Neo 6.54

Sylvan is a German neo-prog band with an emphasis on the vocals and a powerful sound driven by keys and guitar. With their debut album "Deliverance", the German band from Hamburg open the door to this hidden world for all of us. The music takes you onto a journey full of miracles, dreams, love, passion and fortune. The dominant style of Sylvan is a mix of Symphonic Progressive Rock, neo Progressive and Classical Rock including touchs of the Progressive Metal, blended together in a new and interesting way, decorated with lot of intricate keyboards and guitars sounds and grandiose musical passages in all songs. Frequently compared to group like Marillion or IQ, Sylvan successfully adds a new facet to Nineties neo Progressive.

Quidam's debut album remains as impressive as it was 10 years ago. Rarely have I heard a progressive rock band made such an impact as Quidam did with their first release. Although the sound of the album is at times slightly metallic the production sounded incredibly professional. This was something to be expected since the producer and mixing engineer of the album were no others than Szadkowski and Palczewski (both of Collage fame and currently active with their new band Satellite).

Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulen (known to Western audiences simply as "Amelie") was a magic realist romantic comedy by French auteur Jean Pierre-Jeunet which introduced French composer Yann Tiersen to listeners worldwide. Tiersen's whimsical, deceptively simple instrumental music was equally influenced by composers like Chopin and Satie, as well as contemporaries such as Michael Nyman and Philip Glass, and emerged as an enjoyable blend of European classical music and French folk. Playing a variety of instruments from piano and violin to accordion and xylophone, Tiersen composed a number of delicate, charming pieces which suited the somewhat magical mood of the film very well and deservedly made him a star in his own right.

Neo was the name of a French quintet that performed instrumental Progressive rock, and was led by bassist André Paul and saxophone player Didier Erard (French Kiss). This line-up issued their unique eponymous album in 1980. Their compositions are based on melodies with occasional breaks, rhythms changes, accelerations, colours as well as changing and sophisticated atmospheres. The themes are very elaborated, complex and not quite straight and easy. The instrumental dialogues are numerous: a rageous or cutting edge guitar answers to inventive keyboards or to a whirling saxophone line. The band can successively remind of Bo Hansson, Camel (Mel Collins's period) or Caravan, and sometimes King Crimson ("Islands" days).