Progressive Rock

Sweden’s Bergraven are never shy of venturing to the very edge of black metal terrain and staring into the maddening abyss. In the nine years since Till Makabert Väsen all three members have been busy with their exceptional Stilla project, which has served to take the edge off the longing for new material. Bergraven are, however, an altogether more complex, ethereal beast and allows the trio to indulge their more experimental proclivities. Det framlidna minnet deals with memories – their fluid nature and how the healthy human spirit builds a wall around itself with carefully adjusted memories and yet sometimes the system corrupts and memories become ghosts that haunt their hosts with regret and despair. Present are the band’s trademark unusual song structures and jazz-inspired passages, which add a further sprinkling of chaos and unease to the mix. Over the course of eight intoxicating pieces, injected with the most intelligent, nuanced songwriting prowess to date, Bergraven remind us that expectations rarely match up with reality and what becomes of us in this mortal coil. A first memory in the process of what became Bergraven is when I, Pär Stille, walked the forests around where I grew up (Skåne, Sweden) and sat down at dusk to watch the rays of the sun fall on a tree. I experienced a pang of emotions so strong that I had to find a way to express them or rather put them out of me in some way. Being already into making music and lyrics it became the natural medium of trying to create how I felt about everything that was NOT the rays of the sun falling on a tree. Such a peaceful and calming sight is like nothing else in life and to sort all other impressions and feelings I started to write lyrics about them. The name BERGRAVEN came to me as a play on words describing a mountain of darkness building up inside that was the result of all impressions and emotions I gathered from all around me. BERG in Swedish translates to mountain and RAVEN being the bird but also pitch black. My thoughts were that the black mountain inside could somehow be less hard to ascend/descend if I somehow could express the feelings and make them into lyrics and music. Then they would leave me in a way that would be almost like a bird leaving its nest. This was sometime in the first years of the second millennium and has been a kind of therapy ever since. The main focus over the years has been to obtain a nerve in the music, balancing on the edge of a knife, trying to create an atmosphere representing what I feel inside and that could be very dynamic in terms of everything at once or just a sole guitar strumming quietly. Being of a truly varied musical background I never felt that genre is that much of a thing to focus on, I rather do what I think fits the best but always try to find that nerve I consider necessary for my lyrics and what I want to acquire with what I do. Three albums have been released, a fourth is on its way and the fifth is soon to be mixed and planned for release.

Founded in January 2019, BEND THE FUTURE is a progressive rock band from Grenoble, France. The band is most notable for its odd time signature melodies that incorporate elements of 70s prog rock, jazz, funk and Eastern European music into its sound. Bend the Future was founded by Can Yýldýrým (guitars/vocals), Rémi Pouchain (bass), Pierre-Jean Ménabé (saxophone) and Piel Pawlowski (drums). More recently, the band reached its final formation after Samy Chebre (keyboards) joined. At the end of 2019, BEND THE FUTURE released their debut album "Pendellösung". "Without Notice" is the second album and the first release for Tonzonen Records.

Richard Barbieri returns with his new album Under A Spell released on 26th February The man whose illustrious career began in the late 70s with synth-pop visionaries Japan and more recently as a member of influential art-rock band Porcupine Tree follows up 2017's Planets + Persona with new album Under A Spell. Richard Barbieri didn’t plan to make an album like Under A Spell, originally intended his fourth solo album to be a direct follow from its predecessor, 2017’s Planets + Persona. That record, made in different studios across Europe and heavily incorporating live performances from a range of musicians, was adventurous and bold, showcasing Barbieri’s endlessly inventive song writing and mastery of electronic music. The follow-up would pick up where it left off, journeying further into the expansive terrain he mapped out on the previous record. And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and everything changed. “I wrote and recorded it in my studio at home, with all this strangeness going on outside,” says Barbieri of Under A Spell. “It became something completely different: this weird, self-contained dream-state album.”

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