Progressive pop is making something of a welcome revival. Alan Parsons prefers it as being a ‘better’ description of his music, pointing to the ways in which progressive rock integrates modern trends and influences whilst combining it with an ‘epic’ sound and orchestral layers. Steven Wilson likewise claims that his musical vision aims to create a ‘modern equivalent’ of the progressive pop of his youth, music which is approachable and accessible on the surface but which can engage people on deeper levels with intelligent lyrics, good production values and high levels of musicianship.
It is also the description quite deliberately used by Thomas Thielen and Dominik Hüttermann for their ‘progressive pop project’ Clouds Can…

Gérard Lesne has already given us some glorious music by largely forgotten composers such as Galuppi and Jommelli. Now he’s turned to Hasse, little-known in this year of his tercentenary but renowned in the 1700s for his operas and oratorios. A German-born composer of Italianate music, Hasse’s work exemplifies the stylistic transition from late Baroque through galant to early Viennese classicism. His 1742 sacred oratorio I pellegrini al sepolcro di Nostro Signore (The Pilgrims at the Tomb of Our Lord) is operatic in style, its succession of busy, inventive da capo arias impressively sung here by Lesne and his team, though Il Seminario Musicale’s strings can sound dry.

Durgha Esmael, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Durgha Esmael are: Jimi Mahardikka (guitar), Tommy Ard (bass), Dimas (drum), Rarya (cello), Nadya Hatta (keys).