ACCELERATION THEORY, PART ONE - ALIENA

Dave KERZNER, a man I discovered in 2014 with "Stranded" and who worked on SOUND OF CONTACT and under his own name, is releasing an opus at the beginning of the year in the continuity of his performances, IN CONTINUUM! This album has everything to please the "guest stars" by sailing on bands such as STEVE ROTHERY BAND, STEVEN WILSON, THE ARISTOCRATS, PORCUPINE TREE, SPOCK'S BEARD, YES, MARILLION, THE DEAD DEADS, STEVE HACKETT in other! In terms of its reference, one can walk on the PINK FLOYD period "The Wall", on the ALAN PARSONS PROJECT (announcing a new opus of the latter?), on THE KING CRIMSON of the period "Red", on GENESIS of the period "Duke" to "And Then There Were Three"; we are also there on the atmosphere of AYREON for galactic sounds and history ... This romantico-galactic concept is set in 2074 and tells the story of a (charming) alien who came to Earth to prevent a potential attack on humans by his people... humans, remotely controlled without their knowledge of their own free will since the beginning of the 20th century by the same aliens who provided them with the means to develop their technology to move to an advanced stage of evolution, have of course not waited for them to begin their own self-destruction through, among other things, a well-felt nuclear war. We will leave it to you to read all the details in the album booklet. In short, don't hesitate to snorkel on this long sidereal journey! At the pure atmosphere level, I was able to find the sublime voice of Gabriel Agudo and Jon Davison as well as that of Leticia Wolf fluid, crystalline, taking me a little towards YES and the GENESIS of Ray Wilson; otherwise, the symphonic parts with violin and cello bring an even more airy and graceful sound, not just symphonic; As for the different guitar parts, the flights of Hackett, Rothery and Wesley highly complement those of Randy McStine for solos often dantesque, dreamlike, demonstrative and enjoyable. The sound of IN CONTINUUM becomes more than a melting pot of great artists, more than a mega-group of musicians aware of their art, this sound reaches my ears as the quintessence, brewing and filtering of a generous PROG era. The different songs go from real haunting melodies to purely prog tracks, and to others almost epic metal, in short and before moving on to the deepening of the album, you will have understood that you have here one of the very good albums of 2019, if we go is due to the release date of January 1st! Let's move on to the titles, just to dissect the beast a little: "Acceleration Theory" and his intro to the "Time" of PINK FLOYD just to put in the bath, classical instruments for a lyrical crescendo climb of the most beautiful effect, a solo to the "Duke" genesis, it's the sceneist! This is followed by "Crash Landing" for a hit with a sound at the ALAN PP for melodic synths and a bass reminiscent of the "Dogs of War" of PINK FLOYD again and his solo sire HACKETT with its variation of notes! "I Remember" based on the warm voice of Gabriel Agudo in a register of that of Ted Leonard of ENCHANT gives an FM title with this time cascading notes of a certain Steve Rothery, whom I was able to greet last year and his hand and his performance at a French festival Ais! "Two Moons" goes on a very "Nigerian" HUM BLOOD with an air that Tony Banks would not have denied, it's like "Burning Rope". "Scavengers" and "Be the Light" take us on TOTO with always this rocky voice, it's almost dancing, it's energetic, it's nagging but on the bright side, it's intoxicating! From the piano, a ubiquitous drums for the first track, The magic guitar of Rothery on the ballad of the album.

Let's continue the second part of the album with "Hands in Time", future cult prog piece: a pinch of "The Wall" for the voices, an intro SF, then from the 2'30'' of the riff and a jazzy outburst with integrated trumpet, plus a bit of KING CRIMSON period "Red" and a little s John Wesley's olo give this piece an incredible space-metal rhythm of talent: just, listen! Immediately after, we arrive at the last piece itself pre-cut in 5 movements: "Racing... and her delicious piano intro and voice all accompanied by cellos and other violins, we leave with "Aliena" on the album's hit, a heady female voice by Leticia Wolf, a cascade of crystalline notes and an ARIA to the IN CONTINUUM! "Meant To Be" and "Man Unkind" will take us even further into the prog galactic sphere by bringing piano, violin, voice, guitars and successive rhythms to the firmament; at times, for the oldest dinos-fans- progueux, we will be entitled to vintage sound SOLSTICE as on "New Life"! Finally or already, the last track "Banished" will bring us back to earth with a last solo of John Wesley at the baritone! In short, two titles that must be listened to and that give IN CONTINUUM its credential