In the beginning it appears to be not very different from its predecessor Coming Up For Air which I almost liked, this double CD starts with a usual folky keayboard. The opening song, "Rhea" is easy and perfeoctly in line with the last Kayak production. Nothing new then? Well first of all a band active for more than 40 years doesn't have to do "new" things…
‘Out Of This World’, the band’s eighteenth studio album, with 15 new tracks, spanning 70 minutes of energetic and incredibly diverse material- though still very much recognizable as Kayak. It is clear that the new found energy has gained even more momentum since Hans Eijkenaar rejoined the group. Although they were forced to cancel all tours because Ton Scherpenzeel suffered a heart attack at the end of 2019, and immediately after that because of the Covid pandemic, we’re hearing a band that, since the demise of Pim Koopman in 2009, has not sounded more together, balanced and motivated.
Merlin is the eighth studio album by Dutch band Kayak. The first half of the original LP (tracks 1 through 5) is a concept fantasy story about Merlin the Magician. The second half of the LP is a collection of individual songs.
Close to the Fire is a studio album by Dutch progressive rock band Kayak, released in 2000. It was a comeback album, the first since their split in 1982. The line-up was almost the same as the one that recorded the album Royal Bed Bouncer in 1975. Only guitarist Johan Slager was not involved. He was replaced by Rob Winter. By 1997, Kayak founder members Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman decided to work on new material. They had no name for their project yet, and it was not their intention to release the songs as Kayak. Apart from Scherpenzeel and Koopman, no former Kayak members were involved at this stage. Lead singer on the demo versions was Alex Toonen, from Dutch progressive rock band "For Absent Friends"…
Limited 21 CD set from the Dutch progressive rockers. This box holds the band's sixteen studio album (including three double albums) and two bonus CD's with non-album tracks, rarities and demo's. One of the bonus CD's most remarkable items is 'Happy New Year', a Kayak demo dating from '74 or '75, that has never been released…
See See The Sun (1973). Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce a newly re-mastered edition of the classic debut album by Dutch Progressive Rock group Kayak, "See See The Sun". Kayak were formed in Hilversum in Holland in 1972 by keyboard player Ton Scherpenzeel and drummer Pim Koopman. The band signed to the Dutch division of EMI’s Harvest label the same year and released their debut album in 1973. Featuring Max Werner on Vocals and Mellotron, Cees Van Leeuwen on Bass and Johan Slager on Guitars, the album was a fine debut and would launch Kayak as a major group in their homeland and further afield into Europe. This Esoteric Recordings reissue has been newly re-mastered from the original master tapes, features a bonus track from the band’s first single, and a booklet that fully restores all original album artwork with a new essay…
Nostradamus – The Fate of Man is the twelfth studio album by the Dutch progressive rock band Kayak. This concept-album tells the story of French doctor and seer Nostradamus, but from the viewpoint of a Flemish monk, Yves de Lessines. The (unproven) theory behind this is that Nostradamus was not the writer of his famous "Centuries". These poems were in fact written 200 years earlier by De Lessines, and they were a secret code to find the treasures of the Knights Templar. On one of his journeys, Nostradamus found the book that De Lessines wrote, and interpreted the poems in his own way, turning them into predictions. This theory was launched and motivated by Belgian professor and historian Rudy Cambier in his book "Nostradamus and the lost Templar legacy" (2003). Kayak found this approach much more interesting than the usual Nostradamus-stories, and decided to take this theory as a starting point for their second rock-opera.
Over the course of a career that so far spans 48 years, Kayak have established themselves as one of Holland's most successful progressive rock bands, with a loyal, international fanbase. And now there's "Out Of This World", the band's eighteenth studio album, with 15 new tracks, spanning 70 minutes of energetic and incredibly diverse material- though still very much recognizable as Kayak. The tracks on the album could hardly be more diverse, showing Kayak's broad musical horizon, while still deeply rooted in prog. Moving ballads, adventureous epics, solid rock and sophisticated melodies- it’s all there, and more. Just what Kayak is all about.
Cleopatra VII Philopator, known to history simply as 'Cleopatra' was the last active pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. To this day, Cleopatra remains a popular figure in Western culture. Her legacy survives in numerous works of art and the many dramatizations of her story in literature and other media, including William Shakespeare's tragedy Antony and Cleopatra, George Bernard Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra, Jules Massenet's opera Cléopâtre and the 1963 film Cleopatra. But she was also inspiration for the third rock opera made by the Dutch band Kayak, after releasing Merlin - Bard Of The Unseen (2003) and Nostradamus - The Fate Of Man (2005) earlier.
Starlight Dancer (1977). Like fellow proggers Genesis, the late '70s saw Kayak make an abrupt shift to glossy but thin radio-friendly pop. Though Koopman remains as a lyricist and arranger, the rhythm section has been replaced by the quite conventional bassist Charles Schouten and drummer Theo DeJong. The ostinato bass and hi-hat on "I Want You to Be Mine," for one, smell strongly of a discothèque. "Ballad for a Lost Friend" shows an increasing predilection for Queen-like bombast by the guitarist, though it and "Still My Heart Cries for You" do revive some of the band's old aggressive sense of dynamics. But more typical is the bland closing instrumental "Irene." There's a certain coldness to the proceedings, and the band's virtuosity has been watered down for easy digestion. Though not a bad album on its own merits, it's likely to alienate fans of their early work…