MORNING STAR

The man behind this band being a drummer and a teacher, it's not out of the ordinary to hear an album filled with plenty of drums sounds, sometimes complex patterns which give to the listener tough times to grasp to the melody. There is also plenty of others instruments including violin, flute and the even the uilleann pipe! Some busy keyboards at a furious pace and some classical arrangements remind me of Citizen Cain in a lighter approach while there is some darker passage as well. If you can imagine someone that mix the symphonic with some heavy parts displaying some unique instrumentation, and some exotic touches, you get the idea that this music can't be boring, and will give you hard time guessing which direction it goes. For me, it's another very satisfying instrumental progressive rock album.

German project KING OF AGOGIK is the creative vehicle of composer and musician Hans Jorg Schmitz, and from 2006 and onward he has released new albums at regular intervals through his own label Saustark Records. "Morning Star" is the sixth of the seven studio albums released under the King of Agogik name so far, and dates back to the start of 2017.

King of Agogik has a tendency to create albums featuring music that spans multiple styles and with a liberal amount of changes and alterations within each given composition, and not always with a logical connection between the different styles explored at that. These are music paintings more than anything else, at least as I regard them, fairly complex and challenging creations made as sound images rather than sound journeys. Somewhat different to listen to than many other artists, but also rewarding once you get the drift of it. An album to recommend to those with an open mind and free of the shackles of restricting their musical tastes to a defined selection of sub-genres of progressive rock.