Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Free Palestine Music and Arts Festival, Barril da Alva, Portugal June 15th, 2025

This was a wonderful day and I met and hung out with a lot of different people. Weather was fantastic. About 30C but the park was totally shaded by large trees so a very nice spot.  Different things for kids (Face Painting, theatre area, inflated jumping area), lots of drink stands, craft beer from Arganil (Puro Mall), falafel stand, vegan burgers, cakes, and some people selling clothes and books and stuff to raise money.  The auction was very good with a table full of stuff that you could bid on. I won a very nice serving plater made by Debbie Manson, a local ceramic potter expert.  Lovely..  Money goes to a great cause.

These two guys with dolls were awesome.  They did really cool rock songs like Bad to the Bone, Voodoo Chile, etc..  Check out this little video. Wow.. So much fun..



As far as the music went it was a lot of cover songs, mostly.  I arrived when Jim Black and Kate were playing.  An acoustic duo. I do not remember much of them as I was meeting people I know and saying hello. 

Undying Heads
Undying Heads

Undying Heads are a bunch of UK expats playing mostly original songs and some covers with a sort of punky dirty grimmy edge to it. Mixing rock and folky stuff with some great political lyrics.  They were really fun.   

$Med Records, were two kids (one really young) who rapped over different songs and beats. No idea if they programmed the music themselves or anything like that. They were decent rappers but I just find it a little fun these white kids making all these “black” moves and hand gestures, etc.. you ain´t black… make up your own original moves.. Anyway, they had the biggest crowd of the day and people loved it…

Dave Hendo and Becky, are again two locals. Becky sings and plays violin. I have seen Dave around in a ska outfit, with the Crusties, and solo. Super nice guy. They did mostly cover songs (Small Faces, Beatles, etc..).. Probably a few originals as well. 

Snazzy Ragamuffins, were a five piece band with a female lead singer.  Again, mostly cover songs, so of which she sang well and some she was very flat on the vocal.. Not great.. The two guitar players were the main focus. It was a well received set and they ended with Imagine, the John Lennon song. Sadly, we are still far away from John´s vision.. Very sad…

The Crusties used to be a 3-4 piece band and are not a 5 piece.  it has been a while since I had seen them. They play all covers but some very interesting and more obscure stuff.  Really old blues stuff, Bowie songs, etc… Fun band and nice to see my friend Christian playing Cajon with them. They had a younger new electric guitar player as well.  They were great. Best band of the day musically. 

The Crusties

I Spy, local politically charged rockers always get the place moving and are getting better and better every year now days. They have a new CD out called a Drop in the Ocean. Check it out. 

http://andyshades.bandcamp.com 

I did not see the DJs at all.. Great event and nice to see and hang out with so many people..


Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Øresund Space Collective- Space Boat X, Hamburg, Germany May 23-24th, 2025

May 22nd- I have to drive an hr to the train station and then take the train from Coimbra to Lisboa. Takes about 1hr 40mins. It is hot. 29C here at Coimbra..  Only going to be below 15C in Denmark and Germany. Bummer..  I arrived late (23) into Copenhagen and met Jiri at the airport, he was just coming back from a trip with his family. 

May 23rd

We are soon leaving to the rehearsal room to get the gear and Nick,who slept out there.  Jonathan arrived last night and he and Jiri got back about 22. I had a beer with my old friend Ulrik and dinner with Clotho and was just relaxing.  We have the ferry booked for 1215.. A bit of sun but lots of dark clouds around. Supposed to be a bit windy and cool, only 14C today in Hamburg.  27C in Portugal…

Mood is good. Mattias is flying directly into Hamburg and will meet us at the harbour at 16. It will be a bit cold today and maybe some rain, We will see. Just hope all else goes fine….  Will be fun to play for the fans again… The same line up as last year except Mattias on the drums…  

We were perfect time for the ferry. Jiri paid in advance and also for the gas before we left CPH. Some crazy weather as were heading down to the highway after picking up Nick at the rehearsal room. Mood was good but Jonathan did not sleep that well.  I did ok but would have liked another hr or two!!   

We had our schnitzel and Jonathan fish fillet. I paid the bill 79€. All went well with the drive,  I spoke to Jonathan about my thoughts about the stuff we made in Stockholm and the possible releases that could come out from this.  He put a lot of work into this. 

We arrived about 10min til 16 and Klaus and Sabine drove up with in 5mins of us and then Anders as well so we were all there on time.. Weather was much better than expected. A mix of sun and clouds..  As usual, the set up is hard and you are not aloud to play music so no soundcheck, so we just could check there was sound.  Mood was good but that rocking of the boat was making me feel weird so I tried to stay off the boat. Had some food with Anders and Jonathan. Nice fried fish and chips. Had a Fritz cola, a Hamburg classic.. As good as real coke, I think. Met a lot of the fans and some folks that came all the way from NY. They had just got married and this was part of their honeymoon.  Such cool and nice folks. Wow.. 

Boat left on time and it was 70% of the same people. Amazing, this was the 10th boat!!!  Mattias plays so hard and loud that everyone had to turn up, especially Anders as no one could hear him other wise on the far side of the stage.  Mattias just likes to play so each set was just one long jam. First was about 95mins and we had a break and played another 70, I think.  Amazing music, grooves, musical textures..  Fun.. People were so happy and the weather was ok. We had a few sunny patches but no rain and the waters were not too rough.  So many happy and smiling people. They loved it….

Here is the recording. Sadly the first set the drums and organ are too loud but we adjust this for the next set and next day..

https://archive.org/details/OSC2025-05-23.FLAC4 

Day 2

I shared a room with Anders and Jonathan and Mattias were in a room and Nick and Jiri Sabine also stayed at the hotel. Anders and I met Sabine at the breakfast. Nick eventually came down and then Jiri. Mattias and Jonathan were late but they let them have breakfast even though they had officially closed it.  We left for the boat about 1040.. Boat was there when we arrived. We agreed to use the vocal mic to put some of Anders in the PA so he did not have to play so loud. 

Weather was great today. Warmer and mostly sunny.. People were so happy and there were 7 more tickets sold, so only about 15 unsold tickets. Mood was great again and people from the first day were ready.. We started off really spacey and then off for one about 65min set. It was really warm as they had all the plastic siding on still. I wanted to take off my shirt but I resisted!!  Cool set and I felt I had found some new sounds.  Fun..  We had a small break and then off again. We played another set and a small break and then played again. Sadly, towards the end of the 2nd set my modular stopped working. Fuck..  So I got to just watch the 3rd set as a fan and mingle and talk with the audience. They were great. Wow.. What a band!!!  

Another amazing spaceboat. These are the most happy fans I have ever met.



https://archive.org/details/OSC2025-05-24.FLAC 

Amazing time. Special thanks to Sabine, who puts so much hard work into making this such a cool event and a success!!!   Also thanks to Klaus, Birgit, Rolf and the others that helped Sabine out.. See you all next year…    Keep a look out for tickets and dates in January 2026.

https://www.sapphirerecords.de/ 

All Fotos by Sabine..




Sunday, June 8, 2025

Unifantastico Festival, Travancinha, Portugal June 7th, 2025

This was a lovely one day family festival with a ton of kids running and activities and workshops and contests and of course music!  4€ if you are a member of the unifant organisation or 8€ if not. 10€ a year to join so you could join and get in for 2€…. 

I arrived about 1430 and there were a lot of people roaming around. A guy named Emil had brought a bunch of drums for the drum circle that was supposed to start at 15. It started about 1530. Filipe (Idiotheque) was awesome and about 5 other drummers, male and female. I met a really cool guy from Finland, Pasi!  He is a guitar player but he also played some drums and percussion here. An older guy had an Oud, 7 string guitar and tried to play a bit but was drowned out by the drums so he switched to some Moroccan hand cymbals. It was fun..


Next was a workshop up in the dome or kids Olympics games and face painting, etc.. Lots of stuff going on.   I was there for the social interaction and to hear some live music. 

Ball Zee, a UK and world Beatbox champion performed but also gave a little workshop showing us how he made some of these amazing sounds. He was mindblowing. I had never seen anyone make such authentic bass and percussion and other techno like music with only his mouth. Wow..  Blew me away..  He showed us how he made these sounds and then a strong or small kids gave it a try. Most were not any good but at least they gave it a go!!  Fun..


Nick and Issac (they had recorded some songs in my studio), gave their debut live performance and played 5 songs (3 of Issacs, 2 of Nicks). They were nervous and it was not perfect but sounded great. Their voices really work well together and they both play acoustic guitars. I think Nick should play acoustic bass that would work better.  On Issacs songs, he is mainly playing a similar chord variation and could add more with a bass.  It was great. I loved it…

Lisa Oribasi (partner of Ball Zee), played a solo acoustic/electric guitar set and Ball Zee added some drum like parts and other sound effects on the last 3 songs (all on the electric guitar).  She did mostly originals and had a wonderful voice.  Her cover of Toes by Glass Animals was the best song though…  Her first few originals were great. She played a new one Oscillation but it was the weakest song of the set..  Very nice guitar playing as well. Lovely..

https://lisaoribasi.bandcamp.com/album/red-earth

After this started the psy trance DJs so I headed home. It was a lovely day and awesome small festival.. Met many friends and made some new ones as well.  The DJs that played later are listed below.

Strangeiro, Itsan, Kobiko, Yoka

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Rock dos Romanos- Condexa da Velha, Portugal May 30th, 2025

This was a great little two day rock and metal festival just south of Coimbra. Took me 75mins to drive there on this hot day.  When I arrived to meet the Madmess guys, there was a very young metal band playing called Dream On. 5 piece with a female singer, all around 17 years old.  I think they were playing original metal songs.  Impressive actually…. 


Epiiepsia Alienígena. This was a very cool band from Viseu, more psychedelic rock of sorts. Sadly you could not hear the synth guy at all the entire concert. Sucked. Sound guy was not good when it came to keyboards. Must be a metal guy.. the band guys were really great and nice folks as well. I did not see them having a CD at the merch place.  They have a bandcamp page but no new music since 2016.,


Sete Pês (Seven Feet), played all instrumental like melodic rock fusion stuff and were good. The guitar player did most of the solos while the keyboard player was way in the background most of the time except of one longer solo.  Great bass and drums. They also had a conga-percussion player.  I bought there CD, Flying Carpet, which was a bit disappointing compared to them live!

Set List: 22/23, Raposa, Funky Samba, Primeio Voo, Coral, Cruzeiro

Madmess, we were up at 2200. IT has been 15 months since the last time I played with the guys. The set list was in a different order and they had dropped all but one of the older songs and played all the new album plus a Black Sabbath song. I had a lot of fun playing along to their normal set. They do not jam at all and everything is played perfectly and exact every night, which is a pity but it is still fun to find my place here and there and add to the live experience. There was a lot of positive feedback about my contribution, which is cool. Super cool guys. Love em and a great band.. Powerful….



Set List:  Burnt, Widowmaker, Albatross, Death by Astonishment, Velvet Nebula, Endless Cycles, Hazy, Sauerkraut, Rat Salad

I had to drive home after the gig so I did not get to see Baliea Baliea Baliea or Máquina.  Spoke with the Máquina guys and they are all super cool. They will play at Sonic Blast again..  Fun night...



Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Krautfazz-Live at the Church (Sulatron Records st-2025-2)

This is a fairly new band that only started in late 2022 and this is already the 5th release. This one was recorded live in Berlin in summer 2024. Here is what they have to say about themselves in the promo sheet:

“The improvisational band krautfuzz, with Imari Kokubo on drums, Dirk Dresselhaus on guitar and occasional vocals, and Derek Shirley on bass, is embossed by an angular-futuristic tension, spanning from fuzzed-out neo-psych-rock, abstract, heavily processed minimalism to pure noise, and is open at the fringes, which also means that they usually invite surprise guests from diverse musical backgrounds for their live shows to play energetic, dynamic, and time-transcending music without a safety net while giving some extra attention to communication in-between each other as well as to the individual subconsciousness. “

The LP features two long tracks while the CD features a shorter version of Track 1 but a very long extened version of track 2 (which is the one featuring J Mascus (Dinosaur Jr)!!   What can I say, if you like jammed out stuff with lots of dynamics and intense noisy guitar then this is going to be for you!!!

www.sulatron.com

Homepage www.mirrorworldmusic.com/artists/krautfuzz 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/krautfuzzz/

Facebook www.facebook.com/krautfuzz


Madmess-The Third Coming (Glory or Death Records/ Kozmik Artifactz/ gig.ROCKS! Records release)


The mostly instrumental Portuguese trio from Porto are back with their long delayed 3rd album and it is a corker!  It starts off with Death my Astonishment, a track they have been playing live for quite some time.  A great guitar sound and plenty of guitar solos and great riffs on this one. Widowmaker kicks the energy level up even higher with a wah wammy solo and then into vocal section, which is sort of shouted horse vocal, remind me of XX from Orange Sunshine.  Nice melodies mixed in the heavy rock and solos. Velvet Nebula has a slower but intense rhythm with some great guitar, including some double tracked stuff here and there.  Lots of wah for fans of wah guitar. Endless Cycles starts slowly and reminds me of their earlier records a bit more.  A nice bluesy guitar gets things going with a nice delay effect. A cool and different song but one of the best. Burnt kicks the energy up again with more wah and wammy guitar. Hazy Morning continues with the intense wah guitar attack (try some different pedals, Sam!) and the vocal returns and is set quite far in the back and hard to understand) but it is mostly just a rocking track!!  Sauerkraut is a shorter 3.5 min track to end the record. Awesome artwork on the cover..

Overall, this is a very solid 3rd record and some might say the bands best. the drumming is perhaps more intense and the songs sorter and more focused (not sure I like that or not) but the whole band plays awesome with killer guitar throughout and groovy bass lines.   One of the best PT bands on the stoner 70s rock scene at the moment..

https://madmess.bandcamp.com/



Hoofoot- Limb Phantom (Paura de Niente PDN003, 2025)

This is the 3rd album by the Malmö, Sweden based proggers.  The album is one track in four movements. The opening one, starts a lot like 70s Miles Davis vibe and then takes a left turn to a totally different world of back and forth solos between guitar and synths while the drums, bass and congas keep the motion interesting and moving forward. There is this synth and guitar theme that gets repeated at certain intervals a long the way. Very cool piece and nice piano-synth solos.  THe piece ends with a organ fade out..  Fig 2 starts more slowly with some horns and a laid back vibe. The tension has been released. The groove picks up pace 3/4 of the way thru and stays very piano-keyboard based.   Flip the record over for Fig 3, starts up tempo with some funk vibes and more back and forth between the keys and the guitar.  Flute on this one is nicely placed in the arrangement. Fig 4 brings back a theme we have heard before and starts with the bass and that theme before evolving. Very nice piano solo on this track.  These guys write killer music. What can I say. Great dynamics, sound and playing..  Check it out..

https://hooffoot.bandcamp.com/album/phantom-limb

Idiotheque- RIJU, Coja, PT April 25th, 2025

I had just come back from Spain and was really tired but really wanted to see and support the band on this first gig of the year.  It was packed. Alex, the keyboard player for the band, he and his wife played a 35min set that just was not the right music for this evening and virtually no one really was paying attention. The volume was just way too low which did not help.


Idiotheque started with an solo acoustic number track by Adriana. It was not really the best way to start on this evening and then into Close your Eyes. Tom had shaved half his beard and half his head (not bald but really short). What a cool and great front man..  Anyway, the lights were cool, great decorations in the venue and cool costumes. The band take the music and show part very serious and that is great.   The only thing lacking tonight was the sound.  It was at times dreadful (the start) and at times passible but hardly great.  No kick drum at all the whole night, so the groove really lacked at times. cymbals and horns were really sharp sounding. Anyway, the band was one on fire and really were tight.  A bit too tight for me, I really wish they would give solo parts to the horn players, and keyboard players, not only Dinis, the guitarist, who I think had 4 solos all which were short and very uninspired, I felt. He is a great guitar player but you would never know it from these kind of awkward, not very interesting solos. Pity..   The band played most of what they were playing last year and one or two totally new songs besides the acoustic intro. The band ended with a high energy with Give me More and Space Age!  Awesome band…




The set list:  ?, Close your Eyes, ?, Mountain Man, Honey, ?,  Todos Eguas, Give me More, Space Age


Monday, May 19, 2025

A/LPACA- Laughter (Sulatron Records st-2025-2)

The four piece band are from Italy and formed in 2018. Sulatron released their previous album in 2021. This new material was recorded between 2021 and 2023. I am not sure if I heard their previous one but this one starts off very intense with the Evil Pawn track, which leads into the Confide. Cool bass line and intense build up before they take off.. I did the spacey vibe and spoken word deliver.. Wow.. Intense start.  An Encounter is my fave track with this very hypnotic and repeated keyboard line and groove but then it goes….. Laughter is another wild ride. Balance brings things down but also twists things around with strange sounds and an off kilter sound to mess with your brain….  Trippy… Brand Fantuzzi brings in a drum machine and takes you on another hypnotic journey..  What an album. Wow… Unique…

www.sulatron.com

www.alpacaband-mn.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/alpacabandMN

www.instagram.com/alpacaband




Sunday, May 11, 2025

Boris das Beiras, And If?, Mattheiu Ehrlacher- RIJU, Coja, PT May 10th, 2025

I know the guys Boris and Matheiu from the Portuguese Noise rock band, duassemicolcheiasinvertidas. They were both doing solo shows about 30mins drive away so I decided to check it out. I saw Idiotechue play there in April and this place has some serious sound issues but it was ok with just a solo artist and I sat up front as well.  

It is 5€ if you are a member (12€) a year or 7€ if not. There were 12 people when I arrived and they were all having dinner and some had their kids with them. Mostly English people (I think).  There was a big PT football match on TV so they did not expect many people, sadly.  

Boris das Beiras started about 2020 and played about 10 short pieces of music in 45mins. His main instrument is an electric bouzouki guitar (Greek instrument).  He had a table with a small keyboard that he made drums sound keyboard melodies and then he used a guitar pedal looper and then played guitar over the top. He also used a cassette player and mixed in spoken word or used it just to add some effected sounds to the mix. He also had a Roland SH201 that only used very briefly 3-4 times during the set to add some bass or synth arpeggios. He also occasionally sang using some strange octave pitch pedal that made his voice very strange. Very unique!!! I enjoyed it...  

Boris das Beiras



And If? was a performance art piece by the organiser of the show, Bernardo Chatillion. This was very special. He had a microphone and said and did weird stuff and then he played something thru the PA and was crawling around, writhing about or dancing around the room while we all stood in a circle around him. Very special and it takes a lot of confidence to do this. Kudos to Bernardo. This was very creative and strange but everyone was smiling and into it except the kids who thought this guy is really weird and strange!!!  

Mattheiu Ehrlacher (blow my mind until the light becomes sound). He played more or less one long piece in 3 sections as he never really stopped the sound completely.  All his music was made with saxophones, clarinet and voice with many pedals and looping devices. He started off with an amazing 30min piece that just transported you to another world with the deep drones of the baritone sax and then layers of vocalisations and lead sax. It was very intense at times and then it would come down to almost silence and build again. After that he transitioned into 5min piece made only with his voice. He created a drone with some deep vocalisations and then different layers in midrange and then more high pitches.  This lead into the final piece which was more mellow and spaced out and the clarinet was featured a lot more, especially at the end. Wow… A very unique artist. I would love to record his solo stuff in my studio.

  

https://matthieuehrlacher.bandcamp.com/

www.matthieuehrlacher.com 

Monday, May 5, 2025

Gouveia Art Rock Festival, PT May 1-4th, 2025

This was the first time I was able to get a ticket to this event!! It was sold out last year by the time I figured out how to get a ticket and when they went on sale as their web site is never updated and they only use Instagram and Facebook. Now I know..

Anyway, it is 35mins from my house to the venue, not too bad a drive. I arrived about 1530 and met Andrei and Vladimir and their friend (the later two I met at the festival last year when I came to just see the place and attend the music discussion at the library with Steve Hogwarth and David Cross and some other musicians. 

The first act was a solo woman from the US named Courtney Swain, this was apparently the 3rd time she has performed at the festival.  She did 4-5 numbers with some pedals, loopers, and other devices that she triggered, looped her voice and sang over the top with some beats.  She was very good and clever but it was just all a bit too mainstream radio like music (just stranger). She then switched to the grand piano.  Large lady with a great powerful voice.  She was for sure not Prog, closer to Pop but I guess you would call it Art Rock.  Not my thing. I guess Lauri Anderson would be an inspiration here…

30min break and then Blank Manuscript, a quartet from Austria was next.  The organ, keyboard player was the main lead singer and soloist and awesome. They only played 5 songs in 75mins, really cool long tracks with lots of different parts. The lead guitar player when he soloed was part David Gilmour and part Steve Rothery!   Very good band. They played a couple of songs from their first album at the end of the set. They got an encore even though we were over time. 


Now there is a for 2hrs and 45mins with no music. They close the venue and open it again at 21! I think this is excessively long break and tomorrow no music for 3. 5 hrs!!! 

At 2130, next up was a jazz-classical music duo Rita Maria and Filipe Raposa. Very talented musicians and what a voice but I was tired and an hr of piano jazz was not really what I wanted to hear. This also was not Prog at all.  They are total pros and amazing musicians.   I understand that this is a very expensive festival to put on and they need some simple solo or duo acts that do not cost a huge amount to fill in the schedule.  Quality music.

Finally, only about 15mins late, the Monika Roscher Bigband hit the stage.  She looked stunning as the conductor and guitar player and this 18 member (13 horn players, several also played flute and one didgeridoo) band.  What really cool songs and she introduced the stories for most all the songs. The 2nd one was a really long one about Witches and was super cool. I was really captivated. In fact most of the songs in the set came from her album, Witchy Activities And The Maple Death. Firebird, 8 Princesses, Taste of the Apocalypse.   Amazing 90min concert just a pity you could not hear here guitar playing at all. She played a lot of great air guitar though!! Ended about 00:45 and I was very tired. I wanted to meet them and buy the CD but I still had another 35min drive home.  Very fun first day..


I also hung out and spoke with half the band, Oiapok from France in the long break. They play tomorrow.

Day 2

Damn, I was tired today and in a hurry having to stop at the post office and only got a 45min nap.  I arrived 10mins before Mad Fellaz (Italy). I only heard a bit of these guys and in the end I really liked them but the drummer when he got intense, which was nearly every song, he just destroyed the sound and he drowned everything out and you could not hear the band. Pity the soundman was not really on top of it. Snare was louder than the rest of the band!!! Crazy fucked up..  they were a 7 piece band (2 guitar, 2 synths, bass, drums and female singer). They started and ended the show with instrumental songs. Band bass player was really funky but the band was not particularly which made for some interesting contrasts. The female singer, wow.. She was amazing and really charismatic. It was mostly like 80s Jazz fusion stuff but well done. 


Oiapok (France), were next and wow. They blew me away.  What an awesome band but difficult material as they all had sheet music!!  They opened with a very Frank Zappa inspired track and then headed off in their own direction.  What a unique line up of instruments: Harp, Zylophone, Marimba, trombone, trumpet, bass, drums, guitar and female singer. They built up into some really cool intense parts that got the bass player off his chair (he composes all the music) and they rocked. I wish the guitar player would have had a bigger role some how. He only did one guitar solo and the rest of the time seem to be following the notes of either the horn players or marimba, lesser the harp. Maybe it would become too messy if he had his own parts?? He could for sure play more solos. Music was great and very composed though, not much room for improv. Amazing performance.  I think for many this was going to be hard to top!


Now, there was a fucking 3hr break with nothing going on. I went to eat with Samuel (Portuguese music fan, who I had met at other festivals, super nice) and a guy named Rod, who came over from the USA. We had a nice dinner and chat about music. All very nice and interesting people. 

Motyk (Belgium) were a 5 piece (two violins, percussion-drums, acoustic guitars and standup bass) band. Some of the members had played this festival before in different band configurations. They played a sort of world music inspired by all kinds of ancient music.  Very good and interesting tracks but sadly, I was so tired I did not really enjoy it as much as I could have.  They played much shorter songs compared to the other bands.  The highlight of the gig though was the amazing djembe solo. Wow. I was just blown away and captivated by that. The amazing sounds and textures he got out of the drum was incredible.  The encore was the highlight for the Mexican guitarist, Pablo, where he really shinned. Great band but they played 20mins over so now it was going to be really late and I was so tired. 


Wobbler (Norway), who played here some years ago and has not had a new album since 2020, were next. I think people had high expectations for this heavy prog band. They were damn good but sadly did not play or even hint about having a new material.  The lead singer also played some acoustic and electric guitar and he was complimented by bass, drums, lead guitar, violin and the massive keyboard set up (real mellotron, Fender Rhodes, Mini moog and Hammond).   Very dynamic and interesting music with lots of guitar and organ solos but few violin spots. She mostly just complimented the rest in a good way but was hard to hear at times. They were at least 2x louder than any of the other bands, Finally we got some volume. Some thought it was too loud but it helped to keep me awake and the drums from the stage did not drown out the band!  Great stuff. They played 85mins and no encore as it was already over time by nearly 30mins.   Excellent day of music.


Day 3

Rolf Van Meurs (Holland) was totally amazing and captivating. Wow..  He is a classical acoustic guitar player but does very unique cover versions of songs. This I did not know but wow. His set was amazing and included songs by Supertramp, Queen, Deep Purple (Child in Time), and 4 by Pink Floyd (Hey You, Shine on you Crazy Diamond, High Hopes?, and one more from the Wall. He was great.. Very original in the way he not only played the guitar part but bass and vocal parts as well. Clever. Awesome.. I spoke to him afterwards and he was so friendly. 


Siril Malmedal Hauge & Ketil Mulelid (Norway), are a duo from Norway and were totally different from the very traditional piano jazz of the first day. Siril, was a great singer in the singer-songwriter-pop vein but Ketil. he was from another planet! He played all those melodic parts that fit the vocal melody but added loads of interesting and complex notes in and around the melody in a very clever way.  Normally, I would have got very bored with just piano and pop oriented vocal. He also would reach into the piano like on the 3rd number, Craze, and made the piano sound like a stand up bass. He did it again in the middle of the piano on another song and it sounded like acoustic guitar, nearly..  Very clever player.  I was surprised…  They played a Randy Newman song, Molly Drake (Nick Drake´s mom) and one more but the rest where their own songs. 

Poil Ueda (France-Japan) is a very strange and interesting collaboration between traditional Japanese music, story telling and far out Prog (a bit Crimson like at times).  Sadly, the sound was just awful most just bass and drums, and a bit of her voice. We could hardly hear the guitar and keyboard at all. I had to go to the sound man 2x and it improved a lot after the 2nd time but still very poor job and ruined the show as you could not appreciate the unique chemistry and music at all. Sad..  Nothing more to say.. They should have ben the highlight of the day.


Pete Roth Trio (UK) is a new project featuring Bill Bruford on drums. I had not seen him play since the YES- Union tour so this was fun. He is so good. What a technique. As for the music, the players are all awesome and it was mixture of covers and originals.  It was pretty standard jazz guitar trio stuff with a few bass solos and drum solos and nice guitar work from Pete. He was also funny when he spoke to the audience. A very nice 65mins set with great sound. 

Richard Thompson (UK) was the closer but I was too tried to stay and see him after 3 late nights in a row. I hope that he was good.. 

Day 4

Rolf van Meurs was doing a set of classical guitar in the town church at 1630 but I decided to rest and only come for the two bands in the evening. It has been raining all day. I arrived about 1730. Met with Roy, he said that Rolf¨s set in the church was really good and all classical guitar. 

Zopp  (UK), what can I say, these guys were a class act and fantastic. One of my fave acts of the entire festival for sure. A bit of a pity we struggled to hear the guitar but the rest sounded great. Bass and drums still dominant though. They remind me of Camel, when they played more uptempo stuff. Very good band with drums, keys, guitar, bass, and sax.  There set was the same as the live CD except two new songs!

Set List (from the bass player): You, Before the Light, Uppmärksamhet, Endless Decrees, The Living Man, V, Toxcicity



Big Big Train (UK), were the main headliner for the festival and had their full show. They were very happy to be playing in Portugal for the first time and this was the last show of their tour. He also mentioned that last week they recorded a new album.  I was very impressed with the musicians in this band as everyone is a multi-instrumentalist and most played keyboards at some point and some string instrument. The lead singer, he played acoustic, electric guitar, keys and even drums!! Impressive, Musically, they had some really great pieces but others that are just too close to pop music to me with la la la singalongs, etc..  They are trying to bring complex proggy music to the mainstream and seem to be doing well but I am more of prog purists and hate pop or mainstream music, with the catchy singalongs and chorus.. Anyway, they played the Last King of England, which is one of the only songs I had heard by this band and I loved that. My normal seat was 5th row on the hard right but there were a lot of seats free in the middle so I moved over to the 4th row middle but had to leave there after 2nd or 3rd song as when the band got loud, you could not hear the guitar at all. Nothing.. so I moved to the back and the sound was much better. The bass player used these MOOG bass pedals and that was very intense low end that must mudded up the sound, very badly in the front, not so bad in the back.  Anyway. over all a great performance and they are amazing players and people enjoyed it a lot. 

This was an amazing music event. It was not a pure prog festival which I think is good. A lot of diverse and all amazing acts (except one). It runs great and sure some things could improve (lower drums for the rock bands), I was on the right side and the sound is not good on the sides in this venue. Drums, bass are too intense and vocals too low usually. Not for all bands, some bands sounded great (usually had their own sound people).  I spoke to some people next to me and they sit in the same place every year more or less here on the right side row 4-6 and normally all the bands sound great so something was very different with sound system or people this year. They were also very disappointed. If you can not make good sound on the sides, do not sell the tickets!!

A few comments, a shorter break for dinner so the shows end an hr earlier for those travelling and who are not night people. They could update the web site when tickets go on sale and not just 2 days before the festival when the show is already sold out!..  Look forward to next year!!

https://www.gaudela.net/gar/index-en.html  

Friday, April 4, 2025

Surya Kris Peters- There´s light in the Distance (Kozmik Artrifactz)

Kris is back with another fantastic album. It was released digitally in Jan 2025 but the vinyl is out at the end of April. It starts off with the moody track, Karmic Repeat,  driven by an intense bass synth and drum track. The track really gets going when the great lead guitar kicks in and off he goes.. What a great heavy riff on this one..  Crushing the Walls of Silence starts with a modular synth loop and then some guitar is played over the top before the drums kick in. This one goes thru several shorter movements in its evolution. Great riff. Life is just a Dream is a slower piece with some beautiful guitar playing.. The Darkness they Prefer is a haunting piece of music.  Embrace Your Enemy changes the mood a lot and is mostly synth based but then some killer guitar kicks in. Lovely feel on this one.  If he did not play so beautifully, I would say, leave the guitar out but damn… Mode Azul has a nice bass line that everything builds off of on this journey.  What a great hypnotic riff that comes in here and there inbetween the solo parts.  A Night In The Desert (and a long way from home) starts with a bit of a storm and then the main song fades up with another haunting moody guitar riff and the main groove and drums really starts to pick up as does the intensity. What a great melody and feel on this track. Red Satin & Pearls starts with synths and drums with a nice use of repeated synths (sound a bit like horns) and melodic guitar lines as it builds in energy and then dies out. Let's Wait Out The Storm closes this masterpiece..  Lovely way to end the album…  There is also a digital bonus track called Tough Love.  Some of this stuff could easily been the template for later day SBE material so if you are a fan of SBE, for sure check this awesome album out. What a great talent this man has…. 

https://electricmagic.bandcamp.com/album/theres-light-in-the-distance 

https://kozmik-shop.com/ 





Thursday, April 3, 2025

More Experience- Horizon of Events (Old Hippie)

This very cool hippie inspired group from Poland are back with another album of eastern inspired 60 psych influences.  The CD starts with Deep Cosmic Kisses. Sitar, tabla, positive lyrics and a nice vibe to get you started.. It ends with a slow spacey drone. Some really nice synth kick as well as organ as the journey progresses. Later a more intense guitar (backwards) to start and it slowly builds, and swirls in layers before we finally come to an end. Track 2 starts with some acoustic guitar, pad synth, some effected voices in the background a dreamy vibe. It  Wait a Minute is like a light piano jazz track with a laid back vocal but the twist of some sitar playing and odd sounds here and there. Later it builds up with a crazy lead synth and wicked wah guitar!  After this section there is a very trippy vocal section and some tablas start to come in and it becomes a bit more percussive.  A sort of vocal mantra! Later there are throat singing, strange field recordings to end it. Track 4 starts with some voices, mixed very low that slowly build up and the music begins. The band gets quite spaced out on this one after a bit of jazzy stuff, they disappear into another world for a while with vocoder vocals, and other stuff.. It is a very interesting and diverse album with long tracks that evolve a lot of the avg 10mins or so...  Cool album folks..

http://moreexperience.bandcamp.com 


http://facebook.com/more.experience.music 



I Spy- Toca da Raposa, Travanchina, PT March 29th, 2025

I Spy is a local rock band and lead by the charismatic, Andy Shades. He is a UK singer, songwriter who writes all the songs and leads this group. The core of Larry on Keys, Andy- Acoustic guitar, Sax, all vocals, and Gino on Bass has been set for some years and I usually see them at least 2x a year.  They are a fun band that mix high energy music with more laid back songs. A lot of political and ecological and other themes are sung about in his songs.  The band mix a bit of jamming as well especially when Andy grabs the sax.  Tonight they had a new lead guitar player (maybe the best they have had) and a drummer, that has played with Andy in the past. Usually it has been Rob.. 

Anyway, a lot of new songs that I had not heard were played this night. On this day they released the first studio material that has been recorded over the last 3 years in Andy´s studio.  See link below. 

I think all the 4 songs on the EP were played. It was a big crowd of about 80 people at Toca (it was opening of the new camping season) but only about 25 inside the bar where the band playing and really focused on the band. They were really good this night. I did not see the full set though.   A very good local band. Always good live.. Too political for some people but Andy was in a good mood and having fun and no sound problems to get him angry!!  Fun.. saw lots of friends..

https://andyshades.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-the-monsters-ep 


Monday, March 24, 2025

Astral Magic- Dance of Destiny (ASTRAL051, 2025)

This is album is going back to the early roots of Astral Magic with Santtu playing all the instruments (guitar, bass, synths, vocals, drum programming) except a MOOG solo on track 2!  The album features a nice intro piece before kicking into the heavy space rock of the title track.  One of the heavier riffs to appear on an AM record in a while. A slightly different singing style as well for Santtu. Great track. Distortion in Space Time is an instrumental over 8 mins and a nice space rocking track as well. Uptempo, melodic, more complex drums and then the master Hawkwind like riff and organ kicks in and fades out as you head off into another realm. We Plunge into Chaos slowly builds up after the opening solo. A nice laid back vocal on this mid paced melodic track, reminds me of Dark Sun, Santtu´s old band. Transmission Psi is a short synth interlude with some spoken words leading into another 8min epic, Slumber of the Ancient Ones. 

It is a slow one with a cautious vibe. It slowly builds and evolves with a lot of keyboard solos as it creates this hypnotic state as you eventually reach the end. Epic track..  Zep Tepi features some lyrics by Crystalinks and kicks the pace up a bit with a great bass line and groove. Love the synths on this one… Words are delivered as a spoken word in parts and then sung.  Last Days of a Time Cycle ends this record in a laid back manner.  Great job Santtu… 

http://astralmagic.bandcamp.com