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Julian Julien – Terre II

Continuing my current delving into the world of modern jazz-influenced progressive music, and following on from my review of the rather tasty Akku Quintet album, here we have another slice of European exotica. Taking up the saxophone at the age…

Richard Pinhas – Chronolyse

Composer, electronics innovator and guitarist Richard Pinhas is one of France’s most important experimental musicians and a pivotal figure in the integration of rock music with electronica. He continues to take huge strides forward, confounding expectations and astonishing his listeners,…

AKKU Quintet – Molecules

Akku Quintet are a Swiss band based in Berne, from where they dispense a minimalistic jazz groove to great effect. Dreamy piano sequences snuggle up with soft sax, juxtaposed with sci-fi guitar effects as the invisible bonds joining elemental particles…

Gentle Knife – Gentle Knife

Oh this is nice. Gentle Knife, a 10-piece Scandinavian band from Oslo with lots of ’70s influences and not necessarily the ones you would expect. And how they combine, from melodic to discordant, challenging and yet comforting. Conceptually written around…

Various Artists – Post Tangent

This is a compilation of 32 tracks assembled by Post Tangent. Let’s get this out of the way: It is a charity compilation in aid of Syrian refugees, so this has to be as objective a review as humanly possible.…

King Of Agogik – Exlex Beats

Prog, in its many guises, has often been accused of taking itself a little too seriously and for the most part lacking in humour. Well for nearly a decade now, drummer and multi-instrumentalist Hans Jörg Schmitz has done his part…

Anderson Ponty Band – Better Late Than Never

Somewhere around 1980, Jon Anderson approached Jean-Luc Ponty with a view to a collaboration. Now, over thirty years later, the man from Accrington and the man from Avranches, two very different environments, have finally got together. The album was recorded…