ONE TO ZERO

A lot of anxious fans were waiting for this album in 2021. I was waiting for a few other ones by other artists and found myself quite disappointed. Definitely was familiar with Sylvan but had not collected their albums or paid a whole lot of attention to them in the past. This album was getting plenty of airplay early on the internet Progressive Rock radio stations and I really liked what I was hearing. To the point I ended up buying the album and listening to it a number of times.

Very modern and electronic sounding but I hear a lot of Jazz on this album which kept me even more interested. The violin and piano solo arrangements mixed in with the guitar and synthesizers somehow make this album not only compelling but a work of art. Also the vocals are amazing. The musicianship is really good and the consistency of this album makes it great for listening from beginning to end even if you could care less about the lyrics and themes which really didn't interest me at all.

While Go Viral probably got the most attention on Prog internet radio stations including my own at first it ended up being one of my least favorite tracks along with Start Your Life. And that's a great thing considering it's not a bad song it's just not justice to the rest of this album. Encoded at Heart probably got the second most amount of airplay, a beautiful song but still not the best track either.

Unleashed Power gets really interesting. Very slow moving but the Jazz piano and guitar with really good vocals and modern sounding elements really make this song unique. I could buy hundreds of Prog albums and not find anything much like this track on any of them. Trust in Yourself and On My Odyssey also got plenty of airplay(yes this album had airplay for sure on internet Prog radio) but these are the tracks that probably started my investigation of the whole album immediately. The violin really caught my attention on these 2 tracks especially the second one and what a performance. Part of Me and World's Apart. A couple more beautiful tracks that won't put you to sleep either and I really like both of them. Not a Goodbye is a really good way to close the album. Has some interesting twists and turns and probably the most unconventional track of all.

2021 was not my favorite year for Prog. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough. This was one of my very favorites. Also a surprise coming from a band I am not too much into making me re-examine this band and what I may have missed out on.