TOM DONCOURT & MATTIAS OLSSON'S CATHEDRAL

With the band CATHEDRAL, Tom Doncourt released a single symphonic prog album in the late 1970s that astonishes even to this day. Somehow he and Änglagård founder and candidate for busiest man in Prog, Mattias Olsson, hooked up to try to drag Tom out of retirement and voilà! There is music being produced! And wonderful, boundary-pushing music it is! (Should we expect anything less from M. Olsson?)

Recorded before the March 2019 death of Mr. Doncourt, Mattias & Co. saw this one to completion--and boy are we fortunate he did: it's a monster of surprisingly forward-thinking progressive rock music! One of the best releases of 2020!

1. "Poppy Seeds Intro" (0:59) a cappella voices setting a mood and melody line (4.5/5)

2. "Poppy Seeds" (2:05) picks up the melody and chord progression from the "intro" and translates it into instruments with tuned percussion instruments added to expand and embellish. (4.5/5)

3. "Chamber" (3:36) guitarish and bellish instruments with massive bass drums, Mellotron, and computer scratches morphs into a bass and guitar-heavy KING CRIMSON/TONY LEVIN-sounding piece at 1:30. Alternates with soft "flute", "harp" and electric guitar section two times. (8.75/10)

4. "#1" (10:38) one of the most effective, perfect prog epics of 2020! Quite a heavy, full, almost Viking sound to it from the opening. Very impressive bass and drum playing with astonishing keyboard sound arrangements. (19/20)

5. "Tower Mews" (2:01) treated piano amid multiple 'tron tacks (flutes, strings, voices). I got shivers! Very Ant Phillips-like. (4.5/5)

6. "Today" (1:24) repeated voice saying "Today I'll go crazy" with a full wall of African rhythms & percussives, flutes, "saw" and more. (4.5/5)

7. "Poppies in a Field" (12:34) keyboard dominated slow rock opening is quickly established to support the poppy vocals of Akaba. (No pun intended.) With the third minute the music detours down a dark alley--VDGG-like. Then Mellotron and waves of bells/percussion give an introspective interlude for the fourth minute. Return to the heavy prog theme from the opening for the fifth and sixth minutes before another cycle through a gentle dream-scene in the seventh. At 8:32 begins a very cool, almost YES-like sophisticated section that is my favorite. The final scale down at 10:45 leads into a section of a bizarre, almost "alien," soundscape, which, strangely, takes us to the song's end. Otherwise, there are some very cool experimental sounds woven through both the heavy and pastoral parts of the song, but ultimately, as a whole, it fails to achieve anything cohesive, much less great. (21.5/25)

8. "The Last Bridge Organ" (2:36) interesting sci-fi/Blade Runner-like outro. (4.25/5)

Total Time 35:53

I don't know who Hampus Nordgren-Hemlin is or where he came from, but the dude plays a mean bass! And I really respect the sound experimenting that Mattias is so into. No wonder he and Ketil Vestrum Einarsen make such a good team!

B+/4.5 stars; an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection and a real tribute to a long-time master of our beloved genre of music. (Mr. Doncourt passed in 2019.) On the down side, the album is a bit short (35+ minutes) with only two proper prog songs and six rather brief "vignettes." BUT, if you like this, check out the other Tom Doncourt stuff Mattias is releasing on behalf of his dearly departed collaborator.