QUIDAM

Quidam's confident debut album, produced with a little help of guest musicians visiting from Collage, is a fine example of the more complex end of melodic neo-prog. Musically speaking, the band's style is reminiscent of the more complex sections of Pendragon's The Window of Life mingled with the more melodic moments from IQ's first two albums, with a pinch of Marillion and a dose of Camel to round things out. Emila Derkowska is an emotive and skilled vocalist who also adds interesting accents to the songs with cello and flute, and indeed the band also include their own dedicated flutist in the form of Ewa Smarzyñska, so the range of instruments on show is a bit wider than the typical neo-prog line-up - which perhaps explains why of all the bands playing in this particular style, Quidam stand head and shoulders above many.