CD

D Sound is the moniker for multi-instrumentalist Zsolt Dezsö Murguly from Hungary, the man behind this project. He is the composer, singer, guitarist, bassist and keyboardist on the CD Kisember. He got some help from Csaba Varga (keyboards), Ádám Földes (drums) and singer Liza Vargáné Papp on Without Worlds. Mr. Murguly was able to produce an album well-worth listening to, and more important, well up to our western standards as far as sound quality is concerned.

What if the new revelation of the progressive heavy metal was French? This is how the accompanying information by the Musea-label opens while introducing Cymoryl. They hail from Marseille and their debut is called Strange Evocation. They began as a cover band, back in 1996, with a musical range from Jimi Hendrix and Iron Maiden to... Yes. It's also stated that Dream Theater (DT) has been a major influence to create their 'own' sound.

Guitarist Rusty Cooley is mainly an autodidact. In 1996 he laid his hands on a seven-string guitar and he hasn't been playing anything else since then. He’s a guitar teacher nowadays and meanwhile he composes his music not only for solo stuff, but also for his band called Outworld. His debut album features ten instrumental tracks, two of them being added as bonustracks with the vocals by Outworld-singer Kelly Carpenter, whose voice belongs to the same category as those of Marc Boals or Michael Vescera.

Little is known about Climate Of Earth, a Japanese duo consisting of Taro Matsuda (keyboards, programming, logdrum, vox) and Sanjin Syugetsu (rhythm programming). Their music however, sounds somewhat familiar: I hear traces of the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), but also influences of Casiopea can be found, but the rhythmic component is more prominent. I guess that this music was conceived for discos and thus not particularly interesting for fans of progressive electronic music.

Ripples In Time contains progressive metal from the Danish band Chrome Shift. It's the debut album from founders Otto Schütt (guitars) and Jens Christian Nielsen (bass) together with Rasmus Bak (vocals), Jakob Paulsen (keyboards) and Poul Terkildsen (drums). As we all know Dream Theater (DT) is one of the bands that had a huge impact on the prog metal scene. In the accompanying flyer with this promo again DT is mentioned as one of the main influences, but also Pain Of Salvation and King's X are named.

Dolores Castro is a quite handsome keyboardist from Spain making electronic music in the vein of ambient and chill out music. She now delivers her debut album through a branch of the French Musea Records label. Fifth Dimension contains eleven tracks, fully instrumental, and composed and played by Castro. She seems to be inspired by the great masters like Vangelis. She adds nice grooves, a bit of a danceable beats alternated by relaxing, catchy piano and synth melodies.

A Rondo is the second album by the Brazilian band Calix. The line-up consists of Renato Savassi (vocals, flute, violin), Sanzio Brandao (guitars, violin), André Goday (drums, percussion, vocals), Marcelo Cioglia (bass, vocals) and Bufino Silvéro (keyboards, vocals). Some tracks are orchestrated by a chamber orchestra. Their music isn't easy to describe, because of the use of the native language - only one track is sung in English - but also because the musical style differs from song to song.

Jack Bruce is one of the most renowned bass players from the United Kingdom. He's famous for his work with Cream, his solo projects and numerous collaborations with top-notch musicians. He's still making records and doing live performances. His remarkable voice is recognized instantly. Originally he played cello, amongst others, but he developed into a multi-instrumentalist although his bass playing remains his trademark. The album Automatic was originally released as an LP in Germany (1983) and later on in the UK (1987).

Mirek Gil, one of the member founders of the Polish renowned prog outfit Collage, started Believe as a solo project.

The American trio Backyard  Tire Fire, consisting of Ed Anderson (vocals, piano, guitars, harmonica), his brother Matt Anderson (bass, vocals) and Tim Kramp (drums), has released their second album on the independent Originality Is Everything-label (O.I.E). Their music sounds nice but can not be categorized as symphonic prog or progressive rock. The slide guitars, harmonica and the pedal steel guitars provide the sound an overall country rock feel.