Alfredo Carrion made his first mark in the history of progressive rock in 1975 by writing the orchestral arrangements for Ciclos, Canarios' brilliant and blasphemous butchering of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. A year later he struck out on his own by writing the music for "Los Andares del Alquimista", a less extravagant but no less eclectic exploration of popular, classical and folk musics.
Actually, the first three songs very deftly and tastefully put folk-tinged pop music together with some symbolist poetry sung by an elegant female voice with classical-style tone and use of vibrato. The mood shifts of "Espejo Sumergido" and the lush progressions and soaring melody lines of "Tensa Memoria" are very much symphonic progressive characteristics…

In April 2010 Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton and Guy Evans undertook some intensive tracking sessions in Cornwall, arranging, rehearsing and recording the album in a week. Over the next few months the tracks were overdubbed, edited and adapted by the band in their own studios, and by September the project was ready to be mixed by legendary producer Hugh Padgham (the first time anybody outside the band has been entrusted such responsibility). After three weeks at Hugh's studio, Sofasound, "A Grounding in Numbers" was complete. With a fantastic clarity and depth of sound, and a helter-skelter stretch of tunes, "A Grounding In Numbers" sees VDGG pushing ever further forward into the twenty-first century, and their fanbase is certain to enjoy this strong, cohesive set.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of a newly remastered and expanded edition of the classic album "Fear Of The Dark” by Gordon Giltrap. For over forty years Gordon has enjoyed the well-deserved reputation as one of Britain’s greatest guitar players. He made his first recordings in the 1960s as folk artist, but by 1976 he had crossed into the Progressive Rock genre and signed to the newly formed Electric Records imprint. His third album for Electric was released in 1978. "Fear Of The Dark” saw Gordon backed by a band of outstanding musicians such as John G. Perry (Bass), Rod Edwards (keyboards) and Simon Phillips (drums) and featured many outstanding tracks. This Esoteric Recordings edition is newly remastered from the original tapes and includes eight bonus tracks drawn from a series of singles released between 1978 and 1980…

Altona's eponymous first album is an excellent example of slightly psychedelic heavy jazz-rock. Founded by former Thrice Mice members singer and sax player Karl Heinz Blumenberg and guitarist Werner von Gosen Altonas first album could be traced as "Thrice Mice deluxe" with still marked ties to Blodwyn Pig. Their musical elaboration shows a much bigger potential and let the band come forward on a higher musical step. The concept of developing a piece of music within processes of group dynamics, which had been so successful with Thrice Mice, was continued. The Freeman Brothers (A Crack in the Cosmic Egg) characterized the album as a hybrid of Birth Control and Creative Rock, occasionally hinting at Eiliff LP comes with insert (Band story and photos). The music is remastered from the original mastertapes.

Unlike many bands whose careers had begun in the 1970s, Camel continued to enjoy much success in the 1980s, producing fine studio albums such as Stationary Traveller. Although destined to be Camel’s final studio album for Decca Records, it was a fine effort. Inspired by the Cold War (then at its height) between the Eastern Bloc countries and NATO, the album featured such classics as Cloak and Dagger Man, West Berlin, Stationary Traveller and Long Goodbyes and saw Camel reach new heights of creativity.

"Tempi Dispari" is a magical live album from 1974 by the Atomic System variation of The New Trolls, led by guitarist Vittorio De Scalzi after three members left to form what would end up being Ibis. De Scalzi is joined by future Nova keyboards player Renato Rosset, who influences this variation in a more jazzy oriented way than any other New Trolls incarnation. The band play here two side-long suites with side 1 really exploring the Jazz theme and side 2 including a theme from "Concerto Grosso 1" of excellent and innovative music with very heavy Miles Davis-like jazz prog rock influences.

Kicking off with the wickedly salacious "Burlesque," Bandstand was the best of the late Family recordings. For a band that for the most part eschewed riffs and hooks, both are in plentiful supply here. More important, by the time of Bandstand's release, Family had reconciled the war between their art-rock and hard rock tendencies; that is to say, there is more of the latter and less of the former. So, the record doesn't have the internal stress of their earlier releases, but what it does have is Chapman shouting like he could take on the world and Whitney playing like he must have when he formed the Farinas in 1962. A corker from the word go.

Live05 documents the band at its very best in wonderful European settings with enthusiastic audiences. Besides a stirring take of Jack Bruce's cinematic classic "Theme from an Imaginary Western," the two-disc set includes several of the songs from their seminal albums, including "Rope Ladder to the Moon," "Stormy Monday Blues," "Those Who Are About to Die," "Lost Angeles," and "The Valentyne Suite," which showcases Greenslade's amazing keyboard artistry. Together, the musicians in Colosseum create a powerful mix of rock, blues, and jazz-fusion that transcends all musical barriers.

With 1981's suitably named Allied Forces – their fourth worldwide release and fifth overall – the three members of Triumph put aside their differences and collaborated more seamlessly than ever before, fittingly delivering what is arguably the best album of their long career. Like the previous year's particularly intense Progressions of Power, and with the possible exception of a rather forgettable new track, "Ordinary Man," the pedestrian mid-paced rockers that had sometimes derailed previous Triumph albums were conspicuously absent here, replaced by snaggletoothed heavy metal carnivores courtesy of singing drummer Gil Moore, such as the opening "Fool for Your Love" and the unrelenting title track – both of them as thrilling as they were catchy.

Vince DiCola is a musician / songwriter from Pennsylvania and relocated to LA in 1981 to advance his career. This proved to be a wise move. Vince grew up listening to bands such as Genesis, Yes and ELP so progressive rock was high on his list of influences. In the early to mid-eighties Vince was involved in some well-known film scores such as "Staying Alive", "Rocky IV" and "The Transformers: The Movie" and his song writing abilities shone through at a very early stage. Fans may also remember Vince's collaboration in the 1990's with Doane Perry (Jethro Tull) and Rick Livingstone (Agent) on the highly regarded "Storming Heaven" release.

'Weltschmerz' is the much anticipated new and final double studio album from Fish that is being acclaimed as the finest work of his long and illustrious career. Co written with long term collaborators Steve Vantsis and Robin Boult with contributions from John Mitchell (Garden of Remembrance) and Foss Paterson it has been over 3 years in the making and as such is an exceptional piece of work produced by Calum Malcolm (Blue Nile, Fish 'Feast of Consequences' and '13th Star') and Steve Vantsis.

This 1975 album was the first solo outing for David Byron, the lead singer for Uriah Heep. It isn't a big surprise that a good portion of the album sounds a lot like the group that gave him his day job: sturdy organ-driven hard-rockers like "Silver White Man" and "Hit Me With a White One" would not be out of place on a typical Uriah Heep album from this period. The fact that every then-current member of Uriah Heep makes at least one appearance on this record further aids this déjà vu feeling.

Epic/Legacy's 2005 release All Over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra is the latest installment in the seemingly endless series of ELO comps. Since it follows 2003's handy single-disc The Essential Electric Light Orchestra by merely two years, it's easy to wonder what distinguishes this from the other ELO collections on the market, and whether it was necessary to release another single-disc set so quickly after the last. The biggest differences between All Over the World and Essential is that the 2005 release has some very nice but altogether too brief liner notes from Jeff Lynne along with five more tracks than the 15-track 2003 release.