Marillion, one of the most renown British prog bands, hit Poland with their Happiness Is the Road Tour 2009. Yesterday (February 9th) they played at Hala Wisły in Cracow, today they’re going to visit Warsaw performing at Stodoła club and tomorrow it’s Centrum Stocznia Gdańska in Gdańsk. Although I’m forced to miss their Warsaw gig–that’s were I live currently–it’d sure be nice to see some photos. In the mean time here are couple of pictures taken at yesterday’s Cracow gig.
Update: Here you can find Warsaw gig photos.
An Ephemeral World, released in 2004, is so far Patrick Rondat’s last studio album in his solo career. The main theme is rebellion against the fashion and the arrogant and violent society portrayed by the media. As Patrick wrote:
The music that I offer you doesn’t seem to be rebellious when compared to that traditionally considered to be ‘rebel music’, nevertheless it is a form of resistance to the current musical environment, and the further development of this ephemeral culture.(…) I have a relentless passion both for my instrument and to find a form of complexity–this creates a yearning within me to extend my creative boundaries–simplicity does not have the monopoly on emotion and sincerity.
My love for Patrick Rondat’s work begun with his third solo album On the Edge. Although it took me some time (over half a year constantly searching) to get my hands on the CD itself, I love this album ever since I downloaded it from the ‘net in the first place. Come to think about it, if I wouldn’t listen to the mp3 version at first I probably wouldn’t be the proud owner of any of his albums, so maybe mp3s ain’t so bad after all?
Amphibia is Patrick Rondat’s third solo album. Released in 1996, presented Patrick’s famous frog that’s associated with all his solo work ever since.
I’ve just learned from Progressive Melodies and Ytsejam.com about this interesting ProgRock Records and Kevin J. Anderson project Roswell Six and simply can’t wait for it. You can hear two complete songs on band’s MySpace page.
I’m not going to write here what’s it all about just go ahead and check out the links. I’ve already signed up for autographed book+CD combo. Band’s line-up is indeed impressive and, what can I say, I simply love James LaBrie’s voice (even though his solo album sucks). Just to think I’ll have to wait till June to get my hands on it… or will the CD and the book be shipped independently?
Rape of the Earth is Patrick Rondat’s second solo album. Compared to his most recent work this is not a marvelous recording. Still, it’s pretty decent and quite interesting from a historical perspective as it shows a transition from heavy to prog metal, introducing Patrick’s individual style that will remain on his successive albums while his riffs will undergo a major evolution.
Yeah, I known I’ve been too quiet for the past week. To make it up to you here’s a series of reviews of one of my favorite guitarists Patrick Rondat. Patrick is one of those few guitar players whose solo albums are really interesting for a rhythm section guy like me. The solo work of most guitarists I otherwise appreciate is, frankly, quite boring and can be summarized as a continuous trip up and down the fretboard at the highest speed possible with occasional melodic interlude. It proves nothing except that the person is capable of playing solos. Then there is a sparse group of really interesting guitarists composing complete albums not an album-length solo arrangements. That’s the group Patrick Rondat falls into.
In my previous post I have mentioned a band named Naikaku, which stands for Internal Nuclear Tide. So far the band had released two albums, out of which I have heard and posses only the second one–Shell. Prog Archives have a really nice write-up about band’s history, so for background information I refer you to their article.
Now, back to the Shell. Shell is yet another instrumental album I’m reviewing here lately, but what an album this is! The recording is dominated by drum and bass tandem with flute and guitar coming and going as the music evolves. Even in it’s heaviest moments the rhythm sections stands out pretty well. What else an ex-bass player may need? The flute and occasional trumpet gives this album a very jazz-like feeling.
Until now, the term Japanese Progressive Rock always was a synonym of Naikaku for me. I didn’t knew about any other progressive bands from Japan and actually thought that probably there are none except for Naikaku itself. Obviously, I never thought I would hear something like this.
SBB’s new album Iron Curtain is due in three days, that’s January 26th. As Bob McBeath told me I’m going to enjoy it. Well, I surely do hope so Bob. In the mean time band’s distributor had made a new promo clip for song Camelele available on Youtube. Here’s what Józef Skrzek have to say about it (my own translation):
Camelele is a romantic and stirring story placed in a contemporary scenario. A pretty, young, popular girl from province falls to an incurable disease. Kamila, loving life and brave in her suffering, fights to the very end writting. She’s a Magical Pearl to her family and friends. Nevertheless, at the age of 28 she dies. When her family heard of her becoming a part of SBB music became happy because this way she’ll remain forever in human minds and sounds. When I was recording new material in the studio I had her face, her poetry in my mind. She was my muse and probably inspired Iron Curtain’s style…”
