TOPOS

Nikitas Kissonas is back with another serious contribution to the evolution of progressive rock music with an all- instrumental set of two "side-long" pieces that are structured much more like symphonies than rock songs.

1. "Topos 1" (19:28) a spacious, multi-faceted, symphonic creation which relies much less on rock constructs and traditional rock sounds (though they're there) than anything I've heard from Nikitas before. It's as if I'm listening to a combined instrumental performance of 1970s KING CRIMSON with Gabriel-era GENESIS: stark and industrial while still, oddly, pastoral and folk-friendly. This is going to take me many listens to fully appreciate, to fully judge. It's length makes it very difficult to get a grasp on a holistically. (9/10)

2. "Topos 2" (20:52) opens like blending of a Mark Isham soundtrack with Mike Oldfield's Hergest Ridge and a Villalobos guitar concerto. At the end of the sixth minute synthesized sounds take over on every level, then the electronic is woven within the symphonic (or vice-versa). At the end of the ninth minute the introduction of jazz guitar, fretless bass, and more-staccato trumpet play shift the music more into the domain of jazz. At 10:15 5he computerized click track ends and we transition briefly into a Greek folk ditty before returning to a slowed down, bare-bones, note-by-note version of the opening section. At 11:30 a bombastic drum entrance and blaring trumpet solo announce the arrival of a plaintive, "ballad" section. Electric guitar solos in a blues-rock fashion over the piano and slow rock rhythm section. I feel we are building--building in emotion, building in tension, building toward some further explosive exposition. Guitar moves into upper octaves to continue its cries before grand piano does some neat soloing over a very-Mike Oldfield-like section. Again, building and building, slowly, toward some crescendo or dénouement. But no! At the 16:00 mark we stop and switch into an entirely new style, new driving tempo, new sound combination, and melodic theme. The tempos and soundscapes continues to build, shift, clutter and clear, while an eerie space-synth solos in the background. Just shy of the 19 minute mark the lead switches to edgy electric guitar in an angular solo reminiscent of one Robert of Fripp. But then, rather suddenly, at the 20 minute mark, everything shifts into a Latin sound fusion for the finish! Weird! Again, I'm going to have to hear that one many more times in order to get an overall sense of what I'm experiencing. (9/10)

4.5 Stars; a near-masterpiece of eclectic symphonic progressive rock music.

Nikitas Kissonas returned in 2018 with his third release under the Methexis banner which saw him return to his way of working om the debut, providing most of the music himself. He is joined by Konstantinos Kefalas (trumpet), Nikolas Nikolopoulos (flutes) and Theodore Christodoulou (drums) while pianist Panagiotis Krabis features on one track, but Nikitas provides guitar, bass, and keyboards. This album contains two instrumental tracks, both approximately 20 minutes long, so this fits quite nicely on the vinyl release. It is a very long way from the previous album, as for the most part this is bridging progressive rock with classical, with some wonderfully dated keyboards melding together with the brass. One of the highlights is the way that the symphonic darkness can just blast into guitar runs, or a trumpet can take the lead, and one is never sure where the musical path is going to take us.

This is progressive music which can be bombastic one second and drop into quiet reflection the next, take off at pace or reduce to a crawl. King Crimson is again an influence, but so is David Bedford and Mike Oldfield. There are jazz elements, folk, metal: musically this is truly progressive as it brings together elements from many different places and then somehow makes sense of it all. It is exciting, but there are also times when there is a pause for reflection, but normally just before the music goes off on yet another tangent. Whereas the previous album felt like a band with a singer and shorter numbers, this feels more like a set of musicians working from a score, working together to bring a composer's work to life. This is a very deep and intense piece, one where the listener really needs to give it the attention and time that it deserves. It never ceases to surprise as it is takes paths less travelled with seemingly disconnected sections adding their depth to the whole.

I enjoyed the other two albums by Nikitas, but this is far more essential and worthy of serious contemplation to work out what I have just heard. Dynamic, orchestral and powerful, one wonders what he is going to come up with next.