We are pleased to announce that Peruvian band Flor de Loto have been signed to ROSFest also for 2019.
Following a spectacular performance at last year’s RoSfest, we have decided to bring Peruvian band Flor de Loto back also for the 2019 edition of our festival. For a number of reasons: Their concert last year was brilliant, and many desired to see them again sooner rather than later. Some missed out on the show, and from what they heard from others they knew they had missed something good. Hence we see to it that this situation is resolved. And finally Flor de Loto have now signed with US label Melodic Revolution Records, a label that are longtime friends of RoSfest, and they are releasing Flor de Loto’s new album Eclipse.
As we stated last year: Progressive Rock is alive and well on the South American continent, and one of the most popular progressive rock bands in South America is Flor de Loto from Peru. They have built a steadily growing fan base all over the continent since they first appeared in 2005 with their self-titled debut album, with a solid presence as a live band for more than a decade and seven (soon eight) studio albums to their name cementing their reputation as a high-quality band.
Their take on progressive rock is one that resides somewhere in between Jethro Tull and Iron Maiden, incorporating elements from metal, Andean folk music and, chamber music into their compositions alongside nods towards hard rock and psychedelic rock. This results in a sound and style with a broad appeal: This is a band with fans also from outside of the progressive rock universe.
Alonso Herrera, Alejandro Jarrin, Pablo Alayza, Alvaro Escobar, Pierre Farfán and Gabriel Iwasaki are members of a band that has a reputation as a quality act on all levels. We are eagerly looking forward to being able to once again experience one of the top progressive rock bands from the South American continent performing live at ROSfest 2019.
ROSfest 2019 will take place on May 3rd through 5th 2019 at the Sarasota Opera House, Florida. The final line-up and schedule for the festival are still TBA. Confirmed bands to appear so far are: Riverside (headliner), Karmamoi, Cryptic Vision, Prideaux, Martin Barre (performing 50 Years of Jethro Tull), Edge of Reality, Entransient, and Traverser
US progressive rock band Cryptic Vision is confirmed to appear at RoSFest 2019.
Those who have good memories will recall that Cryptic Vision was one of the bands that appeared at the start of the millennium that caused quite a stir, releasing their first albums in 2003 and 2006 respectively, and with a third album to their name that followed in 2012. During their initial phase, the band was also signed to RoSfest, which resulted in the album “Live at RoSfest 2005”.
While news about the band have been a bit slow in recent years, they remain active. As a matter of fact, they are working on material for a new EP these days, a production that is planned to be released prior to RoSfest 2019. The current members of the band are Rick Duncan, Todd Plant, Sam Conable, Tim Keese and Howard Helm: The very same line-up that have been in place for the greater majority of the band’s career. Cryptic Vision continues exploring progressive rock in the same vein they have done since they started out, with a typical US touch to their overall sound in a manner that was pioneered by bands such as Kansas back in the day.
When we moved Rosfest to Sarasota, Florida for the 2019 edition of the festival, Cryptic Vision was one of the first bands we reached out to. Besides being a known entity and quality band that haven’t played at the festival for more than a decade, Cryptic Vision is also a local band: They are actually based in Sarasota, so you cannot be more local than that.
Cryptic Vision have been chosen to be the band that opens Rosfest 2019, the very first band to hit the stage on Friday. We know we are not the only ones that are looking forward to seeing and hearing this fine US band play for us again.
RoSfest 2019 will take place on May 3rd through 5th, 2019 at the Sarasota Opera House, Florida. The final line-up and schedule for the festival are still TBA. Confirmed bands to appear so far are: Riverside (headliner), Karmamoi, Cryptic Vision,
Multi-instrumentalist and singer Marco Ragni is back with his latest album, and what an album it is. While he provides vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards, mellotron, piano and mandolin he has also been joined by Dave Newhouse (sax, clarinet, flute, keyboards and woodwinds arrangements), Peter Matuchniak (lead guitar), Jeff Mack (bass) and Maurizio Antonini on drums, plus a few guests adding different nuances. This means this album includes members of The Muffins, Bomber Goggles, Scarlet Hollow and Barock Project, so it is a given that the guys all know their ways around their instruments. What this has enabled them all to do is to relax completely, and the result is an album which in many ways is the loosest I have ever come across. We often talk about how tight a band is, how they are right on top of each other, but here they sound as if there is a great space between them all and between the layers, allowing the music to fully breathe and go where it desires.
The album title is apt, as there is a feeling of a great sky and a bleak landscape, and the travelers knowing not where they are going when they are likely to reach the destination, or even if it really matters. This is a musical journey that is given a very middle eastern feel at times with the use of the oud, while it is also often reflective, with a great deal of restraint. It is an album which demands to be savored like a fine brandy: take the time and let all the nuances and textures hit every sense. It is progressive, it is psychedelic, it is nearly New Age (but not quite, they don’t inhale), it is World, it is delicate, but there is an inner strength and core which keeps everything moving in the same direction.
Often it is just Marco singing in a reflective manner, but during “Promised Land” there is even room for many singers and for Peter to become more direct in his approach. Maurizio is also one of those drummers who understand that there are times to play, and time to listen to the band with everyone else, and that restraint also has a key part to play. This is quite some album and is well worth discovering by all good music lovers.
The complete title of this album is ‘In The World of Fantasy? … And Other rarities’. It was actually released prior to ‘In Search Of The Perfect Chord’, so the final epic song on that album features as the opening song on this collection, a taster for what was to come. Of course, reviewing this some four years later means that some of the impacts of that is rather lost. All of the other songs are either rare songs taken from singles, alternative versions, demos or unreleased songs. It goes all the way back to the band’s beginning in 2014, and then right up to date with an unrealized theme from the next album.
Normally with an album of this type, reviewers would say that this is a nice set for completists and those who are already fans of the band, and move smartly onwards and not bother listening to it. But, what we have here is one of those rare instances of a rarities collection that is actually a bloody fine listen indeed. One of the real joys on this one is “Born In 67”, where keyboard player, bandleader and label boss Ryszard Kramarski provides lead vocals on the demo. Contrast that to the Beatles-like “The Prose Of Life” that follows it, and I can guarantee that any listener will be smiling (at least I was). I believe this CD was only released as a limited numbered edition, so I don’t know if it is still available, but all progheads should grab this if they come across it. These days, most progheads when they think of Poland always think Riverside, but in truth, there has been a great deal of wonderful bands out of that country in the last 20 years, and to my ears Millenium is right up there with the very best.
Some fifteen years on from their debut, and the 2014 version of Millenium still featured four of the five musicians who had played on ‘Vocanda’. Of all the wonderful progressive bands I have heard from Poland, it is with this one I feel the most affinity, as they have consistently released great albums throughout their career, and this shows no sign at all of that changing. As with their previous album, they brought in some guests on vocals and additional instruments (interestingly both Darek Rybka ( saxophone) and Grzegorz Bauer (drums) joined as full members in 2017), to add additional polish and effect. The use of saxophone in modern progressive music still feels fresh, and that is again very much the case here.
This neo-prog outfit takes cues from the likes of Pink Floyd, but IQ is obviously also very much an influence, and there is always a firm concentration on songs and melodies. Singer Łukasz Gall has a wonderful voice and is always kept to the forefront of the sound, and the female backing singers add a touch of finesse, with “Girl From A Glass Sphere” in particular managing to be beautiful, modern and timeless all at once. The last song on the album, “In The World Of Fantasy” is also one of the longest in their canon, stretching in at twelve minutes. It tells the story of a composer obsessed with the desire to write the perfect tune and ready to sign a pact with the devil to achieve this goal. The band see this as a tribute to Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Handel and Wagner and also to “legendary art-rock bands and timeless compositions such as Genesis, “Supper’s ready”, Pink Floyd “Echoes”, Yes “Close to the edge”, The Alan Parsons Project “The turn of a friendly card” or Marillion “Grendel”.”
This digipak is a fine addition to any prog lover’s collection, and I feel so fortunate that I have been able to hear so much of their work. This is the ninth album of theirs that I own, and is either their 10thor 11thstudio release (depending as to whether you consider the debut Millenium album to actually be the second Framauro album or not), and all of them are very high quality indeed. Truly one of the great Polish progressive bands.
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