Welcome to Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week. Five brand new and diverse slices of progressive music for you to enjoy.
A massive well done to UK prog duo Storm Deva, who "stormed" (sorry, we just couldn't resist!) to the front of last week's TOTW with Free, holding off strong competition from both Tim Bowness and Al Di Meloa. A splendid result for grass roots progressive music!
The premise for Tracks Of The Week is simple - we've collated a batch of new releases by bands falling under the progressive umbrella, and collated them together in one post for you - makes it so much easier than having to dip in and out of various individual posts, doesn't it?
The premise for Tracks Of The Week is simple - we've collated a batch of new releases by bands falling under the progressive umbrella, and collated them together in one post for you - makes it so much easier than having to dip in and out of various individual posts, doesn't it?
The idea is to watch the videos (or listen if it's a stream), enjoy (or not) and also to vote for your favourite in the voting form at the bottom of this post. Couldn't be easier could it?
We'll be bringing you Tracks Of The Week, as the title implies, each week. Next week we'll update you with this week's winner, and present a host of new prog music for you to enjoy.
If you're a band and you want to be featured in Prog's Tracks Of The Week, send your video (as a YouTube link) or track embed, band photo and biog to us here.
MARJANA SEMKINA - SWAN SONG
Iamthemorning singer Marjana Semkina is up to her usual tricks on her new single Swan Song, wrapping themes of death in sweetly seductive melodies in her unique and disarming way. It's the third track to be taken from Semkina's upcoming second solo album Sirin, which she releases on May 31. Impressively Semkina raised the entire total of £50,000 from her Kickstarter for Sirin in just one day! We're lucky enough to have heard the album, and we can tell you, it's more than worth it.
"Swan Song is a meditation on death, a memento mori if you will" Semkina explains. "It’s all about remembering that everything is going to end one day, good things and bad, and accepting it with a light heart and a clear head. Making peace with leaving things behind and moving on to wherever we go next, even if it’s nothingness."
HEILUNG - TRAUST
Pagan prog/folk collective Heilung give fans a look at their unique and awe-inspiring live shows with this live rendition of Traust, which is taken from the band's upcoming live album Lifa Iotungard (Live At Red Rocks 2021), which is released on August 9 through Season Of Mist. Recorded at Colorado's famous Red Rocks venue back in 2021, the video and the track are a visual and aural sensation, we're sure you agree.
“Our ancestral Nordic civilizations did not just pop up, exist and disappear in isolation”, says Faust, a throat singer and one of Heilung’s three composers. “With singing these primordial songs we want to give tribute to these cultures, reconnect to the beginnings and remember that we all, from East to West, from past to present, are connected through the exchange of ideas and inspiring each other”.
GLASS ISLAND - STAY UNDER COVER
Glass Island is a Polish melodic progressive rock project set up in 2020 and led by songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and singer Wojciech Pielużek. The band’s music merges a variety of styles, from electronic, heavy guitar riffs and proggy epicness. Thus far they have released three albums; their self-titled debut in 2021, The Damage Report (20220 and Lost Media (2024), from which comes Stay Under Cover. Pielużek is assisted by co-roducer/engineer and keyboard player Krzysztof “Alvaro” Witos, a member of the electro/goth band Digital Angel for over a decade, while his new band Na Skrzydłach plans to put out its debut album later this year.
"Between 2003 and 2006, I fronted the band Lavender, who performed alongside such acts as Riverside, RPWL and Quidam," explains Pielużek of his history. "Despite recording several demos the group never released a proper record. More recently, I've worked with the project Strange Moments (a collaboration with singer Joanna Łukaszuk), whose self-titled debut album was released in 2022, and the band Moon Station (alongside singer Marcin Łukczak and drummer Daniel Sałaciński), whose first EP Flyer came out in 2023."
FATE'S HOLLOW - END OF SUMMER
So Manchester quartet Fate's Hollow's name suggests they might be a heavy metal band, while they look like a US indie act, but there's definitely something of a Coheed And Cambria video to their debut single, End Of Summer, we think you'll find. The band describe themselves as a prog/alt band, and they should know. Upping their prog credentials, the band's forthcoming debut album The Heir Apparition Part I - Broken Crowns is a concept album!
"The music of Fate's Hollow is a conceptual anthology of songs each telling a fictional story, with each album/EP to be based around a specific setting," the band explain. "The band came together over a shared love of early 2000s alternative rock, which along with some more progressive influences colour the sound of the music.
"The End Of Summer acts as a prologue to the entire Fate's Hollow storyline, working as a framing device for future releases. Fate's Hollow is a fictional town in a post-human United States. Each night a menagerie of unusual creatures gathers at dusk to listen to a mysterious antlered bird tell them stories of strange worlds and events that he claims to have witnessed."
SOMEWHERE - BRIDGES
Bridges is the very first single from new Swedish prog outfit Somewhere, an enjoyable mix of classic prog rock sounds. The band were formed by singer John Thelin and guitarist Fredrik Cerha who both bonded over a love of 70s prog, especially Yes and Genesis. They're joined by Paul Näsström (drums, backup vocals), Johan Nyberg (bass) and Fredrik Lundberg (keyboards). Bridges is taken from Somewhere's debut album, which will be released later this year.
“Bridges is the first song we ever wrote,” remembers Cerha, songwriter, and producer of the track. “We had had quite a few jam sessions and I felt that the material from them would have to be arranged somehow, or it would end up in a drawer…
"So I wrote the four instrumental parts in the middle, from where the vocals take a long break until they come back after a few minutes. I gave the composition a silly title that co-founder and then John vetoed (Thank God!). So I said ”Let’s call it Bridges!”, thinking of those four instrumental parts without which the jam sessions would not fit together. The stuff I wrote to complete the song were after all bridges. At the next rehearsal, John had written some smart lyrics on the theme of compassion and identification. Those are also bridges but between people. There is a lot in the song!”
