SKYLINE

The most complete progressive symphonic rock album of 2015, 70 minutes of pure joy and never served in the same style. An elegant and vibrant composing and performing by this amazing Italian band. Precious special guests such as Vittorio De Scalzi of New Trolls and a cover designed by Paul Whitehead. Maturity reached and definetly the band's masterpiece. All lyrics in English, a must have for every prog lover and rock enthusiast. Recording and production very good in perfect balance with the elegance of the music inside. Luca Zabbini, mastermind and composer of Barock Project, is serving his tasty and perfectly filling main course! Barock Project are showing every young musician how to create THE total prog album. Simple ingredients: they are virtuosos at playing their instruments and an innate talent for combining so many musical elements into each of these ten wonderful compositions. This is one of those albums that if it was written and published back in the 70's... would have been a record breaking sale and possibly last a few decades.

Well now. I'm amazed. Seriously.

I had a hunch something interesting was going down when the band began to push the new album on their FB page way before the release date. They clearly seemed genuinely excited about what they had created, and that's always a strong signal. I just loved Coffee In Neukölln, an album that took me totally by surprise and bowled me over, so I tuned my radar to the BP frequency with high hopes.

The news: Skyline goes and exceeds its predecessor. Kudos, guys, congratulazioni!

The two things I found most remakarable about Cofffee... are very much present here as well: the band's strong own identity (they sound like no one else, which is a medium sized miracle these days) and the stunning self- assurance in their musicianship. This is not a flashy prog metal virtuoso stance, it's more a steady "yes we can - and we will" kind of attitude.

So, during the course of the album we're treated to myriads of moods and styles, and I absolutely love the way they can shift from classic prog to hard rock to classical to piano jazz within a song and still keep the song coherent and together all the way. Sometimes they take conscious risks of going overboard with this multi-genre approach, but those moments (e.g. "Overture") are so joyous and in-your-face bold that I cannot but be delighted with every musical logic defying stunt. Waiter, I'll have what they're having, please...

The entire effort is so focused and so well produced (the soundscape is alive and vibrant enough to please even the analogue enthusiasts) I get a sense I'm listening to a concert instead of an album. And that's a compliment, a very strong one.

To summarize: Skyline continues where Coffee... left off. The basic style is pretty much the same but there's much more variation, the band's confidence has gone through the ceiling, the string arrangements are simply gorgeous and the distinctly Italian melodic sense is the icing on the cake.

If this is not a classic-to-be, I have pretty much misunderstood prog.

If Echolyn and Man on Fire got together for a romantic evening of hot prog action, Barock Project's Skyline would be the offspring. Well, that's at least what came to mind upon my initial listen. Yeah, I know that's weird. Don't judge me.

This album has a lot going on -- Great harmonies, jazzy progressions, thick orchestral composition, and a nice use of space to paint pastoral landscapes and forge more emotional connections between explosions of noodly excess. There are Dream Theatery moments of technicality, fanciful echoes of early era Genesis, A.C.T. style musical pageantry, and "Ayreon meets Jethro Tull" acoustic folkiness all woven together with common threads of unique musical sensibility and well-developed technique.

Clocking in at a fat 70 minutes however, many listeners may find it hard to properly connect during casual listening, save for "Gold" and "Spinning Away", which I would consider to be the "singles" of the album. Both songs showcase a bit of everything that comprises Barock Project's sound. Unfortunately, there are moments in the rest of the album that, if taken separately from the whole, are a bit unengaging despite being well-crafted.

The bottom line is Skyline is still a fantastic album which demands your undivided attention if you are going to have any chance of fully digesting all the lovely intricacies, so strap on a pair of headphones and enjoy the ride.

I am at a stage in my life where I feel I have saturated my acquisitions of new prog rock acts to my collection as I often feel I have so much good stuff to listen to, but hardly enough time to do so. Also after years of mostly buying and listening to prog rock, I feel it's time to invest a bit more into other genres. But then and now I see a name of an unknown band on the Prog Archives and out of curiosity, I utelise the internet to quickly listen to some excerpts just to see if I am missing out on something. Mostly I notice, no, I am not missing out. Sometimes however I stumble upon something where I immediately know, I have to get this. This happened about a month or two ago when I noticed the Name Barock Project in a news snippet on PA announcing a new album coming up. I checked out the band on iTunes with their predecessor to Skyline, Coffe in Neukölln, and without hesitation clicked on Buy. I fell in love with the beautiful Coffee album and when Skyline came out, I decided I need this too. This time I also ordered the album as CD.

Skyline delivers a great sounding, fresh and uplifting melange of musical styles, genres and influences. I find the classification under "Neo-Prog" on this site a bit misleading. Sure, there are Neo-Prog elements to be found, but it's definitely not the dominating sound or style which the four young maestros deliver here, nor on their previous album. For the sake of putting Barock Project into a sub-genre box, I would rather chose "Crossover-Prog".

What is delivered on Skyline is Prog Rock with classical or barock influences, some jazz intermezzos, some hard rock, some symphonic, some folk, and neo-prog signatures. ELP and Jethro Tull influences on the band can be heard and the vocals remind me a lot of two German bands, Everon and Alias Eye. But despite those influences and comparisons the band sounds quite original and unique. The overall feeling of the music is positive and uplifting and very melodious. Although this is definitely not an album to prove: "Look, how many note we can play in a second", there is no denying that something musically mature and virtuosic is happening here. As much as the instrumental skills (and I am including the flawless vocal delivery here) are evident, the four Italians demonstrate to an almost higher level their ability of compositional skills. I cannot find any weak track here, every track in itself is a little captivating piece of art that entertains and moves me.

As far as 2015 concerned my favourite Prog release this year and I am sure in the long run, this will remain an album I will return to with great regularity as it represents a perfect example of what good, melodious, excellently performed and well arranged Prog should sound.

Edit- 96/100 Gawd, this album gets better every I listen. I've upped my old rating of 82 to 90 and now 96. Total Masterpiece. I was wrong and now I'm glad I was wrong. Puts me in my place.

For background info, refer to band bio's and further reviews so that you can glean all you can about the Barock Progect. I'll tell you one thing for sure. I'm glad this handsome bunch of talented men didn't defect to POP Music. Don't doubt it for a moment. These guys could be the bee's knees of popular Italian groove pop! But no! The boys of Barock Project stayed true to their souls. Speaking of righting wrongs, Skyline is my first experience with Barock Project, and I had a wonderful time checking out an outstanding Neo-Prog band.

Early Bird reviewers have already christened Skyline a masterpiece! I understand how songs like "Silence of Our Wake" and "Skyline" would have Neo-proggers chanting Masterpiece! Masterpiece!

Other songs float in the ether between amazing and ho-hum and hum some more, when suddenly off screen charges a flute like a medieval knight on mescaline mare to rescue Repunzel from the Mundane dark corners of wedding beds profaned! Groovy bass lines swooped in devouring ice scream drums and decadent dreams on cusps of buttercups, bunions, and banshees.

After further trips I realized I must reassess my rating. Skyline is 90 stories high. Is Skyline a Masterpiece. Yes and no. If you are a Neo-Proglodyte? Yes!!! Yes, A resounding Yes! Skyline is a futuristic neo-prog masterpiece!

However, if Death Growls increase your listening enjoyment , then I advise you to steer clear of Barock Project's resplendent vocals, weaving stories of the longest sighs, intertwining swirling guitars in between luxurious and velvety keyboards.

Prog-Police will spy sniplets of Skyline Songs reminiscent of lineups of the usual suspects of Caveman Prog. Round up ELP, Tull, and Yes... But no! The usual suspects don't overstay their welcome.

I don't know much about other projects by Barock Project but I do know...This album is ORIGINAL! 95% of the time I couldn't put my finger on who Barock Project reminded me of.

I asked friends to guess "The Band"...Nobody could, nobody did!... It's not that my friends are devoid of Prog Rock Pedigrees! My friends got their papers, yet they barked back at me,

" Too original to hazard a guess...Must we go thru this again? I don't want to guess anymore, just put one of those CD's in my Christmas stocking...Oh Omphaloskepsis, dash off and get me a decadent blue cheese stuffed olive martini! Omphaloskepsis? As if that's your name. "

In my original review I gave Skyline a 82/100, but after further listenings I correct myself. 90/100!

Best songs "Spinning Away", "Tired", "Skyline", and " Silence of Our Wake"

This is a well-made album with complex compositions and very competent performances on all instruments but, like Dan Brittan's various highly regarded projects, the music of Skyline simply fails to lure me in. I do like it that Barock's songs have a distinct if slightly JTULL sound to them, but, like last year's impressive FREDDEGREDDE album, complexity does not always make for enjoyable or engaging listening. The problem here with Skyline is that even with repeated listens over months none of the songs are making their way into my brain, none of these songs are songs that I want to seek out or push repeat for. Once again: Maybe if I were more lyric oriented . . . .

3.5 stars rated up for impressive composition, performance, and production.

This is actually an Italian crew, but I didn't realise this when I first heard the album - this feels more like the product of a Kansas-tinged American neo-prog tradition, like early Echolyn, combined perhaps with hints of the sunny attitude and vocal styles of the Flower Kings. I wasn't sure about this one at first, finding some of the vocal harmonies a bit cheesy, but over time Barock Project eventually won me over thanks to all the intricate little hidden twosts this album has stashed away in its depths. Much like the unzipping sky on the cover art, Barock Project's music presents a facade of simplicity at times, but don't be fooled - it'll take you to some wild places once you dig into it. On the whole it still doesn't quite feel like my cup of tea, but that's more down to me being not so hot on the Kansas/Flower Kings style rather than anything intrinsically wrong with the album.

I may have only just come across this Italian outfit with their latest album, 'Detachment', but I am determined to make up for lost time so am now listening to their latest studio album, which was actually their fourth. Released in 2015, this is very much the forerunner to the most recent, and although it isn't quite in the same league is still an incredibly impressive piece of work. The flute only appears on a couple of songs this time, although there is also some cello and viola at times. From the a capella opening, through to the very last note, this is an incredibly polished and controlled album: one that takes the listener on a journey that they are sure to enjoy.

I'm not quite sure why, but there does appear to be a much heavier Jethro Tull feeling to parts of this album, and this has nothing to do with the use of flute, but rather the way that some of the acoustic numbers seem to flow and sweep. I have seen them likened to Echolyn in some places, and I can see why, but to be honest although I always enjoyed Echolyn I don't think they were quite in the same league as these guys. This the second studio album I have heard, and am still getting to grips with the fact that up to a few months ago I had never heard of them! Still, like finding a good author after he has been going a while (I first read Stephen Donaldson as he was about to release the sixth volume of 'Thomas Covenant' novels), it does give one the opportunity to go back and see what else they have been doing over time, and that is something I fully intend to do.

Barock Project are easily one of the most impressive bands currently operating within the progressive scene and I heartily recommend this to anyone who enjoys the more melodic and less challenging forms.