4 diverse highlights and 39 more new releases this week!
Releases of the Week 08/2022 with Michał Łapaj, Être, Iotunn & Athemon
Our highlights this week range from analogue synth improvisations with Michał Łapaj’s “Sessions”, modern Danish prog with Être‘s debut EP, an acoustic revisiting of Iotunn‘s 2021 debut album “Access All Worlds” all the way to the label-backed re-issue of Athemon‘s self-titled debut album feat. ex-Haken bassist Tom MacLean via Wormholedeath Records.
Michał Łapaj - Sessions (Feb. 22)
Fans of electronic prog music can rejoice at least twice this week. Not only is there a new album by genre forefathers and innovators of Tangerine Dream. Riverside keyboardist and analogue synth expert Michał Łapaj released re-mastered versions of his improvised “Sessions” 1-3, complete with two new ‘Sessions’ (4 and 5) on Tuesday already. After his amazing solo debut album “Are You There” from last year, that at least partly featured ‘normal’ songs with vocal hooks and ‘traditional’ song structures, this release is obviously more for hardcore synth/electronic music fans rather than the occasional Riverside listener, but that doesn’t mean it’s of any less quality. The output from the Riverside camp has been quite extraordinary over the last year, with solo albums and side projects from frontman Mariusz Duda, ‘new’ guitarist Maciej Meller, Łapaj and an extensive Best of Boxset for the band’s 20th anniversary. But now it’s high time for new material from the main band itself, don’t you think? Dario
Être - I: Human EP
Copenhagen and Denmark seem to be a hotbed of modern prog lately. Être is a welcome new voice in that scene, rising from the ashes of South Harbour. Introducing the vocal talents of Freja Ordell, “I: Human” is the first in a planned trilogy of EPs. It’s a colourful affair, combining many influences, with Freja’s melodies and vocal harmonies clearly in focus for most of the time and the variety displayed in it’s 30 minute runtime paints a picture of a talented and hungry band with a clear artistic vision, and I am very curious about the next installment(s) of the series in particular and the development of the band in general. Keep an eye on them! Dario
Iotunn - Access All Worlds - An Acoustic Voyage
Decidedly Scandinavian in nature, danish/faroese supergroup Iotunn made waves with the release of their high class debut album “Access All Worlds” through Metal Blade Records exactly one year ago. To mark the first anniversary, they decided to put out the acoustic medley of the album, which they had released in a live version on YouTube last year already. “Access All Worlds – An Acoustic Voyage” should appeal to fans of Green Carnation and Ayreon (as well as fans of fans of the full length album of course), and works both as companion to “Access All Worlds” as well as a nice bite-sized appetizer to tide us over to the next album. Dario
Athemon - Athemon
Always happy to see a promising band picked up by a label (remember VOLA’s “Inmazes” or Molybaron’s “The Mutiny”?), Athemon’s self-titled 2021 debut album is getting a re-release through Wormholedeath Records today. Reason enough to share my initial thoughts on the album again:
Some four years after the masterpiece that was the first Psion EP, we finally get new music from ex-Haken/To-Mera bassist/guitarist Tom MacLean. Athemon is the name of his new project and it’s a collaboration with brazilian vocalist/guitarist Adriano Ribeiro. They forged their self-titled debut album sending files back and forth across the oceans without having met in the flesh as of yet, and self-released the result last Monday. Compared to Psion, the music they created together is rawer, less bombastic and orchestral, but a similar darkness permeates every note on it. Adriano’s voice has a nice doomy deep timbre and Tom’s bass is matching Adriano’s guitar tone perfectly, with a super solid drum performance by guest Gledson Gonçalves laying the rhythmic backbone. It’s an intoxicating raw darkness the two internet friends have created together with Athemon, and they are off to a great start with their first release. Dario
More releases for 25 February, 2022
- The Mountain King - WolloW (Feb. 22) Bandcamp
- The Post War - Anecdoche (Feb. 22) Bandcamp
- Cyril - Amenti’s Coin - Secret Place Pt. II (Feb. 22, Progressive Promotion Records) Bandcamp
- Time Horizon - Power of Three (Feb. 22, Melodic Revolution Records)
- Jason Keisling - In Finite (Feb. 22)
- Emetropia - Equinox (Feb. 23) Bandcamp
- Ocinn - The Forest (Feb. 24, Guts’n’Blood Records) Bandcamp
- Allegaeon - Damnum (Metal Blade Records)Read Our Review
- Tangerine Dream - Raum (Kscope)
- Kalle Wallner - Voices (Gentle Art of Music)
- Kyoty - Isolation (Deafening Assembly) Bandcamp
- Abraham - Débris de mondes perdues (Pelagic Records) Bandcamp
- Kryptograf - The Eldorado Spell (Apollon Records) Bandcamp
- Naxatras - IV Bandcamp
- Grandval - eau | feu Bandcamp
- Eight Bells - Legacy of Ruin (Prophecy Productions) Bandcamp
- Fall of Stasis - The Chronophagist Bandcamp
- Jason Blake - Imaginary Cages (Wayfarer Records)
- D'Virgilio, Morse & Jennings - Troika (Inside Out Music)
- Tears For Fears - The Tipping Point
- Deathbell - A Nocturnal Crossing (Svart Records) Bandcamp
- Cobra the Impaler - Colossal Gods (Listenable Records)
- Soliloquium - Soulsearching (Naturmacht Productions) Bandcamp
- Mountaineer - Giving Up the Ghost (Lifeforce Records) Bandcamp
- Brood of Hatred - The Golden Age (Gruesome Records) Bandcamp
- Artisan - The Stain of Life (Sublevel Records) Bandcamp
- Everson Poe - The Night Country (Trepanation Recordings) Bandcamp
- Tuskar - Matriarch (Church Road Records) Bandcamp
- Blood Incantation - Timewave Zero (Century Media Records)
- Turpentine Valley - Alder (dunk!records) Bandcamp
- Gaute Storsvo Trio - El Gran Gotzilla (Apollon Records)
- Thurston Moore - Screen Time (Southern Lord)
- Meslamtaea - Weemoedsklanken (Babylon Doom Cult Records)
- An Evening Redness - An Evening Redness (Transylvanian Recordings) Bandcamp
- Shape of Despair - Return to the Void (Season of Mist) Bandcamp
- Borts Minorts + Hug Victim - Brut! (Nefarious Industries) Bandcamp
- Tim Bowness & Giancarlo Erra - Memories of Machines (Kscope)
- Darkness Everywhere - The Seventh Circle EP (Creator-Destructor Records) Bandcamp
- Copse - Mara | Mondrem EP Bandcamp