Looking for a band with ancient sounds
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Recommendations/Featured albums
Forum Description: Make or seek recommendations and discuss specific prog albums
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=46374
Printed Date: April 03 2025 at 19:22
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Topic: Looking for a band with ancient sounds
Posted By: ProgArg
Subject: Looking for a band with ancient sounds
Date Posted: February 19 2008 at 12:49
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Hi I'm new here, but I'm not new in prog music. I need help guys, I'm looking for a progressive rock band that has a lot of rythm changes such as symphonic prog and has ancient sounds something like egyptian music or ancient greek music. I don't know if any band like that exists but I'm sure someone here knows something like that. Thank you |
Replies:
Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: February 19 2008 at 13:17
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I don`t know. Have you tried listening to any of Gentle Giant `s stuff ?
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Posted By: sean
Date Posted: February 19 2008 at 13:21
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a lot of Symphony X references ancient mythology, but more so in a lyrical sense than a musical one. To me at least Yes's music feels ancient and grand, especially on Close to the Edge, Relayer, and Tales from Topographic Oceans. if you want to go outside of progressive rock and you don't mind death metal, you could try Nile. They play egyptian themed death metal that has an ancient sound. |
Posted By: everyone
Date Posted: February 19 2008 at 13:22
| Try the New Percussion Group from Amsterdam. They play wooden drums that are tuned that are the same type drums that the ancient people from Africa played. Bill Bruford guests on one of their records. |
Posted By: Easy Money
Date Posted: February 19 2008 at 13:56
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The Vangelis album Heaven and Hell is based on ancient Greek music. ------------- Help the victims of the russian invasion: http://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=28523&PID=130446&title=various-ways-you-can-help-ukraine#130446 |
Posted By: johnobvious
Date Posted: February 19 2008 at 14:08
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When sean said Nile, I thought of Nil, a French band. Copied from their PA page: Their third effort, "Quarante Jours Sur Le Sinaï" ("Forty Days On The Sinai"), is a conceptual work dealing with Ancient Egypt and old gods....the music is a mesmerizing melange of Mellotron and organ laden dark prog enmeshed with flute, searing guitar runs, Chapman Stick, dreamy female vocals as well as dramatic commanding male vocals (all vocals are in French). A four star album for me but you better like long songs. Only two on the 62 minute effort. ------------- Biggles was in rehab last Saturday |
Posted By: Paper Champion
Date Posted: February 19 2008 at 14:28
| Not sure I can help you in searching for ancient greek music in prog, but maybe I'll like some folk-prog or eclectic prog bands? Djam Karet or Ritual, for instance, - both of them are great! |
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: February 19 2008 at 14:40
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Gryphon used a lot of ancient instruments, like krumhorn for example. But perhaps not as ancient as you wish. Embryo use instruments from all around the world, some of them pretty ancient too. Not prog, but also using instruments from all around the world, some of them probably pretty ancient too: Hadouk, a French trio consisting of Didier Malherbe on all kinds of wind instruments, Loy Ehrlich on keyboards and hajouj (a kind of African bass) and Steve Sheehan on all kinds of percussion instruments. -------------  BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: February 19 2008 at 15:17
I've got the Bruford one. I believe it's out of print.  ------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened... 
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everyone wrote:Posted By: DJPuffyLemon
Date Posted: February 19 2008 at 20:36
| Therion has some "ancient" sounds...especially on Theli, but they're not really prog. |
Posted By: everyone
Date Posted: February 20 2008 at 00:47
That is horrible for such a cool album. |
Posted By: ProgArg
Date Posted: February 20 2008 at 06:59
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Thanks all I'll try "Quarante Jours Sur Le Sinaï" by Nil I'll try other ones too, so please go on with the recommendations. |
Posted By: laplace
Date Posted: February 20 2008 at 09:11
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The new MCHH - or Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horses if you like to be formal - EP includes a track called Manticore which begins with a very medieval sounding section, replete with tight drums and peculiar wind and string instruments. Sadly for you, the music still grows into an avant-chamber-post-rock-ified thing eventually...
------------- FREEDOM OF SPEECH GO TO HELL |
Posted By: emdiar
Date Posted: February 20 2008 at 10:19
After Gryphon, check out Circulus. ("Taking retro to it's logical conclusion": Howard Moon, the Mighty Boosh.)
Hadouk are great, but they only seem to gig in France, which is a great shame. I saw them in Amsterdam once, but that was a very special occasion. ------------- Perception is truth, ergo opinion is fact. |
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: February 20 2008 at 12:56
Hadouk played at the Berlin jazz festival in 2007. ------------- BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: aapatsos
Date Posted: February 20 2008 at 13:52
Good point about Therion, they indeed involve some 'ancient Egyptian and Babylonian' sounds. Probably not really prog, but some quite good sounds. Nile, as Dean mentioned, are in the same group of bands, regarding their sound. |
Posted By: Norbert
Date Posted: February 21 2008 at 05:28
| Maybe 666 by Aphrodite's Child, I don't know whether it's "ancient " enough. |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: February 21 2008 at 11:45
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Yes "Tales from Topographic Oceans", it even has a song called "The Ancient"!
But i don't know if it's really what you're looking for. Nevertheless, a fantastic album!
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Posted By: Firdous e Bareen
Date Posted: February 22 2008 at 00:49
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Orphaned Land are an awsome progressive/experimental metal band from Israel who use a lot of traditional instruments in their music. They're included on this site, and there's a free mp3 stream. http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2019 - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2019 Post metal band Neurosis also have a very ancient sound, and In the Absence of Truth by Isis does too (at least for me). ------------- 
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: February 22 2008 at 02:48
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My recommendations for NIL - Quarante jours sur le Sinai also. It fits greatly to your specifications: there certainly is a lot of rythm changes and very complex stuff like several overlayed simultaneous themes. It has ancient egyptian sound as well, or more like ancient atmosphere. This album is easily one of the greatest records ever released IMHO. But beware, it may take time to get into. As Vangelis is mentioned here, I really don't see much of ancient greece on Heaven & Hell, but do purchase Vangelis & Irene Papas albums Odes & Rapsodies, they are really deeply OLD! They may not be truly progressive, but they're brilliant stuff anyhow. And then there is Seven Reich! That's made for you! Their albums Strinkadenn' Ys and Samsara are brilliant symphonic stuff in very traditional celtic and arabic influences! Even the arabic language Kabyle is used as well as a huge pile of traditional instruments. You should really check these out! Also I recommend you the Spanish orchestras Triana and Mezquita and their first albums that I believe you would like. And then there is of course the Rajaz of Camel. A very arabic symph album, mellow and smooth, an easy piece so there's not much of a complexity, but a very strong egyptian feeling. |
Posted By: BaldJean
Date Posted: February 22 2008 at 03:20
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how about "Xitintoday" by Nik Turner's Sphynx (most likely to be found under Nik Turner in record shops). an album that was recorded inside the Great Pyramid. a lot of flute and percussion instruments mix with synth, glissando guitar and vocoder to form a unique atmosphere which certainly will take you back in time
-------------  A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta |
Posted By: Philéas
Date Posted: February 22 2008 at 10:51
| Problem is, there is little if any knowledge of how music sounded in ancient Greece, not to mention ancient Egypt. We know what kind of instruments they used but not what they played with them, so really "ancient" could be any sort of folky acoustic sounds really... |
Posted By: ProgArg
Date Posted: February 22 2008 at 13:38
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Good point, but egyptian folk and greek folk has this ancient sounds, so I'm looking a band with that. I listened some Kobai's recommendations, they are great man! I'll give Nik Turner's album a try. Thank you all. |
Posted By: Speesh
Date Posted: February 22 2008 at 15:55
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You need to try out Grails, a criminally ignored band here. Very subtle and very ancient sounding. I'd suggest you try out their latest "Burning off Impurities", but everything I've heard so far is great. Edit: On second thought they're not always that similar to the symphonic structures you mention, though I still think you should check them out. They're definitely progressive and I think they're just the sound you're looking for. |
Posted By: A B Negative
Date Posted: February 24 2008 at 16:45
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I recently heard Third Ear Band's 1969 album Alchemy. Although it doesn't have the rhythm changes you're interested in, it has a sparse, ancient sound.
------------- "The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar.... Now, that's my idea of a good time." |
Posted By: ghost_of_morphy
Date Posted: February 24 2008 at 17:07
| Gryphon (as has been mentioned) is fairly true to medieval sounds. (esp. the first two albums.) A good, but more obscure, album with a lot of classical nods is the New Trolls -- Concerto Grosso. Wakeman's early albums are full of classical nods. The point that the was made above that we know little about what ancient Greek music sounded like and next to nothing about ancient Egyptian music has a lot of truth to it. |
Posted By: AustinPrince14
Date Posted: February 25 2008 at 20:30
Hey, 1972 sounds ancient enough to me. Hahaha! Anyone? Anyone? No? Moving on... But seriously, 666 is a very good blend of psychedelia and folk Greek music, but I would agree with Norbert in saying that it isn't too "ancient-y" sounding. ------------- Give him an internet applause by tapping your fingers lightly on the keyboard. -Ninja Pirate Thilo Savage |
Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: February 26 2008 at 06:59
I would support you here - obviously no recordings and nothing written down until the late medieval period, so nobody knows what ancient Egyptian or Greek music sounded like. Instead, we have recordings of what may have been like (or not) music played on instruments (famously somebody played/recorded a trumpet found in the tomb of Tutankamum in the 30's) or copies of instruments of the period, guessed by historical musicologists. Instead you can have music that is derived from modern Greek, or Egyptian Arabic forms of music .
Arabic:
check out
Plant/Page Unplugged aka No Quarter.
Jonas Hellborg: Aram Of Two Rivers
Eastern European
Arto Tunçboyaciyan work, e.g. The Armenian Navy Band
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldmusic/a4wm2006/a4wm_armenia.shtml - http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldmusic/a4wm2006/a4wm_armenia.shtml
Gunesh
Nicholas Maier
And for "Ancient" try East Of Eden late 60's recordings e.g. SNAFU ------------- The best eclectic music on the Web,8-11pm BST/GMT THURS. CLICK ON: http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php - http://www.lborosu.org.uk/media/lcr/live.php Host by PA's Dick Heath. |
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: February 26 2008 at 07:10
I remember there was an April Fool's joke in a German archeology mag on TV some 20 years ago, about an ancient Egyptian potter who, while creating a pot of his, had been singing a song, and the sound of it was transmitted via his fingernails to the rills on top of the pot he was forming, so that by running the needle of a record player through these rills the sound of his voice was reproduced  . Would have been nice if true, but only a hoax.------------- BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: A B Negative
Date Posted: February 26 2008 at 08:36
They did something similar on CSI but Mythbusters tried it and proved it wouldn't work. ------------- "The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar.... Now, that's my idea of a good time." |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: February 28 2008 at 12:05
Yes they are  Here's one more: Amarok from Spain. There's arabic influences but some others too. You may like it. Try for example their newest one first. Some funny suggestions here |
Posted By: jplanet
Date Posted: February 28 2008 at 15:36
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Peter Gabriel's Last Temptation of Christ certainly uses ancient instruments and melodies...He tends to weave that sort of flavor in with modern elements in his other recordings as well...
------------- https://www.facebook.com/ShadowCircus/" rel="nofollow - ..::welcome to the shadow circus::.. |
Posted By: Dominic
Date Posted: February 28 2008 at 17:45
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Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: March 02 2008 at 15:53
You might want to check out a band called Bayon. Their first album came out in 1971 and the membership includes musicians of Eastern European, Cuban and Southeast Asian descent. Hence, they made music that incorporated modern rock instruments as well as facets of the players' respective (musical) cultures. Very progressive for the time, IMO. I only heard the first album years ago. ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |