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

IAN NEAL / ALL IN THE GOLDEN AFTERNOON

Track List:

Ian Neal is a British musician who recently released this album titled “All In The Golden Afternoon”. It took him 3 years to finish the recordings of this project which was influenced by Lewis Caroll’s work. Keyboards and guitars are the two major instruments played by Ian, however throughout the CD there are samples of readings of poetry by a child (Ian himself sounding like a little kid). Although it is an instrumental album for the most part, you can feel that the songs are written around a theme. Since we are talking about Alice in Wonderland, I believe this theme is about “a past time”, like childhood. The poetry readings of the child give you the feeling of flashbacks.

Ian’s music reminds me of Genesis, Mike Oldfield and even Camel on some parts. He blends ambient and rock to create the sound of his own. As far as computer effects go, you will find virtual mellotron on this album.

The first song "Shining, Really Brightly" opens up with the reading and it is a nice blend of ambient and pop-jazz with a changing tempo. "Alice" sounds more like, it could have been written by a Scandinavian because of its cold atmosphere. The third track of the album, "All In The Golden Afternoon" is somewhere between Camel and Goldfrapp and stands out alone compared to the other songs. This is one of my most favorite songs on this CD along with "Violet, White, Lilac Lily" which has some vocals on it. And I have a feeling that making a CD with vocals was not Ian’s intention, however when you hear this song you can’t help but think that vocals would take this CD to a totally different place. This song also includes samples of the sounds of hand played wine glasses recorded on a virtual mellotron. The vocals are very new-age, kind of like Enya.

There are songs on which you will hear acoustic or electric guitars as leading instruments. Like "She", or "Kingdom of the Birds". These instruments change the ambiance of the album and actually make it sound more like old school prog. As for the “electronic” elements, I can say that they will not bother you. Ian keeps these effects as close to natural as possible in my opinion. However I find myself needing more guitars as well as vocals.

Altogether, this is a well thought project, and you will notice that a great deal of time went into it. Also, the use of the virtual mellotron brings All In The Golden Afternoon to a more prog-y place, if you think about finding a real one might be a little costly. This CD is a pretty good fusion of different genres like prog rock, ambient and maybe a little classical. If you like early prog but are open to listen to electronic stuff, you might like All In The Golden Afternoon.You can actually download the album through Ian’s website at: ianneal.com.

STEPHANIE BUTLER