Formed in 2019, French progressive metal band Altesia have built a loyal following with the acclaimed albums ‘Paragon Circus’ (2019) and ‘Embryo’ (2021). Now, the band presents its most ambitious work to date with the exciting, immersive, and visceral third album, ‘The Somnambulist,’ out June 13, 2025.
The band has long embraced the idea of playing music without labels or boundaries, but ‘The Somnambulist’ is undoubtedly the album that best embodies this vision.
“This album is undoubtedly our most accomplished, collective, and diverse work to date. Every note, every interpretation, every silence, has been thought out and discussed. It marks a turning point in our history as it allowed us to rethink the way we composed music until now, and it lays the groundwork for years to come,” says Clément Darrieu (vocals – guitar).
The band are pleased to share the stunning first single “Her Ghost in Limbo”. You can watch the video, directed by Yann Evrard, here:
While the musical atmosphere of a song usually influences its lyrics, the band pushed itself to innovate in its compositional approach. “We gathered to write the concept of the album in a sequenced manner, each song acting as a chapter in the story and embodying an emotion, a mindset of the character at that particular moment. For the first time, it was the theme of each song that influenced the music, and this new approach turned out to be thrilling.” adds Clément Darrieu.
“All five of us listen to a lot of different genres, and it’s natural for us to incorporate our various influences into our music. The prog side allows us to bridge all these universes, even if some are completely different. For example, on ‘The Somnambulist Pt.2’, you’ll find black metal transitioning into bluegrass, Latin sounds, and many other things. We have a blast playing this music without imposing any limits on ourselves to push our creative boundaries.” concludes Darrieu.
Track List 1. ‘The Somnambulist Pt.1’ 2. ‘Her Ghost In Limbo’ 3. ‘Anomaly Of One’ 4. ‘Sepia Cathedral’ 5. ‘Visceral’ 6. ‘Of Guilt And Blood’ 7. ‘The Somnambulist Pt.2’ 8. ‘Post-Mortem’
Belgian progressive rock band Murky Red is set to release their second single, Pineapple Sweet, this Friday, April 4th, 2025. The track will be available exclusively on Bandcamp throughout April, with a wider release on all streaming platforms in May. This new single follows the success of their acclaimed video of the same name, continuing the band’s signature blend of atmospheric rock and surreal artistry.
About the Song
“Pineapple Sweet” is a mesmerizing fusion of sound and surrealism, crafted by Stef Flaming. The song showcases Murky Red’s signature atmospheric rock, blending rich melodies with an ethereal, dreamlike quality. Its hypnotic rhythms and evocative instrumentation create an immersive sonic experience that lingers long after the music fades.
According to Stef,
“As a Dutch speaker, I find it entertaining to mispronounce English words or invent non-existent ones. For example, the Dutch word for pineapple is ananas, which, when pronounced in English, can sound—especially to those with a mischievous mindset—like “an anus.” That playful absurdity was the main inspiration for writing a song where I could embrace such silliness.
Beyond that, the message is simple: Don’t take yourself too seriously. You’re not the center of the universe—be that only to your closest family and friends because that’s what truly matters. Stay humble, and don’t waste energy trying to convince the world of your greatness. Most importantly, enjoy the simple things in life as much as you can.”
Music and Lyrics by Stef Flaming. Mastered by Ian Beabout
Watch Pineapple Sweet Here
AboutPineapple Sweet Video
The video amplifies this experience with a dazzling visual journey—imagine a psychedelic, Monty Python-esque adventure drenched in vibrant, surreal imagery. This mind-bending feast for the senses perfectly complements the song’s trippy essence, making Pineapple Sweet a captivating audiovisual experience unlike any other. Video by Stef Flaming.
Murky Red is a Belgian progressive rock band known for blending classic rock, blues, and psychedelic influences. Their music often features a mix of moody atmospheres, intricate guitar work, and poetic lyrics, reminiscent of bands like Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, and The Doors.
The band was formed by Stef Flaming (vocals, guitar) and Yolanda Flaming (keyboards, backing vocals) and has gained recognition in the underground prog scene. They released albums such as Time Doesn’t Matter (2012) and No Pocus Without Hocus (2015), both of which were well-received for their warm, vintage sound.
It’s almost unbelievable and quite strange to think about, but Karisma Records’ most productive band of all time, Tusmørke, has never released a live album. This will change on May 9th, when the semi-acoustic live album “En pakt med naturen” will be released!
En pakt med naturen is Tusmørke’s first ever live album, recorded live at Oslo’s biggest independent record store Big Dipper, as part of their 25th anniversary celebration last October. “We knew we had to do something special with Tusmørke. Benediktator and Krizla have since the early 2000s been building their record collections and releasing their own music simultaneously. We like to think the records we sold them in our store somewhat influenced their musical output, at least we know that the albums they released had a huge impact on us!” (Andreas Leine Jakobsen, Gerenal Manager, Big Dipper Musikk & Hi-Fi
“Is this Folk Horror? Silly question, perhaps, but we need you to mutter certain phrases while listening: Bucoloc, acoustic, ancient, uncanny; acid, pagan, peasant, occult; wildness, wilderness, wildestness, Wicker Man. Ever since the start of Tusmørke, we’ve wanted to make an acoustic album. In Skien, Telemark in the 90s, we wanted to record in an ancient loghouse with an open hearth (årestue) in the local folk museum Brekkeparken. Years passed and line-ups changed. Then, when we supported Ved Buens Ende at Blå in the Autumn of 2021, we were joined by Åsa and Dauinghorn. They played some of the arrangements that we finally managed to record here, after several attempts to find a suitable time and place to make it happen. Again, time had passed and line-ups had changed, but the spirit of Folk Horror remained. We ask you to close your eyes and picture yourself in a windowless low dwelling, open to the sky through a hole in the roof. Acrid smoke curls upward and occasional sparks fly from the smoldering fire. Music wafts through the gloom in this serene scene of timeless primitivism. There is no electricity. There are no synthesizers. I won’t even mention digital things, because they don’t exist. There is only Folk Horror and you are in League with Nature.” (Benediktator)
TRACKLIST
Høstjevndøgn
Salomonsens Hage
Singers and Swallows (CD only)
Kjentmannen
Heksejakt
Age of Iron Man
Cycle Of the Gylfaginning
Den Behornede Guden
Upcoming concerts: 22/3 – Hør Hør, Oslo (Bydyra) 29/3 – Høvleriet, Haugesund 11/4 – Karga, Kariköy, Istanbul, Turkey 12/4 – Haymatlos Makan, Ankara, Turkey 15/4 – Jesuit Cultural Centre, Alexandria, Egypt 17/4 – Cairo Jazz Club, Kairo, Egypt 03/5 – Sykkelbryggeriet, Skien 10/5 – Verkstedet, Trondheim 11/5 – Rockheim, Trondheim (Bydyra) 31/5 – Muskelrock, Alvesta, Sweden 14/6 – Salt, Oslo
UK group Solstice are set to release their 8th studio album, Clann, next Friday, April 4th, 2025 through specialist US label Progrock.com Essentials.
To celebrate the album’s forthcoming release, the band have shared the video for the track “Life.” You can watch the video here:
“As an album title, ‘Clann’ acknowledges the strong sense of family both within the band and among our supporters. As for the song ‘Life’, it’s the recognition of those bonds as they grow and make whatever time we have left together the greatest gift of all” – Andy Glass
Recorded both in a variety of recording studios and by individual band members at home, Clann includes a first in the band’s career with the track Plunk which features a brass section recorded at the beautiful Grand Chapel Studio in Toddington, Bedfordshire. Glass admits that “there might be a bit of a Big Big Train influence there somewhere!”
Clann manages to cover a great deal of musical ground in its nearly 40-minute running time. Firefly opens up proceedings and will be familiar to many already through its airing at numerous gigs and its inclusion on both the band’s Live At The Stables and Return To Cropredy releases. Its pulse-pumping energy, hard-edged yet infectious grooves, whirling bursts of synth and violin and its glorious guitar solo lift the spirit and sweep us into Solstice’s mesmerizing world. Elsewhere Life delivers smooth, soulful, modern pop with an elegant dance-friendly heart and Plunk is taut swaggering funk in 7/8 with brass stabs and a left-field, gritty guitar solo. Frippa is built on an urgent, bluesy Crimson-esque riff in 5 and spotlights organ, violin and even more incendiary guitar. Final track, the 14-minute Twin Peaks, in some ways harks back to what prog polymath and longtime Solstice fan Steven Wilson once described as the band’s “spacey and spacious” early material – it’s gentle, reflective and airy with pastoral, folky strains, yet builds into a soaring expression of rapturous celebration and spiritual freedom.
Lyrically, the album continues established Solstice themes of love, joy, peace, harmony and acceptance, yet Clann admits that not everything in the garden is always rosy. Although longing for some ultimate redemption, both Plunk and Frippa feature a level of reproach for unidentified liars and cheats with Plunk even exercising some wry schadenfreude at the downfall of the song’s antagonist.
‘New album Clann is the third and final chapter of what has become known as the Sia Trilogy which began in 2020 with the band’s current revitalized lineup. These three albums spread love, joy and good vibes throughout every cell of their listener’s bodies.’ – Sonic Persepctives
Clann Track List 1.Firefly 2.Life 3.Plunk 4.Frippa 5.Twin Peaks
All songs written by Andy Glass
Solstice line-up Andy Glass – Guitars, backing vocals Jenny Newman – Violin Pete Hemsley – Drums Jess Holland – Lead vocals Robin Phillips – Bass Steven McDaniel – Keyboards Ebony Buckle – Backing vocals Dyane Crutcher – Backing vocals
Voted Best Band in Prog magazine’s latest annual Reader’s Poll, and arriving on an exuberant wave of positivity created by previous albums Sia (2020) and Light Up (2022), both widely acclaimed within the prog community and beyond, Clann completes the most recent phase of Solstice’s 40-plus year career. As band founder, composer, and guitarist (winner of Prog magazine’s most recent Best Guitarist Prog Award) Andy Glass explains, “[Sia] made me realize the potential and by the time we were working on Light Up the whole band had raised its game. I believed then that a trilogy of albums was what it would take to create our best work and track that journey. Clann is the final album in the Sia Trilogy and it’s everything I’d hoped it would be. Let’s hope the universe likes it too.”
Few albums in Gong’s discography capture the band’s whimsical, irreverent take on life’s complexities and the enigma of death as vividly as 2014’s I See You. Now, the legendary psychedelic collective mark a decade since the release with a brand-new 10th Anniversary Edition on Kscope. Set for release on Kscope on May 9th, the new edition has been remixed from the original multi-track recordings by Frank Byng, producer and sound engineer of the last four Gong albums.
“A triumph of creativity, imagination, and spirit.” – Classic Rock Magazine
This milestone reissue celebrates not only the existential beauty of Gong’s music, but also the enduring legacy of frontman and visionary Daevid Allen, whose boundless creativity continues to resonate with fans worldwide. I See You was the final studio album featuring Daevid Allen before his passing in 2015 and stands as a testament to his vibrant spirit and revolutionary ethos. Infused with the anarchic energy that defined Gong’s origins in the 1968 Paris counterculture movement, I See You takes its place as one of the finest gems in the band’s heroic catalogue.
“As impish and perverse as ever” – Uncut
“Daevid Allen’s final album, I See You is such a transitional Gong record in so many ways, not that any of us realised it at the time. Work on the album had just commenced around the time I was asked to join and Daevid was in fine health but by the time we were at the mixing stage he was undergoing intense treatment for his cancer which would ultimately prove unsuccessful. As you can imagine, the record was completed under extremely fraught circumstances, very different to the upbeat way it started. Getting it over the line was not an especially joyful process. Decisions needed to be made under a great deal of pressure and, with emotions running high, they weren’t always the right ones. Nonetheless, I’m so happy Daevid got to hear it completed, that he loved it and that we got to put it out into the world.
When, during his final months, Daevid expressed his desire for the band he had assembled to continue without him we felt pretty uncertain about the prospect. Yet here we are after ten years of constant touring, three studio albums (with a fourth on the way) and a double live album later, looking back at the record which launched the current incarnation of this wonderful mythology.
Hearing Frank Byng’s remarkable new mix, thankfully completed without time constraints, has brought an increased sonic clarity which accentuates the eccentric psychedelic majesty of the original release. I was moved to tears hearing it. For me, this is the definitive version of I See You, the record I always hoped it would be.” – Kavus Torabi
For I See You, Allen was joined by his son Orlando Allen on drums, and members of the current lineup: guitarist and frontman Kavus Torabi (formerly of Cardiacs), horn player Ian East, Dave Sturt (the sonic manipulator) on bass, and the Brazilian Fabio Golfetti, weaving his own lysergic patterns on guitar. The result is an impressive, multi-layered and irrepressible world, populated with a series of dazzling musical gems – melodically rich, lyrically engaging and musically refreshed.
“It’s extraordinary that Allen’s work continues to be so… extraordinary” –Record Collector
Gong continues to carry the torch ignited by Daevid Allen with a tour of the UK and North America planned for Summer 2025 – MAY 21 – York, UK – The Crescent 22 – Huddersfield, UK – The Parish 23 – Allendale, UK – Allendale Village Hall 25 – Liverpool, UK – Outer Waves Festival (Invisible Wind Factory)
JUNE 06 – Albuquerque, NM – Sister 07 – Colorado Springs, CO – Lulu’s Downtown 08 – Denver, CO – The Black Buzzard at Oskar Blues 10 – Salt Lake City, UT – The State Room 11 – Boise, ID – Shrine Social Club 13 – Yakima, WA – Bearded Monkey Music 14 – Seattle, WA – Rainier Arts Centre (Cascadence Festival) 15 – Portland, OR – McMenamins White Eagle Saloon 16 – Eugene, OR – WOW Hall 18 – Redding, CA – The Dip 19 – Mill Valley, CA – Sweetwater Music Hall 21 – Studio City, CA – The Baked Potato 22 – Studio City, CA – The Baked Potato 23 – Costa Mesa, CA – The Wayfarer 25 – San Marcos, CA – The Bornemann Theatre 26 – Phoenix, AZ 27 – Tucson, AZ 28 – Flagstaff, AZ – The Orpheum Theatre
AUGUST 29 – Brighton, UK – Brighton Psych Festival 30 – Manchester, UK – Manchester Psych Festival
With members from bands like Krokofant, Red Kite, WIZRD, Grand General and more, Soft Ffog returns with their 2nd album “Focus” on May the 2nd. But those curious to hear what the band has in store for them need wait no longer, because today “Oh Jimi”, has been released as a single, which can be streamed or downloaded from various services at
Oh Jimi starts of with a heavy riff, then transitions into a train ride to Bluesville, the guitar solo part is probably the only place the «Jimi» reference is detectable, the blues’esque solo rounds up with another heavy riff, spaced out with echo laden Rhodes solo glazed in acid.
The song concludes with doom riff that’s falling apart as it goes, just as a reminder that the end is nye. (PS. End og the song, not the world)
Regarding the new album “Focus”, it’s more progrock than ever – The Soft is Ffoggier and the Ffog is softer. Highly influenced by 70s underground heroes like Camel and Focus, sprinkled with that old jazz dust, this new record should satisfy all you 70s nostalgics with a jazz tickle out there!
The combined members of Soft Ffog have probably played with everyone in the Norwegian jazz scene, but here they do their own thing. All songs are composed by Tom Hasslan, and the band is playing his compositions like there’s no tomorrow. But then again, there will probably be a tomorrow, and then you buy the record, and «YoU Will Be happy»!!
Line-up: – Tom “Zappa-finger” Hasslan on the guitars – Axel “Pheel the Collin’s” Skalstad on the buckets – Trond “Geezer Jeezuz” Frønes on the bass – Vegard “Wake(up the)man” Lien Bjerkan on all the keyboards in the world
Focus was recorded by Christian Engfelt at Studio Paradiso. Produced by Tom Hasslan/Soft Ffog and Christian Engfelt, and mastered by Espen Høydalsvik at OSLO:Fuzz. With cover art by Einar Evju, layout and logo by Tom Korsvold, the track listing for the album is as follows:
SOFT FFOG’s genesis in 2016 was somewhat unusual in that it came about as a one-off gig commissioned by the Kongsberg Jazz Festival. Despite the success of this event, the band did not get the momentum it needed to be a proper working entity, and, combined with the busy schedules of the respective musicians, each with their other bands and projects, SOFT FFOG only played gigs every now and then. Playing live, did however, help to define and refine the band’s sound, so much so, infact, that founder Tom Hasslan decided that 2020 was the right time for SOFT FFOG to record their first album. Now, the band is well established, and the band will be seen at different venues in the months following the release of “Focus”.
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