ETTORE SALATI

This month's Artist in Spotlight is Ettore Salati from Italy. Ettore is a sought after session guitarist by many prog musicians not just in Italy but all around the world. He started playing piano at a very young age (mostly classical music) but when he became a teenager and discovered the world of Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Genesis and 70's rock in general, he was immediately fascinated by guitar... more

KAT EPPLE (Emerald Web)

KAT EPPLE, flautist and composer, is our interview guest this month. She has won 8 Emmy awards, was nominated for a Grammy and she has released 18 albums internationally. Most of you know her as the other half of the legendary ambient/new age duo EMERALD WEB. She has a very large collection (over 200) of flutes that she gathered from all around the world during her travels. Kat composes original New Age/Jazz/World/orchestral music and has produced film scores and television soundtracks for National Geographic, Nova, CNN, Carl Sagan, Another World, The Travel Channel, Turner Broadcasting System, History Channel, HGN, The Guiding Light, PBS, and NASA among others, and was Music Director for the feature-length film, Captiva Island. She also owns a record company and works on both sides of the music industry as a musician and as a business woman... more

New Grass Revival / On The Boulevard

New Grass Revival are one of the pioneers of progressive bluegrass. Formed in 1971 by Sam Bush (mandolin/vocals), Curtis Burch (guitar), Ebo Walker (bass) and Courtney Johnson (banjo), they immediately got the attention from the industry both in a good and bad way. First of all, they were often told that their music was not bluegrass, and they knew it wasn’t “bluegrass” in its traditional sense, and it wasn’t what they were trying to achieve anyways. They were blending rock, soul and blues rhythms with the traditional bluegrass music. They were not wearing suites, but instead they had a more casual style along with long hair... more

DAYS BETWEEN STATIONS / Self Titled

Days Between Stations is a new band, with a soon to be released self titled debut album from the indie label Bright Orange. The album is engineered by Evren Goknar, who worked with the Capitol Mastering team (Queensryche, Heart, Sammy Hagar, Red Hot Chili Peppers).

This is an instrumental album with the taste of classic progressive rock / avant-garde era. I can sense the band members were highly influenced by Pink Floyd, King Crimson and some parts even made me think of Alan Parsons. I do not know the story behind the album, and I might be way off with my interpretation but from the song titles I can picture this story: Pain and struggle that one goes through after the loss of a loved one. The album as a whole sounds very much like a soundtrack in this sense. The opening song “Requiem for the Living” starts with intense synthesizers with the slow addition of keyboards. The sound is very emotional, you can picture a movie’s beginning, even before the first scene, with this kind of intro you know something is not right and you are about to witness a dramatic situation. And soon enough, you hear this male voice, sort of singing an eastern funeral song. The second part of the song is mostly the part that makes me think of Pink Floyd. The bass during this part is literally singing. The title makes it very clear that this song reflects the pain and struggle of the living since the ones who are gone can no longer feel anything. “Either / Or”, the second song on the album continues in the same direction and I see how these two connect together. Since the first song has a very down tempo and sad beginning, I picture a scene of a very recent death, the pain has not subsided yet for the one who is left behind, but as the hours go by, the reality hits and that’s why we hear the sad and screaming voices.

From the title of the song “How to Seduce a Ghost” I already know we are not talking about bad ghosts. It still has a chilling beginning but builds up to be a soft “one last possible try” to reach the dead. “Radio Song” is the one that sounds closer to the contemporary electronic music, however it still has a new wave feel to it, until you hear the end with the sax and trumpet.

The last song “Laudanum” has 4 parts: A Long Sad Good-Bye, Everyone is Here But You, Nowhere and The Wake. At this point the album turns into something more avant-garde still with psychedelic roots. The most interesting thing about this long song is that each instrument has its own different rhythm and melody lines, and you can identify each one of them perfectly because they don’t overlay on each other and this brings richness to the sound. Third part of the song, “Nowhere” is haunting. You will hear long single notes that hang forever, and this really gives you the feeling of “emptiness” or “nothingness”. “The Wake”, last part of “Laudanum” is like the calm “after” the storm, with the feeling of “life goes on although it doesn’t make much sense, so I will get up in the morning and get a cup of coffee or something and try to survive”.

I really like this album and can easily picture these guys making a movie soundtrack. Special kudos to the bass player.

Hande BURDG