Displaying items by tag: Progressive Rock

Source: SONY Music

Pink Floyd is known for carefully crafting each of their epic work, and that applies to the solo works of each member of the legendary progressive rock ensemble and the latest release of David Gilmour's highly anticipated new album ‘Luck and Strange’ is not an exception. The album was released on Sony Music on September 6th, 2024, marking his first collection of new material in nine years. 

The critically acclaimed nine-track album includes an enchanting reworking of The Montgolfier Brothers' 1999 song "Between Two Points," featuring Gilmour’s 22-year-old daughter, Romany, on vocals and harp. Other highlights include the title track, featuring the late Richard Wright of Pink Floyd, recorded during a 2007 jam session at Gilmour’s home. The album’s artwork is by an acclaimed artist Anton Corbijn.

In the modern guitar world, few names resonate as profoundly as Grammy-winning producer, engineer, virtuoso guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist Larry Mitchell. Renowned for his spellbinding techniques, soulful compositions, and eponymous signature sound, Mitchell has carved out a niche that defies genre boundaries, seamlessly blending rock, jazz, blues, and world music influences.

During his star-studded journey, Larry recorded and toured with icons such as Tracy Chapman, Ric Ocasek, Billy Squier, Miguel Bosé, and Nile Rodgers. He collaborates with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, George Lynch, and Doug Doppler, among many others, produced award-winning records for a variety of artists, and released several solo albums since emerging on the scene in the late 1980s.

Remarkable events in the field of CD publishing in Russia (especially Events with a capital E and not only in Russia) have been rarities for a long time. It seems like just the mere fact of a CD release would be considered as a major event there… Especially if this is a CD under the name of Anton Garcia, the guitarist and vocalist of the former leader of Moscow technothrash band Shah, which is a serious collection of classic progressive rock numbers and far more than just an ordinary CD release. Still Hopeless Time is not a cult album at all in the common sense of the term.

Exclusive interview by Vsevolod Baronin with Royal Hunt leader, André Andersen
Taken on 12/10/2020, Moscow, Russia. Originally published in Russian.

There is a serious suspicion that Dystopia — Part I, the fifteenth studio album by Royal Hunt, an international act from Copenhagen, released in December 2020, went relatively unnoticed, not only because of the newfangled contempt of listeners for the physical media (records and CD’s), but mainly due to socio-economic perturbations around the fancy coronavirus pandemic.

Interview by Vsevolod Baronin. 
Taken on 10/25/2008, Moscow, Russia. Originally published in Russian.

What is eccentricity for a world-class rock musician? Play 20 notes per second? To patent a seven-string electric guitar? To record a live album with an unheard-of and unimaginable creative concept? Or, finally, go on tour with master classes in Russia, not excluding cities like Ryazan that are quite unique for a musician of such level? Well, since Steve Vai, who does not need the introduction as the electric guitar maestro, did all of the above, we can award him the title of rock eccentric #1. Surprisingly, when communicating in person, Steve turned out to be not at all the character that his music and stage shows represent, but a very polite interlocutor who answers even the trickiest questions in great detail. Steve's answers, of course, sometimes radiate hints of the aforementioned eccentricity and that's why they are good: they allow you to look at familiar concepts from a completely unexpected side, which, perhaps, would never have occurred to a person who is not a rock guitarist of a truly galactic level.