guitars, electric piano/Hammond organ, bass and drums, and stunning musicianship all around. After the release of their second album in 1976, the band, alas, split up.
Although the tracks on their first album are rather short, each one is chock full of ideas and beautiful catchy melodies based on tight, 70ish-like jazzy grooves, all charmingly and distinctively Swedish. Their second album, "Vera O'Flera", which features a guest musician on sax, is in the same vein but much more fusion oriented.

Il Cerchio d'Oro were one of the many symphonic-oriented groups to come out of the initial boom of Italian productivity. They were formed in 1974 by the Terribile brothers (Gino and Guiseppe on drums and bass/guitars, respectively) and Franco Piccolini on keys. They were active on the gigging circuit around Savona but never managed to secure a recording deal, and so the only recordings initially available were a handful of singles from the late '70s following lineup changes (they're not particularly interesting from a progressive rock standpoint, either).
25 years after the band formed, Mellow records came along and dusted off some old recordings, releasing them as the self-titled "Cerchio d'Oro"…

Psychedelic free folk/jazz/rock merchants formed in Bristol 2002, featuring the lysergic sounds of double bass, sax n' flute, sitar, electric noise, super-fuzz, northumbrian bagpipes and vocals straight out of 1969 era Fairport. The band follow in a linage of psychedelic English bands, like Gong, Man, Hawkwind and Soft Machine even. The work of Fuzz Against Junk has included the techniques of collective improvisation. The tapestry of their music can at first be confusing, for it is the aural equivalent of a constantly agitated kaleidoscope be each instrument freaking-out in ever new ways.

Supertramp came into their own on their third album, 1974's Crime of the Century, as their lineup gelled but, more importantly, so did their sound. The group still betrayed a heavy Pink Floyd influence, particularly in its expansive art rock arrangements graced by saxophones, but Supertramp isn't nearly as spooky as Floyd – they're snarky collegiate elitists, an art rock variation on Steely Dan or perhaps a less difficult 10cc, filled with cutting jokes and allusions, best heard on "Bloody Well Right."…

Now and then in the ‘70s, in Spain were made great epos-like musical-concepts (Luis Llach did some great albums). Also Daniel Vega’s album is such an album, with a bit of impressive spoken word on the introduction, jazzy rock improvisations with electric piano, with a fundament often laid by acoustic guitar, with a few parts of impressive acoustic guitar layers on top of each other, flute, with some wah-wah and amplified guitar, saxes, and very emotionally sung songs by Daniel Vega. The style is progressive song driven music with rhythmically and emotionally driven musical evolutions, in a very progressive way.

Originally a European compilation, The Very Best of Supertramp is the closest thing to a definitive overview of the '70s pop-prog group. Certainly, there will be hardcore fans who will notice some favorite album cuts missing – after all, despite their considerable success on the pop charts, Supertramp was as much an album rock band as ELP or Genesis – but all the hits are here, from "Bloody Well Right" to "It's Raining Again," as well as a sizable portion of their blockbuster Breakfast in America. That alone will make it worthwhile for all casual fans, but what's really nice about the collection is that it flows very smoothly, even if it isn't in chronological order. There have been other Supertramp compilations, but The Very Best of Supertramp stands head and shoulders above the rest.

The Musea label and the Finnish magazine Colossus endlessly continue their quest for the greatest universal themes, in order to complete their collection of concept-albums dedicated to Progressive rock. The hero of the day is Dante Alighieri, the famous medieval author from Firenze who wrote "The Divine Comedy". That's precisely this epic piece of work, without a doubt one of the greatest books of all times, that serves as the basis for this project. And of course, it has been divided in three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.
These Colossus projects are always a great way of getting to know dozens of prog acts all over the world and to hear how they are inspired by the literary source material and how they obey the producer's wish to sound like 70's prog. Italy is however much more represented than any other country, and it's understandable that often the same artists reappear on several projects. "Paradiso" could well be among the finest ones…

The career of Buke & Gase, the duo of Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez, has one of the more idiosyncratic arcs of any band of the past two decades. Formed in 2008, they became a cult obsession shortly after the release of their first demo EP, with the left-field indie rock of that release and their first LP Riposte earning the attention of luminaries like The National and Lou Reed, and praise from the likes of Pitchfork and Radiolab (which featured the group on three episodes) and NPR (where they played one of the very first Tiny Desk Concerts).

For the first time as a reissue on CD. The first and eponymous album of classical rock influenced great German krautrockers Amos Key. Amos Key owed great debts to Bach, Beethoven and Schumann, adding a heavy krautrock twist to a music closely resembling the Nice or Egg, full of angst and weird psychedelic and space-rock touches (Freeman Brothers: In A Crack In The Cosmic Egg). Amos Key lived in Munich and consisted of great organ-player Thomas Molin, congenial bass-player Andreas Gross and superb drummer Lutz Ludwig. This fairly competent outfit recorded the album on label 'Spiegelei' just after they recorded their radio sessions (Amos Key, Keynotes, The Lost Tapes, SWF Session 1973). Sadly bandleader and organ-player Thomas Molin passed away in the 90ies but bass-player Andreas Gross tells the band story in a very vivid and funny way…

"CBF10" is the 4th studio album by 80s prog band Multi Story.
In 2016 the band released their well received album, "Crimson Stone", and the band openly regarded it as a bridging album between their roots and more contemporary influences.
"CBF10" is Multi Story’s latest studio album and features some very special guests. Some of the songs have drawn juice from the band’s rockier veins yet the album still demonstrates those symphonic touches that Multi Story do so well. Tonny Larsen, from Copenhagen has designed the beautiful and evocative cover artwork and Graeme Bell (Twig) has done a great job with the graphics, additional artwork and package compilation.

This band hails from the UK and produces the kind of Neo-Prog that made the country proud back in the 1980s and 90s. The guys cite different references, with the likes of Marillion, Genesis, Yes, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Rush, Dream Theater and Pink Floyd being mentioned, but they have taken all those elements and then built them into something which is very much of their own design. Musically this is highly arranged Neo-Prog which also straddles at times into melodic hard rock and symphonic prog, by a band who are determined people are not going to forget the "rock" side of the terminology.

The Russian band Roz Vitalis (from Saint Petersburg) exists since 2001 as a studio project, since 2005 as an electroacoustic chamber ensemble and since 2008 as a full-blown rock-band. Style of Roz Vitalis music can be described as the "Unclassifiable Branch of Prog Rock", Avant Prog, Sympho Prog, Instumental. The "metaphysical" goals of Roz Vitalis are "per musica ad lucem" and "to overcome chaos by means of making music". The main influences are Gentle Giant, Univers Zero, King Crimson, Le Orme, Yes.