S


"The design of the Hebrew letter samech is a circle, and represents infinity, because it has no beginning or end. In Kabbalah the samech represents the infinite power of the Ein Sof, G-d’s infinite light. Another brilliant Jewish music group out of...

Samla was the original band of keyboardist/composer Lars Hollmer. They blended progressive with bits of folk elements & more. This is an earlier, more overtly "progressive rock" disc than what came later, with some great melodies & great playing...

"Finland´s Sammal´s third album Suuliekki, continues where the critically acclaimed Myrskyvaroitus left off, not following in it´s footsteps, but rather taking a turn into uncharted territory, as this was the first time the band really had to start writing from scratch, after taking a little break, from playing shows and composing. The material never comes too easy, and many ideas are thrown into the “some other project” or “this simply isn´t good enough” bin. Song sketches have to sort of boil in a pot...

“A Progressive Detective Story : In a seemingly serene town with devoted Sundays and thriving soap factories, the sudden discovery of a young woman's lifeless body in the church confessional unravels hidden truths. A childhood friend, now a detective, unveils unsuspected realities.
Within a The Samurai of Prog progressive-rock concept album, the mystery unfolds, revealing the culprit behind tranquil facade.”

This box includes 4 The Samurai Of Prog albums:
On We Sail
Archiviarum
Toki No Kaze
Beyond The Wardrobe
It also includes 5 new bonus tracks (about 35 minutes of new music).
It is packaged in a clamshell box with 4 gatefold digisleeves inside + 32 page booklet.

Includes 4 albums:
The Lady and The Lion
The White Snake
The Spaghetti Epic 4
Anthem To The Phoenix Star
Also includes a 24 page booklet and five previously unreleased bonus tracks that equals over 40 minutes of new music.

"The Samurai of Prog are having a prolific run. A few short months after 2020‘s "Beyond the Wardrobe" album, the core trio of Marco Bernard, Kimmo Pörsti, and Steve Unruh are joined - as is their way - by a cast of contributing artists and writers, this time crafting an album inspired by The Brothers Grimm fairy tales. ("The Lady and the Lion" is the first of two Grimm-themed albums set to be released in 2021.) The Samurai have become known in progressive rock circles for their symphonic prog creations...

"It's already the third time that I rate a new TSOP album with five stars. But especially this time there's no slightest hesitation, because, in a word, Toki No Kaze is their finest achievement this far. I got this thought even before I had finished my initial listening of the album, and now after several listenings I'm more and more convinced. I am sincerely happy to review this one, hoping also that further reviews will follow. A strong candidate for being THE best prog album of 2019. BTW, don't....

“'The Man in the Iron Mask' is the exciting and ambitious new album from The Samurai of Prog. It is a concept album composed by Oliviero Lacagnina (of "Latte e Miele"), written in the "symphonic progressive rock" style - the musical genre he has been exploring and expanding since the 1970s.
This CD will certainly satisfy lovers of classical and symphonic progressive rock; new music weaving in quotations and callbacks to great composers of the past, interpreted by keyboards and powerful electric....

Angelica Sanchez piano, toy piano.

"Pianist Angelica Sanchez’s debut solo record, features a beguiling mix of her own meditative, introspective compositions and free improvisations as well as very personal versions of pieces by Ornette Coleman..

Angelica Sanchez piano
Michael Formanek double bass
Tyshawn Sorey drums

"You can often judge musicians by the company they keep. Float the Edge, the latest album from pianist-composer Angelica Sanchez, features her alongside two of the most sought-after rhythm-section musicians on the scene: veteran bassist Michael Formanek and rising- star Tyshawn Sorey, both acclaimed leader-composers in their own right. To be released via Clean Feed Records on March 25, 2017, Float the Edge sees this..

Angelica Sanchez, piano, Wurlitzer electric piano/Marc Ducret, electric guitar/Tony Malaby, tenor saxophone/Drew Gress, double bass/Tom Rainey, drums.

Very nice and very attractive album that sits somewhere between electric jazz (Wurlitzer) and..

Angelica Sanchez - piano, compositions
Michaël Attias - alto saxophone
Ben Goldberg - contra alto clarinet
John Hébert - bass
Thomas Heberer - quarter-tone trumpet
Sam Ospovat - drums
Chris Speed - tenor saxophone, clarinet
Omar Tamez - guitar
Kenny Warren – cornet

“This recording is a culmination of six years of writing, re-writing, rehearsals, concerts, van trips with the band and the love and support of friends and family. All the compositions are.

What a great band. Everyone here is a monster, a master and a band-leader in their own right.

Angelica Sanchez, piano / Marc Ducret, guitar / Tony Malaby, tenor & soprano saxophone / Drew Gress, bass / Tom Rainey, drums.

"It’s no longer.

Angelica Sanchez: Piano
Chad Taylor: Drums

“Two exceptional musicians – Angelica Sanchez and Chad Taylor – present their first duo album with A Monster is Just an Animal You Haven’t Met Yet. And it’s high time, given their long musical friendship, which has solidified over the years in various formations. It is therefore no exaggeration to describe pianist Angelica Sanchez and drummer Chad Taylor as two of the most important musical personalities in contemporary jazz.
Both are virtuoso...

Angelica Sanchez - Piano (left channel)
Marilyn Crispell - Piano (right channel)

“Two pianos sounding in tandem can feel – given that the instrument belongs to the percussion family – like a kind of 176-key gamelan, an atmospheric orchestra ringing and resonating and radiating in unity. In that way, the music of How to Turn the Moon by pianists Angelica Sanchez and Marilyn Crispell vibrates with a special, luminous quality. In composing all the pieces for this album, Angelica was inspired...

Angelica Sanchez, piano / Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet.

"A duo is the most intimate of encounters in jazz – such a tête-à-tête demands rare communication, forcing each player to open up, unable to rely on group interplay. The duo of pianist...

David Sancious - Acoustic Piano, Organ, Synthesizer, Guitar, Vocals
Ernest Carter – Drums, Percussion
Gerry Carboy - Bass
with
Patti Scialfa - Vocals (Overture)
Gail Moran - Vocals (1st Movement)

This is the famous, 1976 album by David Sancious and his band Tone that fell into a no man’s land of business issues during a despute as he had left Columbia Records for whom it was originally recorded and was planned to be released on Arista, who had just signed him.
Th

Eric Bikales - keyboards, flute, recorder, vocals
Roger Bruner - guitar, vocals
Dennis Loewen - bass guitar, vocals
Norman Weinberg - drums, percussion, vocals

First-ever reissue of this extremely obscure 1971 progressive rock album by a one and done band from Kansas.

“Kansas based progressive rock group, with remnants of psych, somewhat typical of the US rock scene of 1971. They take the unusual course of covering Yes'"Time and a Word", plus an Edgar Winter Group compositio

A previously unreleased album by the Krautrock band famous for the one album they released in their lifetime, Golem.

"Previously unreleased album by German trio Sand, recorded 1973-1982. Live events in the quarry and an archaic sound formed the background music of the young atomic age. In the meantime, after endless trance garage sessions, Sand drifted from the mythical landscapes to Berlin and mingled with various oriental influences. Vultures were scudding along the urban canyons while burning..

"Previously unreleased album by German trio Sand, recorded in 1972. His First Steps is a forerunner of Golem, the legendary 1974 album from the cosmic and psychedelic genius that is Sand. After the split of P.O.T., the early Sand submerged as a threesome in the basement of Claudiusstrasse and built up an alchemical assembling shop, where they resurrected the archetypical Golem. Sand considered themselves as an exile community in a fascinating area -- full of distinctly bizarre energy. Cover painting by...

"Previously unreleased album by German trio Sand, composed and recorded in 1973, '75, and '76. The once-croaking raven now flies silently over the ocean, higher and higher. Where are you rolling, sun-ball, and why don't you fall? The sandy Golem crumbled into dust. His brave struggle against the mighty forces of darkness soon dissolved in voiceless space. There is something magical and inexplicable in creation, and Sand absolutely manifest these mysterious phenomena. Storytellers, musicians, shamans....

"Previously unreleased album from the '70s by German trio Sand. Still living in the mythical landscapes, Sand not not only created Golem, who was a being of the earth. Something else pulsated with a different energy of oscillation. The invisible beings of the air performed their dances. The Golem was large, mighty and of compact matter. He needed an external spirit to be navigated. Sylph creatures moved with the clouds and the wind -- from gentle breezes to violent storms, always sensitive to the chimes...


"Listen and you'll hear electronics and traditional instruments not traditionally played. For example, there's a saxophone, but the controlled feedbacks originated aren't specific of the tube with holes and keys on it invented by Adolph Sax - it's really

"Serious and eccentric pieces for piano, other keyboards, throat singing and small drums, some Dollar Brand, some nonworld music. Unlike anything I can think of."-Chris Cutler. ”He´s a clear, melodic player with a left hand and rhythmic feel occasional...

Sten Sandell, piano, voice / Johan Berthling, doublebass / Paal Nilssen-Love, drums & percussion

Sten Sandell's playing may be connected to New Music and Improvised Music, and neither of these musical directions would be associated with what...

Sten Sandell piano
Lisa Ullén piano

“This one is for all the piano lovers overthere. If you’re a fan of the Scandinavian scene, you already know that Sten Sandell is one of the main representatives of that rich cauldron of creative jazz in Europe. And if you’re attentive to what’s new and fresh and creative in the jazzosphere, you already heard about the Korean-born, but living in Stockholm, Lisa Ullén, also a pianist. Yes, this is a piano duo, playing “Double Music” as the title states...

"The best improvisers are the ones that seem to invent and uninvent their instruments right in front of your eyes and ears. Swedish pianist Sten Sandell and Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love are two musical champions with a long experience of doing...

"Sten Sandell and Mattias Stahl may bring to mind the historic piano and vibraphone duo of Sun Ra and Walt Dickerson (although Stahl adds marimba and glockenspiel). But what the two duos have in common is little more than the adoption of jazz idioms and i

“With Pharoah Sanders’ blessing, this limited edition 2 CD box set presents the definitive, remastered version of PHAROAH, his seminal record from 1977, along with two previously unreleased live performances of his masterpiece “Harvest Time."
PHAROAH will be released a year after the legendary tenor saxophonists’ untimely death [editor’s note: Why is everyone’s death ‘untimely’ in label hype, especially someone who was in their 80s?], and two years after the release of what was to become his final...

Great price on a appealing trio set performed on violin (Ric Sanders, known for his long tenure in Fairport Convention as well as for his short but tasty tenure in Soft Machine), guitar (Vo Fletcher) and percussion (Michael Gregory). This has a wide...


"Philip Sanderson first started releasing music as part of Storm Bugs in the late 1970s as captured on the A Safe Substitute CD (Klang gg378). He also set up his own Snatch Tapes cassette label releasing music by David Jackman and Alien Brains amongst others. Reviews in the Wire magazine of the instrumental tracks described them as being akin to "a boiling vat of electronic music that occasionally sounds like the work of a mad scientist", whilst the songs have a "flavour of what Kevin Ayers might cook up...


"Jean Pierre Alarcen (guitar), Henri Garella (organ, mellotron) and Michel Jullien (drums) had previously played together in Eden Rose, whose album was a showcase for magnificent interplay between organ and electric guitar. This style was the backbone for Sandrose too, but with dramatic female vocals added in the style of Earth & Fire or Circus 2000. Alarcen had now become a prolific composer, with a range from symphonic rock overtures to gripping songs. His guitarwork was augmented by Garella's...

"There is nothing ordinary about Sandstone. This private press folk/psych album (1971) is so head and shoulders above almost every other album in the genre, it's hard to believe it's not better known. The instrumentation and compositional style are...


“Composer-arranger and bandleader David Sanford has a capacious musical mind, one attuned to multiple genres and the joy of their aural collision. Keenly attuned not only to his rich African-Americaninheritance but also to the widest range of culture, he has been influenced by big-band classics and avant-jazz innovators as well as the sweep of the cinema,the harmonic explorations of classical modernists, the artful aggression of rock and the irresistible rhythms of funk. Recognized for his...


Every time I see a band described as ‘modern prog’, it too often means I am going to be assaulted by ‘crunchy guitars’ and overblown production.
As usual, Sanguine Hum, who are what I would consider a ‘modern prog’ band, go for something outside of what is expected. Their music is always tasteful, melodic, song-oriented and never ‘in your face’.
The songs are the rulers of how the performances go, and there is great attention to small, often delicate musical detail and mood.
They’ve been..

"Now We Have Light is the third Sanguine Hum album, following on from the acclaimed albums Diving Bell and the Weight of the World. Now We Have Light is a double CD concept album. Unusually with this record, it is also something that the band have...

This special, limited package includes a DVD of some of the sessions for the album.

"Now We Have Light is the third Sanguine Hum album, following on from the acclaimed albums Diving Bell and the Weight of the World. Now We Have Light is a double CD concept album. Unusually with this record, it is also something that the band have been working on for over a decade, and its roots go right back to the days of Antique Seeking Nuns, which was the earliest project that guitarist Joff Winks and keyboard...

Joff Winks / vocals, electric & acoustic guitars, synths, fx
Matt Baber / pianos, organ, synths, guitar, fx
Brad Waissman / bass, Chapman stick, double bass
With:
Kimara Sajn / vocals (11)
Mark Kesel / trumpet (9,13)
Paul Mallyon / drums

“The follow-up and sequel to 2015’s acclaimed double CD 'Now We Have Light' (“a masterpiece”, in the words of All About Jazz magazine) continues the story of Don through a surreal lyrical and musical landscape.”...

"Following hot on the heels of 2015’s highly acclaimed double album Now We Have Light, Sanguine Hum return to cast an intriguing light on the early years of their career. Whilst many Hum fans got on board with the albums the Weight of the World and Diving Bell, there will be many completely unaware of a "lost” gem recorded in 2006 – an album that technically was the band’s bona fide debut: Songs For Days. It was lost for a number of reasons. Firstly, the band had yet to settle on the name Sanguine Hum....

A very good instrumental symphonic progressive rock band who feature flute, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, bass and drums. This was the 2nd release on AltrOck's Fading subsidiary, which aims to release more 'proggy progressive' than what...

Forrest Fang made this electronic/drone album under the 'nom de plume' of Sans Serif.

"Sans Serif is a soundscape-oriented side project that was inspired by the harmonic drones of La Monte Young. It is an attempt to present a "horizontal" music..

"In the 1970's in Chile, recording anything was complicated. The state-owned IRT label was administered by the military. Domestic releases gave way to an invasion of foreign music. At most, a Chilean group like Santa y su Gente (Santa and his People)...

You know Robert as the leader and multi-instrumentalist of the Spanish band Amarok. This is his first solo release.

“Finally, after a long cooking time that has lasted a 30 years, the most ambitious of all my musical projects finally sees the light. Jaume I, Musica of Fets i Llegendes. (Music of feats and legends).
It is a personal vision about the life of this medieval monarch, in which I have mixed historical and legendary aspects in an undifferentiated way, and in which I have not had...