UN VOYAGE EN PROGRESSIF VOLUME 3

This is my favorite Musea sampler in this serie, it features many good progrock bands like the fusion from Kenso, the virtuosic keyboardplay from ex-Deja Vu member Motoi Sakuraba, the promising prog from Ken's Novel and the warm Genesis inspired sound from Cast. Also worth listening are the pleasant neo-prog from Quidam and the bombastic prog from Teru's Symphonia. The other bands are XII Alfonso, Kennedy, Aelian, Ten Jinn and ... Anekdoten, the absolute highlight on this compliation with the title track from their album "From within", what a moving and dynamic Mellotron-drenched progrock, WONDERFUL!!

Very nice sampler from Musea!

Lift your right hand if you dont love Musea Records and the bands involved here, i challenge you, well if don´t, then why don´t you try to give a chance to one of their samplers, actually i have only listened 2 of them so far, both pretty good and i imagine the other ones are as good as these.

I was one day, a saturday to be more precise, walking in the market where i use to buy or exchange my progressive albums, i only had money for one more and actually after some views i didn´t find any album that i really wanted to buy, and one guy suddenly appeared with 4 or so albums but all of them were compillations or live albums from a festival etc, i remember he had an album from baja prog fest, but then i saw he had a couple of volumes of Un Voyage en Progressif, the one which caught more my attention was this due to Anekdote, Cast and some Japanese bands, actually i dont use to but these kind of albums but the circumstances made me want to, and i dont regret having bought it, its a worth sampler by Musea where i can enjoy 11 songs from different bands from different parts of the world, the songs included here are oriented to the symphonic side of prog, there are some neo-prog songs though.

Sometimes happens to me that, i dont want to listen to a full-lenght album by a band, so i prefer some random songs, these kind of compillations are good when you feel like this, this Volume 3 features great songs like "Eclipse" by XII Alphonso, "Narratage" by Motoi Sakuraba, "Homeland" by ken´s Novel or "Where is the loght" by Cast, all nice songs full of keyboards and great musicianship, but there is one moment (one song) which takes this album, it is the magnific "From Within" by Anekdoten, besides there are one of my favorite bands, this song is also one of my favorites.

Nice Voyage, if you find it someday and want a compillation of various bands, buy it and enjoy it, i am sure you wont regret, of course this is not a jewel or an outstanding album, not at all, but i would recommend it, my final grade is 3 stars.

A compilation of Symphonic Prog music .

Compilation of Prog music serves two purposes for me. First, to better understand prog bands, especially those that I have never known before through its song featured in the composition. If I feel comfortable with the song, I consider buying the full album of the band which its music fulfills my expectations. Second, it serves of prog songs which I really love. But for this compilation of "Un Voyage en Progressif Volume 3" the first purpose applies because this is basically a sampler CD of prog bands released under Musea Record. In fact, it serves well to fulfill my need because I then knew the music of bands like KENSO, TERU'S SYMPHONIA, AELIAN, etc. which their music I had never heard before. Some bands I had been familiar with, like ANEKDOTE, XII ALFONSO, TEN JINN, CAST.

The opening track by KENSO (Japan) "Negaikanaeru Kodomo Wo Tsureteyukou" (5:14) is a nice instrumental with guitar as main soloist in jazz rock fashion - it's a good track, really. ANEKTODEN "From Within" (7:22) is an excellent track that I have the indidual album. The music is a blend of King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator. XII ALPHONSO "Eclipse" (7:26) is in neo progressive style, nice melody and nuance. TERU'S SYMPHONIA "End of Millenium" (6:40) is one of my favorite tracks from this compilation. The music is a symphonic progressive but with some soft guitar riffs. The guitar player, bass player and keyboard are excellent. The song has powerful drive and memorable melody sung by its female vocalist. MOTOI SAKURABA "Narratage" (5:20) starts wonderfully with soft and good piano work which serves as melody maker of the song. For those who love neo prog must have known QUIDAM which in this compilation features "Chocbym" (6:12) with its non-English speaking lyrics. It's nice, indeed. CAST is one of favorite bands which in this compilation delivers its "Where is The Light" from their "Imaginary Window" album (9:21). It has nice melody, great piano and guitar work.

Overall, this is a very good compilation CD by Musea. It's recommended for those who have never heard the music of some bands listed here. Mostly, the music presented here are neo prog and symphonic prog. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Yet another compilation from the French progressive label and of the eleven acts on show this time I have only heard Anekdoten, Quidam, Aelian and Cast before, and wasn't even aware of most of the other bands. However, one thing about these albums is that it does give an insight into bands that have released material on their own label in their homeland, which has then been picked up by Musea for European release.

One band that I was pleased to see on the album was Ten Jinn. I haven't managed to get hold of their album 'As On A Darkling Plain' yet, but have heard good things about them from America. Their track, "The Dance Of Les Innocents", is by far the stand out of the 'new' (to me) material and brings together elements of Jethro Tull, Genesis and IQ in a rock/pop fashion that is very interesting indeed.

All in all another good introduction to the label, and it should be available at mid-price

Originally appeared in Feedback #58