Ranestrane

Ellesmere is the brainchild of Roberto Vitelli, bass & guitar player from Italian prog band Taproban. As opposite to the bombastic sound of the band, with Ellesmere Vitelli focuses on an acoustic and yet symphonic approach, delivering a stunning 40 minutes suite much in the style of early Genesis and Anthony Phillips works (ref. The Geese and the Ghost). As the title suggests, every section of the suite is dedicated to one of the ancient French castles that reside along the Loire river. Several acoustic, classical and 12 strings arpeggiato guitar layers are topped with beautiful strings and flute melodies (John Hackett is guesting on most of the tracks) and an original vintage Mellotron provides further orchestration.

Three years after the debut "Les Châteaux de la Loire" Ellesmere are back, still led by the Italian multi instrumentalist Roberto Vitelli, who wrote the music and the lyrics of every song and took care of most of the bass and keyboards parts on the seven tracks that are part of the concept. Every song deals with a different aspect of the complex relationship between man and sea, from man's curiosity and fear towards what is hidden deep inside the sea to the call for adventure and for traveling to the end of the known world… and beyond. The sea, the unknown, the infinity grandeur and the human soul are the key themes that tie together the concept that feeds the album…

“Feelings are good,” a vocoder-soaked John Mitchell tells us at the beginning of Lonely Robot’s fourth album. The sentiment of this album’s title, and its opening title track, could not have come at a more appropriate time, as in 2020 people all around the world find themselves awash in a sea of myriad feelings, considering everything happening in the world these days. And, as much as 2020 feels like we should get a “do-over” or a mulligan on this entire year so far, as if these past six or seven months were just some cruel joke, somehow time marches ever onward; in the music world, it has suddenly been nearly a year-and-a-half since Lonely Robot‘s most recent album, “Under Stars”. In the world of John Mitchell, one of the most prolific song-crafters in all of progressive music, that might as well be an eternity…