HYDROPHONIA

Roine Stoldt seems incapable of delivering a bad album. Here, the unstoppable prog guitarist has given us an album of instrumental pieces, featuring himself, Jaime Salazar on drums and percussion and Ulf Wallander on soprano saxophone. While Wallander's sax sometimes brings the music dangerously close to new age territory, none of the songs fall over that precipice.

My favorite tracks on the album are Wreck of HMS Nemesis, which begins with a Gryphon-like medeival theme, but then morphs though all sorts of styles, Bizarre Seahorse Sex Attack, an obvious Frank Zappa homage, and Lobsterland Groove, and oddly infectuous dance/trance composition.

While this album is not quite as good as "The Flower King", it's close enough to a four star release to get that rating.