Today we confirm the French band AKPHAEZYA to play ProgPower Europe 2009. A new album will be released later this year, the band has promised us to prepare a special show for ProgPower Europe. So don’t miss them, their progressive jazz metal is something different from the masses, we really look forward to their performance. The band will play on Saturday 3 October 2009.

Within the next 2 weeks we will announce the 2 remaining bands, we are discussing the final details now. As soon as the line-up is complete we will start the promotion campaign, we will not send too many newsletters than, we think you have received enough e-mails from us lately.

We hope to see you all this October, so far ticket sales is going pretty well and we already welcome people from all over the world.

Check out all details at www.progpower.eu.

Greetings,
ProgPower Europe team

In September of 1997 a magical event took place at Storybook Farm during ProgDay 3. A little known band from Italy called FINISTERRE had been invited to play the festival that year. Few anticipated that the band?s performance would go down in ProgDay history, yet it became known as one of the most lauded and legendary of the festival’s early years. The performance was captured on video and subsequently released with all copies selling out in a rather short period of time. A live album of the performance was also released.

A few years later Finisterre bassist FABIO ZUFFANTI decided to form a new band to capture the essence of the classic Italian prog scene. The band included two members of Finisterre; keyboardist Agostino Macor and drummer MARCO CAVANI. That band was LA MASCHERA DI CERA. LA MASCHERA released their first self-titled album in 2002 on Mellow Records and toured around Italy and in Europe. The next several years saw the band release two subsequent albums, “Il Grande Labirinto” in 2004 and “LuxAde” in 2006. The group again toured Europe and even made the trip across the pond to appear at NEARfest in the United States.

Today LA MASCHERA is considered to be one of the top current Italian progressive rock bands, with a rich 70?s style, soaring vocals, and a modern touch. We’re sure they will be a fantastic way to close out Saturday at Storybook.

ProgDay is the world’s longest running progressive rock event. The 15th edition will take place on September 5th & 6th, 2009, at beautiful Storybook Farm near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. LA MASCHERA DI CERA (Italy) join OZRIC TENTACLES (UK), MÖRGLBL (France), QUI (Japan), FRENCH TV (USA), 3RDEGREE (USA) and DELUGE GRANDER (USA) for another great weekend of the best in progressive music! For more information and to hear music from all of this year’s ProgDay bands, please visit us at www.progday. net.

IMPORTANT NOTE: ProgDay has changed it’s domain name. We are now “Progday.net” instead of “.com.” If you are one of ProgDay’s many supporters, please be sure to make the change to “.net” in all of your links and bookmarks.

PORCUPINE TREE REVEALS DETAILS OF UPCOMING ALBUM “THE INCIDENT”

New York, NY - Grammy-nominated UK recording artist Porcupine Tree have confirmed the title of their tenth studio album: The Incident. The captivating new record is set to be released on Roadrunner Records on September 22, as a double CD.

The Incident is a stunning 55-minute musical statement, described by vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Steven Wilson as “a slightly surreal song cycle about beginnings and endings and the sense that ‘after this, things will never be the same again.’” The seeds of the idea that led to The Incident came to Wilson as he became caught up in a highway traffic jam while driving past an accident.

“There was a sign saying ‘POLICE – INCIDENT’ and everyone was slowing down to rubber neck to see what had happened,” he recalls. “Afterwards, it struck me that ‘incident’ is a very detached word for something so destructive and traumatic for the people involved. And then I had the sensation that the spirit of someone that had died in the accident entered into my car and was sitting next to me.

“The irony of such a cold expression for such seismic events appealed to me, and I began to pick out other ‘incidents’ reported in the media and news,” continues Wilson. “I wrote about the evacuation of teenage girls from a religious cult in Texas, a family terrorizing its neighbors, a body found floating in a river by some people on a fishing trip, and more. Each song is written in the first person and tries to humanize the detached media reportage.”

Additionally, Wilson delved back into incidents in his own life that had profoundly affected him, including a lost childhood friendship, a séance, his first love and the day that he decided to give up secure employment to follow his dream of making music.

The self-produced album is completed by four standalone compositions that developed out of band writing sessions last December – “Flicker,” “Bonnie The Cat,” “Black Dahlia” and “Remember Me Lover” – housed on a separate CD to stress their independence from the title track.

Porcupine Tree – completed by Gavin Harrison (drums), Colin Edwin (bass), and Richard Barbieri (keyboards) – took a video camera into the recording studio, capturing a few moments to share with fans.

Coming to the recording sessions following his first ever solo album, November 2008’s Insurgentes, Wilson admits that the experience of having worked alone affected the direction of The Incident. “Possibly because of having done that, this record is darker, expansive, and more experimental,” he theorizes. “But when I write for Porcupine Tree, I know the sound I’m after.”

Porcupine Tree’s latest masterpiece The Incident will be released September 22.

ProgDay has changed its domain name. We are now “Progday.net” instead of “.com.” If you are one of ProgDay’s many supporters, please be sure to make the change to “.net” in all of your links.

ProgDay is the world’s longest running progressive rock event. The 15th edition will take place on September 5th & 6th, 2009, at beautiful Storybook Farm near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The lineup includes OZRIC TENTACLES (UK), MÖRGLBL (France), QUI (Japan), FRENCH TV (USA), 3RDEGREE (USA) and DELUGE GRANDER (USA) with two more bands to be announced. Join us again this year for another great weekend of the best in progressive music! For more information and to hear music from all of this year’s ProgDay bands, please visit us at our new domain name: www.progday. net.

ANGLAGARD: Drummer Mattias Olsson writes on his MySpace Blog:

“Anglagard have been working on some new recordings. It has been a very long journey and the whole band has been involved in various stages. Naturally never at the same time thanks to modern technology. Ideas are brewing and stirring. Alar Suurna (probably the best mixer in Sweden) will be cleaning up and disciplining the sounds in its final stages.”

From Paul Speer: “I am excited to announce that coming very soon will be the new album “Wonders,” a collaboration with Paul Lawler from the UK and Satine Orient from Paris, France. We created musical impressions of awe inspiring places on Planet Earth. Paul Lawler and I composed all the music and Satine contributed vocals to two tracks. It will be released Tuesday, July 7th 2009 assuming everything goes according to plan.”

Roger Powell signs with Unicorn Digital and releases Solo Piano Blue Note Ridge
Montreal, Qc Tuesday June 9th, 2009

UNICORN DIGITAL is proud to announce that legendary keyboardist Roger Powell (Utopia, David Bowie, Meat Loaf) has signed a deal with the label to release Blue Note Ridge, a collection of improvisations that embrace classical melody, contemporary harmony and impressionist forms on this debut solo piano album.

A stream of consciousness merging styles and eras, Blue Note Ridge is pure, elegant and honest. In the 70’s and 80’s Roger Powell’s groundbreaking electronic synthesizer albums Cosmic Furnace (Atlantic) and Air Pocket (Bearsville) were hailed as masterworks. Powell has always been held in high esteem by his peers.

“Even among the keyboard titans of the progrock Seventies, Roger Powell always stood out.” (Future Music U.S. Ed.- June 2006).

2006 signaled a welcome return of Roger Powell with the retrofuturistic, groove oriented, Fossil Poets (Inner Knot CD/Vinyl LP). The critically acclaimed release was produced by award winning producer Gary Tanin who, along with Powell, produced the 2009 solo piano offering Blue Note Ridge.

Released on Fossil Poet Records a few months ago (as a Limited Edition CD through CD Baby and via digital download) Blue Note Ridge will be available world wide on Unicorn Digital as of July the 14th 2009.

As recently announced, Metal Mind Productions will release a brand new studio album by the Polish prog-rock band Believe. Their third album entitled “This Bread is Mine” features eleven tracks dedicated to those who like to listen and seek sense in different sounds…

Believe: “Will you be able to find the hidden message behind the title…? Or maybe you will start pondering over your place in this world, where you struggle to earn your daily ‘bread’ and keep your current position? What that ‘bread’ will turn out to be for you? Is your existence true unlimited freedom? Maybe you will come to the conclusion that everything that you have seen so far is just an illusion resulting from your pain? What will you decide to choose: The reality just as it is or your own path to a better future? Just put on This Bread is Mine and listen to the musical message from Believe.”

The lyrics for “This Bread Is Mine” were written by Robert Sieradzki, a dedicated friend, who is also the author of the lyrics for Believe’s previous albums. His lyrics fit the music perfectly and just intuitively reflect the emotions evoked by the collection of sounds.

The music itself is a result of feelings and experiences of all Believe’s members: Mirek Gil (ex-Collage, ex-Mr. Gil, guitars), Karol Wróblewski (vocals, flute, keyboards), Przemas Zawadzki (ex-Collage, bass guitar), Satomi (violin), and Vlodi Tafel (drums & percussion). The guest musicians included Paulina Druch (cello) and Bartek Zbroszczyk (guitar). The sound mix for the album was handled by Włodek Kowalczyk, Polish producer responsible for the completion of projects of such Polish legends as Klaus Mit Foch, Róże Europy, Daab, Oddział Zamknięty, Dezerter, and Lady Pank.

In order to get more advanced sound quality, Believe collaborated with Andy Jackson, prominent British sound engineer, who had worked on Pink Floyd’s and David Gilmour’s albums. His most recent work was David Gilmour’s “Live in Gdańsk” .

“This Bread Is Mine” will be released by Metal Mind Productions in early August. The standard edition will feature 11 tracks. A bonus track will be added to the digipak edition.

After the release of the very successful live DVD & CD “Another Moment In Time”, Final Conflict are now begining to record their 6th studio album entitled “The Return of the Artizan”. One of the new songs is already performed live and was aired officially at the Rotherham Rocks Festival 2009 Festival. The track received great applause from the audience, and the feedback after the gig was so overwhelming that it is certain to be included on the album. It will be featured under the title “Lonely Man”.

Henry Rogers (drums) says: “This is an exciting new era for Final Conflict as it is the first studio album with the much talked about new rhythm section (myself and Barry Elwood). “The Return Of The Artizan” is going to be available at Christmas 2009 ready to fill out those stockings!! Final Conflict will be working very hard to ensure that the raw energy of the songs are captured aptly on the album for all to hear. The stunning new album cover has already been designed and rated as their best ever cover by the band!! Final Conflict are very pleased to be able to approve such an artistic album cover, and shall be keeping the artists secrets closely guarded for now. The band have purchase the original painting, and unlike previous album covers, it will not be auctioned off!! (Or say they say???)”

With the writing and production of the album thoroughly underway, the remaining Final Conflict’s concerts for this year are:

The Farmyard – 20th June - Yorkshire
The Rigger – 11th July – Newcastle – Under – Lyme
Autumn NABDNESS – 12th September – Oxford
The Rigger – 19th December – The big launch party for the release of the new album!!!

Final Conflict will be playing at a number of key festivals next year which have yet to be announced!

As part of the continuous promotion of the “Another Moment In Time” DVD there is a new preview track - “Stand Up” - available on MMP’s Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=MetalMindPoland

“Another Moment In Time” DVD is available in 3 formats: DVD, limited DVD+CD edition, including bonus audio CD with songs recorded during the gig at the theater, and a limited CD digipak.

Guitarist/Improvisation Artist/Producer Willie Oteri known for his work with King Crimson, Frank Zappa and Peter Gabriel alumni has teamed with Austin Trumpeter Dave Laczko (Fearless Jazz Duo, Barons of Rhythm, KAZI radio) on a new project called WD-41, an improvisational, experimental duo creating loops and filtering rhythms from dueling Lexicon LXP-5 delays all recorded live to two tracks on a minidisc recorder.

The group’s self-titled debut is available at CD Baby and can be streamed on the following band sites:

http://www.reverbnation.com/wd41
http://www.myspace.com/wd41music

“WD-41 is amazing to do with Willie, because we are both coming from as open a space as you can imagine,” says trumpeter Laczko. “As Branford Marsalis once said, ‘The music tells you what to play,’ so I don’t really know what I’m going to play until I hear what Willie is doing. He’s taken me places in my music that I’ve never been before, and what’s even cooler is that you can go to some of those places on our CD!”

Willie Oteri has collaborated and performed with Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, John Lennon), Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson, XTC), Mike Keneally (Frank Zappa), Jerry Marotta (Peter Gabriel), Stu Hamm (Joe Satriani, SteveVai) and others including Ronan Chris Murphy (producer and musician), Brannen Temple (Sheena Easton, Kevin Paige, Robben Ford, Eric Johnson), bassist Chris Maresh (Eric Johnson, Abra Moore, Mitch Watkins), Mike Malone (Jimmy Smith) and Ephraim Owens (Erika Badu). The breadth of such performing and recording situations is a testament to his musical versatility and talent. In recent years, it is Oteri’s role as composer and band leader which has garnered him increasing notoriety coupled with a notable unique style on guitar.