Gryphon

On their second album, Harmonium had expanded from a trio to a five-piece as they were joined by keyboardist Serge Locat and Pierre Daigneault who handled various wind instruments, including flute, clarinet and saxophone. This time there were actually no drums around at all, but you won't probably give it a thought at all when you're listening to the rich and progressive sound of "Si On Avait Besoin d'une Cinquième Saison" that had a concept based around the different seasons of the year. And before anyone start arguing that an old Italian used the same concept exactly 250 years earlier: Harmonium added their own twist by including a mysterious fifth season. This imaginary season was represented by the fantastic 17-minute "Histories Sans Paroles".

The world music band Hotel Palindrone reliably prove with every album how irrelevant any kind of frontier is, and how much fun you can have if you go beyond limits…

Greek progressive rock band Ciccada has released this, its third album, Harvest. The bands influences are very much the progressive rock acts of the 1970’s, including very classy bands such as Camel, Jethro Tull, Gryphon, Gentle Giant, Strawbs, Renaissance, Hatfield And The North, Curved Air and Spirogyra. These are lushly interwoven with traditional Greek folk music. The resulting sound is a quite pastoral other-worldliness, bathed in rock, jazz and folk colours.
The overall sound sees the band balancing acoustic instruments with electric ones, allowing the music a seeming simplicity whilst actually being somewhat more profound. At times there’s an almost childlike air on display, then something more jazzy but playful, then the kind of piquancy that a heartfelt folk song can produce. The vintage prog-rock and the folk in many ways makes this a nostalgic, wistful sounding album…