IN CONTINUUM

Singer, keyboard player and guitarist Dave Kerzner (Sound of Contact) is back with the second album from In Continuum, continuing the story which started in 'Acceleration Theory, Part One ? AlienA', and is based on a science fiction short from Dave, set in the year 2074. The core band is the same as before, with singer Gabriel Agudo (Steve Rothery Band, Bad Dreams), bassist Matt Dorsey (Sound of Contact), guitarist Randy McStine (Sound of Contact, The Fringe), and drummer Marco Minnemann. This project has always expected to bring in more musicians as the need arises, and among the additional singers we get both Jon Davidson and Michael Sadler, while Nick D'Virgilio, Fernando Perdomo and Joe Deninzon all make welcome returns as well as other musicians.

In Continuum continues the style of commercial heavily polished progressive rock I have come to expect from Kerzner, which is always incredibly easy to get into and contains multiple layers yet somehow manages to maintain a pop simplicity. In just one song the guys can move all over the place, so much so that "Made of Stars" commences life as a Devin Townsend Project number (although not as heavy) before moving into Gabriel territory, then throwing in some Porcupine Tree for good measure. There are plenty of moments in songs when one thinks "that's a bit like classic Genesis" or similar, but before the brain has time to register the music has moved on. My favourite song is the title track, which is near the end of the album. Gentle keyboards overlay the sounds of war, the piano comes in, and slowly we start to build but then it all fades away leaving just the radio transmissions. I don't know which drummer plays on this track, but I would lay money on this being Nick as he brings in the rest of the band with his bombastic style, all over the kit, and then all of a sudden we are off and running with some rock riffs. This song has everything for me, pace, dynamics, great performances, and oh yes, it is 20 minutes long and I love every bit of it.

In Continuum have now released two great albums, definitely worth investigating by anyone into commercial layered and modern polished progressive rock.

IN CONTINUUM was born from the ashes of SOUND OF CONTACT, following the departure of a large part of its members. He goes through Dave Kerzner his second album that year, always on the history of alien attack, with a love story between two entities of both worlds, upsetting the end of the programmed destruction earth, but feel free to read the review of "part one" of the new year for not getting lost in this locker history and / or rebound. The sound always pulls reminiscent of GENESIS, PINK FLOYD and YES to some rendering SF Symphony; tapped out of the 70's and 80's starting with prestigious guests from the ROTHERY STEVE BAND, BIG BIG TRAIN and The Aristocrats, PORCUPINE TREE, SAGA and Dave Kerzner; the songs also come from the writings of Simon Collins, Matt DORSEY playing on SOUND OF CONTACT; share beautiful course given to synths for rendering of atmosphere and causing his current well in the crossover line.

"Impending Annihilation" attack input with an instrumental fruity, phenomenal in the advent of a symphonic organ in the footsteps of Tony BANKS period "And Then There Were Three" twirling. "You Do not Know How It Feels" follows on a song to ALAN PARSONS PROJECT, calm, gentle and varied voices including that of Michael recognizable SADLER midterm still high and angelic. "The Path" follows a slow tempo and an air flirting with PINK FLOYD "A Momentary 'voices and forth with a cool synth solo and her rather g'n'sisien. "In Her Cocoon" for an interlude with female voice, intimate and ambient piano allowing "Aliena Part2" send us back to the famous catchy tune of the 1st CD, always catchy melody. "Vampires Of The Soul" off again on the plot with the famous evil aliens willing to destroy the Earth before she does it herself all alone in the end can not access the knowledge acceleration; a well struck riff, a piano intimate for the future or the fate of our planet.

"Made Of Stars" tumbles by divine atmospheric ballad in the tradition of great SIGUR ROS with the enchanting voice of Jon, a beautiful title that I like. "Know That You Are" occurs when track for a soft limit slow at first, a bit of APP or BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST, but quickly flew to a progressive and instrumental excursion to Steve HACKETT or Rick MILLER and finally GENESIS; explosive song in the end, but that hides his game; room to listen before following the album! "The War Room" and "All That Is" follow two titles short interludes full of sounds SF sound effects, countdown, hit return riff (but why reminds me of Iron Maiden on "Seventh Son of A Seventh Son"?) 2nd its cascading refers here to outright verbal jousting Jon ANDERSON like what Jon Davison has a nice tone of voice. "Annihilation" arrives with his 20minutes (intro, battle, invasion and the mother ship) for the annihilation of our last resistance, violins, theme John Murphy and his famous Adagio, exploding with thunderous chorus and ambient passage , sidereal I say random ?; short sound effects take over and lead us here literally in the film; is built with successive drawers, guitar wants nervous, we are still at that time in the extermination of the human species !, brief synth becomes too aggressive, twirling and does not let the evil atmosphere end of the world. Sometimes, little reminders of g'n'sisiens sounds like the fabulous solo on "Burning Rope" good there it's downright enjoyable and I can not remain mere chronicler before this title during the break to 12 minutes orgasmic with voiceover and angelic; then we know that we will be saved, that we can listen to the album until the end quite simple, almost redundant and decreasing on a solo guitar a little plaintive. "Interstellar Reunion" occurs to conclude on an ersatz SIGUR ROS with a guitar full of energy, a bouncy synth posed a piano; there is the oxymoron in the air again with icy beauty, melancholy splashing in its clarity, as that we finally returns to Earth without anyone noticing. right there it's downright enjoyable and I can not remain mere chronicler before this title during the break to 12 minutes orgasmic with voiceover and angelic; then we know that we will be saved, that we can listen to the album until the end quite simple, almost redundant and decreasing on a solo guitar a little plaintive. "Interstellar Reunion" occurs to conclude on an ersatz SIGUR ROS with a guitar full of energy, a bouncy synth posed a piano; there is the oxymoron in the air again with icy beauty, melancholy splashing in its clarity, as that we finally returns to Earth without anyone noticing. right there it's downright enjoyable and I can not remain mere chronicler before this title during the break to 12 minutes orgasmic with voiceover and angelic; then we know that we will be saved, that we can listen to the album until the end quite simple, almost redundant and decreasing on a solo guitar a little plaintive. "Interstellar Reunion" occurs to conclude on an ersatz SIGUR ROS with a guitar full of energy, a bouncy synth posed a piano; there is the oxymoron in the air again with icy beauty, melancholy splashing in its clarity, as that we finally returns to Earth without anyone noticing. almost redundant and decreasing on a solo guitar a little plaintive. "Interstellar Reunion" occurs to conclude on an ersatz SIGUR ROS with a guitar full of energy, a bouncy synth posed a piano; there is the oxymoron in the air again with icy beauty, melancholy splashing in its clarity, as that we finally returns to Earth without anyone noticing. almost redundant and decreasing on a solo guitar a little plaintive. "Interstellar Reunion" occurs to conclude on an ersatz SIGUR ROS with a guitar full of energy, a bouncy synth posed a piano; there is the oxymoron in the air again with icy beauty, melancholy splashing in its clarity, as that we finally returns to Earth without anyone noticing.

Good on 'Acceleration Theory Part 2 ", failing to reach their acceleration to know, we can claim in these last moments of 2019 to approach the musical nirvana by this CD at all sumptuous point almost perfect as the 1st grind. Having broken "Annihilation" in two albums avoids the musical saturation, lets go then look for soundtracks sitting on both albums. The downside here is to have been warned earlier this year that musical beauty was passed by IN CONTINUUM. Just great, intimate and astonishing.

Dave KERZNER, a man I discovered in 2014 with "Stranded" and who worked on SOUND OF CONTACT and under his own name, is releasing an opus at the beginning of the year in the continuity of his performances, IN CONTINUUM! This album has everything to please the "guest stars" by sailing on bands such as STEVE ROTHERY BAND, STEVEN WILSON, THE ARISTOCRATS, PORCUPINE TREE, SPOCK'S BEARD, YES, MARILLION, THE DEAD DEADS, STEVE HACKETT in other! In terms of its reference, one can walk on the PINK FLOYD period "The Wall", on the ALAN PARSONS PROJECT (announcing a new opus of the latter?), on THE KING CRIMSON of the period "Red", on GENESIS of the period "Duke" to "And Then There Were Three"; we are also there on the atmosphere of AYREON for galactic sounds and history ... This romantico-galactic concept is set in 2074 and tells the story of a (charming) alien who came to Earth to prevent a potential attack on humans by his people... humans, remotely controlled without their knowledge of their own free will since the beginning of the 20th century by the same aliens who provided them with the means to develop their technology to move to an advanced stage of evolution, have of course not waited for them to begin their own self-destruction through, among other things, a well-felt nuclear war. We will leave it to you to read all the details in the album booklet. In short, don't hesitate to snorkel on this long sidereal journey! At the pure atmosphere level, I was able to find the sublime voice of Gabriel Agudo and Jon Davison as well as that of Leticia Wolf fluid, crystalline, taking me a little towards YES and the GENESIS of Ray Wilson; otherwise, the symphonic parts with violin and cello bring an even more airy and graceful sound, not just symphonic; As for the different guitar parts, the flights of Hackett, Rothery and Wesley highly complement those of Randy McStine for solos often dantesque, dreamlike, demonstrative and enjoyable. The sound of IN CONTINUUM becomes more than a melting pot of great artists, more than a mega-group of musicians aware of their art, this sound reaches my ears as the quintessence, brewing and filtering of a generous PROG era. The different songs go from real haunting melodies to purely prog tracks, and to others almost epic metal, in short and before moving on to the deepening of the album, you will have understood that you have here one of the very good albums of 2019, if we go is due to the release date of January 1st! Let's move on to the titles, just to dissect the beast a little: "Acceleration Theory" and his intro to the "Time" of PINK FLOYD just to put in the bath, classical instruments for a lyrical crescendo climb of the most beautiful effect, a solo to the "Duke" genesis, it's the sceneist! This is followed by "Crash Landing" for a hit with a sound at the ALAN PP for melodic synths and a bass reminiscent of the "Dogs of War" of PINK FLOYD again and his solo sire HACKETT with its variation of notes! "I Remember" based on the warm voice of Gabriel Agudo in a register of that of Ted Leonard of ENCHANT gives an FM title with this time cascading notes of a certain Steve Rothery, whom I was able to greet last year and his hand and his performance at a French festival Ais! "Two Moons" goes on a very "Nigerian" HUM BLOOD with an air that Tony Banks would not have denied, it's like "Burning Rope". "Scavengers" and "Be the Light" take us on TOTO with always this rocky voice, it's almost dancing, it's energetic, it's nagging but on the bright side, it's intoxicating! From the piano, a ubiquitous drums for the first track, The magic guitar of Rothery on the ballad of the album.

Let's continue the second part of the album with "Hands in Time", future cult prog piece: a pinch of "The Wall" for the voices, an intro SF, then from the 2'30'' of the riff and a jazzy outburst with integrated trumpet, plus a bit of KING CRIMSON period "Red" and a little s John Wesley's olo give this piece an incredible space-metal rhythm of talent: just, listen! Immediately after, we arrive at the last piece itself pre-cut in 5 movements: "Racing... and her delicious piano intro and voice all accompanied by cellos and other violins, we leave with "Aliena" on the album's hit, a heady female voice by Leticia Wolf, a cascade of crystalline notes and an ARIA to the IN CONTINUUM! "Meant To Be" and "Man Unkind" will take us even further into the prog galactic sphere by bringing piano, violin, voice, guitars and successive rhythms to the firmament; at times, for the oldest dinos-fans- progueux, we will be entitled to vintage sound SOLSTICE as on "New Life"! Finally or already, the last track "Banished" will bring us back to earth with a last solo of John Wesley at the baritone! In short, two titles that must be listened to and that give IN CONTINUUM its credential

I'll Be the Light

Dave Kerzner and friends have a cosmic vision, and thanks to the heavens- there's hope!

There are certainly dark days for the planet Earth- we nakedly vulnerable, insufferably arrogant, almost irredeemably destructive, love-lorn creatures have, in this futuristic tale, nearly done ourselves in. Hubris, pride, violence...and the powerful beings who brought us to life and did their best to guide us into better, brighter paths, have given up.

All they can imagine is destruction of this failure to thrive, for the good of the solar system and all the universe, it must be so.

The music is grandeur and spiritual cinema

We are treated to enormities of talent, the highest levels of musicianship. The cast of characters who comprise "In Continuum" are reflective of the genius Dave and company bring to this project.

There are the soaring keyboards- piano, organ, synthesizers.

There are the impeccable components of the rhythm section that are so dangerously precise the listener can nearly overlook the meticulous construction undergirding these compositions.

There are the vocalists who each bring something to the table, the sinister, the sublime, the searching.

The Music

Melody, atmosphere, tastefulness, gentleness, yearning, hope (!), love, longing, searching- set with sounds of space, battle, glory, destruction, and reunion.

Songs begin simply, and the first half of the album allows various characters to develop.

Then comes the epic soul of the album, "Annihilation", which twists and winds and propels the story forward, inexorably toward the final reunion of nearly lost love.

The flaws

Oddly, what keeps me from giving this 5 stars has to do with the sheen of nearly impenetrable perfection that casts a spell over this massive work.

There were times I wanted more rage, more passion. I wanted something more raw and urgent and imminent.

There is such polish and poise in this production that it was hard for this flawed human listener to fully relate- although I suspected that the themes within this album are entirely relevant to our times- even if it is set in the future.

Isn't it relevant that human militancy, arrogance, hubris, and pride have brought our planet to the brink of disaster?

Such shining perfection keeps some of this horror at arms length for me as the listener. I wanted to get closer to the fray, to sense more keenly the urgency, pathos, and drama that was unfolding.

In conclusion

A remarkable, grand follow-up to the first chapter, driving us onward yes, with hope.

My rating: 4.5 glistening globes

In Continuum is another project from Dave Kerzner after the end of Sound of Contact because of the departure of 2 members and financial problems. The music here is an evolution of Sound of Contact with the same inspiration of Dave coming from the 70's prog of Yes, Genesis and more obvious Pink Floyd later period. We have plenty of accessible symphonic prog rock music centered around a sci-fi story around the concept of love. We can feel an uplifting atmosphere throughout the album carried by some impressive work from the vocals and some sumptuous keyboard melodies. If you hope to find some guitar solos here, you won't find much here, it's the keys, piano and the vocals that have the lead. Dave always chooses some big prog rock musicians to help him and which gives a variety of styles and textures. This album is like part two of a double album that you can listen to like one big piece reflecting the different parts of the story with some ambient passages, some short heavier parts and some of the themes that are nicely repeated throughout the album. I enjoy those short and darker passages, some instrumental sections even though most of the album is driven by light and joyful, sometimes nostalgic atmosphere that is centered around strong melodies. Often an album loses his intensity before the end, but in this case, Dave has created music that you can't stop listening after more than an hour.

Singer, keyboard player and guitarist Dave Kerzner (Sound of Contact) has started a new project with In Continuum, based around a core of himself and Gabriel Agudo (Steve Rothery Band / Bad Dreams). The concept of the band itself is that it will involve a revolving cast of musicians, almost in an Alan Parsons Project style, with different people being brought in to add different elements. For the debut that includes Matt Dorsey (Sound of Contact), Randy McStine (Sound of Contact, The Fringe), former Porcupine Tree and Sound of Contact touring guitarist John Wesley, drummers Marco Minnemann, Nick D'Virgilio (Big Big Train, Spock's Beard) and Derek Cintron along with guitarist Fernando Perdomo from the Dave Kerzner Band. Special guests on the album also includes Steve Hackett, Jon Davison (Yes), Steve Rothery (Marillion) and Joe Deninzon among others

As can be seen from the album title itself, the debut is being viewed as telling the first part of the concept, which is based on a science fiction short from Dave, set in the year 2074. The booklet is fully detailed including who plays on what song, lyrics, plus the story itself. This is a very polished album, one which I fell into the very first time I played it. There are obvious links with Alan Parsons, Steve Hackett, GTR and Asia and feels very Americanised indeed, but I mean all of this in a positive light. The songs are strong, with more than a hint of ELO at times, which they need to be given the performers who are involved. Songs such as 'I Remember' are bright and clear, with some inspired guitar at the beginning from Randy, and some stunning vocals from Gabriel. Marco is quite restrained (for him) on this track, but there are others where both he and Nik are out to show just why they are regarded as two of the finest drummers around.

Commercial and immensely enjoyable, it is an album which rarely feels as if it is a group of separate musicians as opposed to a band, and probably the single biggest impact on this is the violin of Deninzon as when he is involved in a song the ear is instantly drawn to what he is doing. Overall this is a great debut album, and I am certainly looking forward to the next instalment.

"In Continuum" is another project started by Dave Kerzner (originally from "Sound of Contact), who released their first full album called "Acceleration Theory" on January 1, 2019. The album is based around a sci-fi story of Kerzners about an alien that falls in love with a human and warns of on alien race that is coming to destroy the Earth. The band line-up consists of Kerzner, who is the band's keyboardist, lead vocalist and guitarist (acoustic) and main composer; Gabriel Agudo also lead vocalist; Matt Dorsay (also from "Sound of Contact") bass, guitar and vocals; Randy McStine on guitar and vocals; and Marco Minneman on drums. Along with this line up is the inclusion of several special guest musicians like John Wesley (Porcupine Tree) and Jon Davidson (Yes) on "Meant to Be", Steve Hackett (Genesis) on the track "Crash Landing", and Steve Rothery (Marillion) on the track "Be the Light". This is also the first part of the album, the second part will be made available later this year.

The album starts off with the title track "Acceleration Theory". This is an instrumental introduction lasting over 5 minutes with a spoken word section done by guest Leticia Wolf. There are also some guest strings added so the track is driven by the violin, viola, cello, piano and other keyboards. The track is dramatic as it introduces the story and there are also vocal field recordings. Slow drums start off at 3 minutes and the guitar also joins in.

"Crash Landing" features Steve Hackett who opens with a nice guitar intro and this slides into a quick keyboard bass reminiscent of Pink Floyd. Kerzner begins to sing, his vocals are a bit similar to David Gilmour in his lower register, but are more unique in his higher registers. The song structure is standard rock. Towards the end, Hackett plays again with the strings. "I Remember" tells the backstory of the alien and human meeting and of their love. It is more lyric driven and sung by Agudo. It is an emotional song and midtempo ballad style, but it is also standard.

"Two Moons Setting with the Sun" features dual vocals from Agudo and guest Leticia Wolf who mostly does harmony and some atmospherics. The song features a more complex rhythm pattern in the chorus giving things a more progressive sound but the meter is still a standard. The instrumental break is great with a second set of drums played by guest Nick D'Virgilio. The track finishes with a keyboard solo. Kerzner takes the vocals on "Scavangers" (with help from Jon Davison as background singer) which opens on an upbeat guitar solo. The verses and standard rock fare, the chorus is slightly more complex. The bridge slows things up some, but the main theme returns and ends on another sweeping guitar solo.

Steve Rothery guests on guitar on the next track "Be the Light". The song is more airy and expansive. Agudo sings main vocals with backing help from Wolf and Kerzner. Not a bad song, but it is pretty standard and accessible. It would work well as a single. "Hands of Time" is the longest track just over 11 minutes. Agudo and Kerzner are both on vocals and the string quartet is included on this one. There is an atmospheric beginning that quickly escalates into the most progressive section on the album so far with heavy guitars and keys. The heaviness gives in to a softer section and vocals finally begin with Kerzner. Things intensify and back off a few times while the vocals continue. Agudo takes the lead vocal later in the track as the lyrics take on the first person narration. This track is much more progressive as tempo changes and style changes several times. There are some nice solos here too.

"Racing Through the Past" is mostly an instrumental, but there are some vocal effects from Agudo and Wolf and some interesting guitar effects along with the string section. "AlienA" features Wolf singing the female alien character. "Meant to Be" features vocals by Jon Davidson singing over the theme from the track "I Remember".

"Man Unkind" is sung by Kerzner and is another Pink Floyd style track. The best feature of this track is the electric violin played by Joe Deninzon and the rousing solo he gets at the instrumental break. The string quartet joins in on this one too. "Banished" is the last track on Part One and features John Wesley on a baritone guitar. Deninzon also joins in on the electric violin again and the quartet does too.

The band has promised that Part Two will be available in the next few months. The story is represented well in the album with good characterization among the vocalists. The music is good, but leans on the side of progressive-lite, there are elements there, especially in "Hands of Time" and the rest of the album is well done, but as far as any thing standing out other than that, it is a good and smart album but with nothing groundbreaking and, in my opinion, not much in the way of complex and interesting sections that stand out. Yes its good and most people will enjoy it, however. And as far as the impressive list of guests are concerned, they are mostly underutilized except for maybe Deninzon's excellent solo in "Man Unkind".