FOR KING AND COUNTRY

A great album of classic throwback symphonic progressive rock. Cyan is a project of multi-instrumentalist -songwriter Robert Reed. He initially created Cyan back in the early '90's, primarily as a solo project, released a few albums, then went on to form the full-fledged progressive rock band Magenta (featuring strong influences of Genesis, Yes, Renaissance, Pink Floyd, and Mike Oldfield), to great success. However, this year, Rob convened an all-new version of Cyan, bringing in musicians such as guitarist Luke Maschin and Peter Jones (vocals) to record an all-new revised, re-imagined, and revitalized version of a previous Cyan solo album, For King and Country. The result is just wonderful, and although it is a revised version of a nearly 30-yr old album, it sounds fresh and vibrant, in the style of classic prog. In addition, this album is special to me because it introduced to me to the world of music created by Rob Reed, Magenta, and Peter Jones, as I had not listened to them previously, but after this album I immersed myself into Reed's other projects, mainly Magenta (8 albums 2001-2020) and other solo albums, which I now love wholeheartedly, as well as Peter Jones other work (Tiger Moth Tales), and these artists have been the best and most important musical discovery for me in 2021.