NOTP 2023 – Sunday, 16 July: MAD FELLAZ confirmed!

Mad Fellaz is an eclectic band, formed in 2011 by Paolo Busatto, guitarist and primary composer of the band in Bassano del Grappa, Italy. Initially inspired by the great artists of classic progressive-rock, the band has been able to renew itself with extreme versatility and creativity, both in instrumental and vocal music. The writing of Mad Fellaz is inspired by the great prog bands (King Crimson, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Yes), and more recently winking at the new great artists of the music industry, without any genre limitation (Opeth,
Snarky Puppy, Screaming Headless Torsos, Vulfpeck).

The band consists of 8 musicians, and includes members who have studied, worked and recorded with such names as Chick Corea Elektric Band, Dave Weckl, Peter Erskine, Gary Meek, John Etheridge (Soft Machine), Zucchero, Stan Sargeant, Andrea Innesto (Vasco Rossi), Fabio Trentini (Guano Apes, Le Orme), William Dotto (Le Orme, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso), Tolo Marton (Ian Paice), Michele Bon (Le Orme), Marco Iacampo, Erica Boschiero.

In over 10 years of activity, they have built a great reputation in the international progressive-rock environment and have released 4 studio albums so far. They have participated in some the most important Prog/Jazz Festivals in Italy and Europe, including ArtRock Festival (Reichenbach, DE), Ascona Jazz Festival (Ascona, CH), Porto Antico Prog Festival (Genoa, IT), 2Days Prog + 1 Festival (Veruno, IT), Progressivamente Free Fest (Rome, IT), sharing stages with the likes of Motorpsycho, RPWL, Procol Harum, The Watch, Lesoir. The stylistic evolution of the sound is evident, especially in the latest album Road to Planet Circus (February 2022, produced by Fabio Trentini), which marks a turning point for the band’s genre where elements of Jazz-rock, Fusion, Funk and Afrobeat now predominate, in compositions where each instrument is enhanced in its own timbral identity. The music of Mad Fellaz is a PROGression, a constantly evolving quest of new sounds that melts the boundaries between different musical styles and languages…
and confuses Spotify’s categories!

Band Line-Up
Paolo Busatto – guitar
Ruggero Burigo – guitar
Carlo Passuello – bass
Enrico Brunelli – keyboards
Rudy Zilio – flute/synth
Luca Brighi – vocals
Andrea Cecchetto – drums
Filippo Zonta – percussion

MAD FELLAZ Links
Website
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube Channel

MAD FELLAZ  will perform on Sunday, 16 July 2023 during our Night Of The Prog Festival!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in the WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to Sips Of Confidence and Jokepot.

NOTP 2023 – Sunday, 16 July: OAK confirmed!

OAK are a progressive rock band from Oslo, Norway. The band was founded ten years ago in 2013. The four members of Oak have a diverse background ranging from classical piano to electronica, prog- and hard-rock, with references to the alternative scene – a combination which makes the distinctive and unique Oak sound. The band’s debut album Lighthouse was released in 2013 on their own label, and was later reissued on Apollon Records in 2016.

In 2018 their second album False Memory Archive was released on Karisma Records, to much praise from both the prog and alternative rock communities. Oak has since played concerts in the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, Sweden and Germany. Of their performance at the prestigious Night Of The Prog Festival in Germany in July 2019, leading Norwegian publication Blezt commented, “Oak played with fervor, power and conviction, and seemed like they had never done anything other than play for thousands of people.”

Their third album, The Quiet Rebellion of Compromise was released on Karisma Records in November 2022. With three critically acclaimed albums, live performances at Night of the Prog Festival, support for Marillion and gigs across the world, Oak is now in the final stages of recording their fourth album.

Band Line-Up:
Simen Valldal Johannessen: Vocals, keys
Øystein Sootholtet: Bass, keys
Sigbjørn Reiakvam: Drums, programming
Stephan Hvinden: Guitars

OAK Links
Website
Facebook
Instagram

OAK  will perform on Sunday, 16 July 2023 during our Night Of The Prog Festival!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in the WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to Dreamless Sleep

ESTHESIS announce limited 180g 2LP of their new album

French prog band Esthesis have released their acclaimed new album Watching Worlds Collide last year. The band has now announced a limited edition 2LP, pressed on 180g vinyl, to be released later this year in August. Only 200 copies are available.

The standard versions of the album are available on the Bandcamp site of the band, where you can also pre-order the limited edition Vinyl.

Esthesis will perform at this year’s Night Of The Prog Festival on Sunday, 16 July 2023 and will of course play tracks from their new album live. Tickets for the festival are available here.

NOTP 2023 – Saturday, 15 July: FUCHS confirmed!

In the past ten years, FUCHS, the project of multi-instrumentalist Hans-Jürgen Fuchs from Stuttgart, has developed into a constant on the German prog rock scene.

It all started back in spring 2010, when Hans-Jürgen Fuchs, who had released four albums together with his wife Ines in the 1990s and early 2000s, composed a number of original songs for a concept album about the escape of his ancestors from Silesia to West Germany. “I’ve always been a storyteller and simply had to tell this one,” explains Fuchs his motivation to record Leaving Home, which arrived at the stores in 2012. Even then the typical trademarks of his compositions were unmistakable: “I like big dynamics and different atmospheres, from very quiet to very loud, from slow to fast. In addition, I love interesting chord movements because you can use them to create fantastic sonic patterns. As a Genesis fan, Tony Banks is the master of chords to me.” All that and much more also features on Fuchs’s two subsequent offerings, The Unity Of Two (2014) and Station Songs (2018). For the subsequent concerts, a live line-up with experienced musicians from Stuttgart’s music scene and Fuchs on keyboards was soon established.

At the beginning of February 2020, Hans-Jürgen Fuchs performed the concert together with these musicians at the school where he works as a music teacher and for which he has already composed a dozen musicals that have also been performed by other schools all over Germany. The group played two sets at the sold-out assembly hall: the first four songs on One Lively Decade are from the beginning of the show, while numbers 5 to 9 are from part two, among them the 13:37-minute Here In My Void, which plays a special role in Fuchs’s compositional oeuvre, not only because it was performed live for the very first time: “The song raises the question which roads lead to happiness and how we can create something that allows us to go to sleep at night with a feeling of contentedness,” says Fuchs, who allowed his co-musicians even more room than usual during the recording of this song. “‘Here In My Void’ has an unusual amount of instrumental passages which allow every one of my musicians to perform a solo. Plus there’s a piano and synthesizer parts which sound like they could have been recorded by Nils Frahm. This number combines everything I like about music, and that includes, among other things, the many possibilities that longer songs offer.”

So are such extensive compositions a harbinger of Fuchs’s future? “Quite possibly,” predicts the project’s mastermind, “after all my colleagues make it easier for me all the time to arrange my material in a simple yet complex way because they’re all such outstanding musicians who infuse the songs with their own personalities. I feel that’s something you can hear on One Lively Decade, plus that almost physical joy of playing that lends a wonderful vibrancy to our songs.” No doubt about it: this is something we want more of!

Their new album will be called Too Much, Too Many – and is due to be released in time for the Night Of The Prog on 14 July 2023.

Band Line-Up:
Hans-Jürgen Fuchs:
 akustische & elektrische Gitarren, Lapsteel, Keyboards, Gesang
Ines Fuchs: Keyboards, Gesang
Andy Bartzik: Gitarre
Florian Dittrich: Schlagzeug
Mike Köhler: Bass
Baggi Buchmann: Leadgesang
Michael Wasilewski: Leadgsang

FUCHS Links
Facebook
FUCHS bei Tempus Fugit

FUCHS will be the second band to perform on Saturday, 15 July 2023 during our Night Of The Prog Festival! The Line-Up for Saturday is now complete – three more bands to be conformed for Sunday soon!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in the WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to Even If The Salary Is Low

NOTP 2023 – Sunday, 16 July: PANZERBALLETT feat. VIRGIL DONATI confirmed!

The German jazz-metal quintet Panzerballett around guitarist, composer and arranger Jan Zehrfeld has gained a cult status in the prog/math/djent/tech-metal but also jazz-fusion scene worldwide.

The band’s original compositions and covers (“starkifications” [German: “Verkrassungen”], as they call it) of well-known pieces have become a distinctive trademark. The music is humorous, mathematically constructed and organically reconstructed. In an alternating bath of virtuoso force and casual airiness, complex riffs and jazzy improvisations are performed with breathtaking precision and joy of playing at the highest musical level, according to Zehrfeld’s motto “headbanging with brains”.

Virgil Donati‘s drumming has been a world leader for several decades, and his composing and orchestrating skills are also highly regarded. Always exploring the possibilities beyond the norm, he has broken through traditional genre boundaries as an introspective free spirit.
He has toured and recorded with Planet X, Steve Vai, Allan Holdsworth, Tony MacAlpine, Kiko Loureiro, Bunny Brunel, Scott Henderson and Steve Walsh, among others.

Panzerballett will present a mixture of still unheard material and Panzerballett “evergreens” alongside the current album Planet Z.

Some quotes about the band

“Panzerballett is the first band I’ve heard that really leads Music into the 21st Century!” – Randy Brecker

“Very well done. Normally, I don’t like people re-arranging my father’s music but this was a pleasant surprise.” – Dweezil Zappa

“What you are doing is truly innovative and refreshing, not to say ingenious.” – Mattias IA Eklundh, Freak Kitchen

“Hart Genossen von ABBA bis Zappa – My favourite record 2009.” – Bård Torstensen, Clawfinger

Band Line-Up:
Jan Zehrfeld
 [guitar, comp.]
Virgil Donati [drums, comp.]
Anton Davidyants [bass]
Florian Fennes [sax]
Joe Doblhofer [guitar]

Panzerballett Links
Official Website
Facebook
Instagram

Panzerballett will perform on Sunday, 16 July 2023 during the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in the WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to Alien Hip Hop 

NOTP 2023 – headlining on Sunday, 16 July: LEPROUS confirmed!

LEPROUS are a norwegian Progessive-Metal band that has been around for more than two decades.

The Norwegian mavericks have produced some of the deepest and most rewarding music imaginable, steadily evolving from their beginnings as exuberant prog metal explorers, to their current status as one of the most unique and fascinating bands in modern heavy music.

Opening their creative account with kaleidoscopic debut Tall Poppy Syndrome in 2009, Leprous have always exhibited a profound desire to make music that sounds like nothing else on Earth. Maturing via the critically acclaimed likes of The Congregation (2015) and Malina (2017), frontman Einar Solberg’s extraordinary songwriting talents have taken his band to new heights with each successive release. Similarly revered as a jaw-dropping and heart-stopping live band, Leprous have been enthusiastically embraced by a wide variety of music lovers, from diehard metalheads to old school prog fans and, in truth, anyone that demands a little bit more passion, power and elegance from their music.
In 2019, Leprous released Pitfalls; their sixth studio album and the most personal batch of songs that Solberg had ever written. Detailing the multi-instrumentalist’s battles with depression and anxiety, it was universally hailed as a career peak. With extensive touring plans spoiled by an unexpected global pandemic, the Norwegians were unable to conclude their plans for Pitfalls, but the good news is that time has not been wasted during the last year’s lockdown. Pieced together in three different studios, Leprous’ seventh full-length
album Aphelion is yet another monumental artistic achievement, and the most startling and dynamic record they have ever made.

Although unmistakably the work of the same band that made Pitfalls, Aphelion immediately stands out as a radical statement by this endlessly inventive band. Veering from some of the heaviest and most intense material of their career to some of the most delicate and heart-breaking music in the Leprous canon, Aphelion is an album of beautifully crafted and meticulously arranged mini-masterworks.

Due to the chaos caused by the Covid catastrophe, Aphelion was recorded in three different studios: Ghost Ward Studio in Stockholm, with long-time collaborator David Castillo at the controls, and Norwegian studios Ocean Sound Recordings and Cederberg Studios, the latter with desk-guru Christer Cederberg. And finally, just like with Pitfalls, Aphelion was mixed by Adam Noble (Placebo, Biffy Clyro, Nothing But Thieves, etc.) and then mastered by Robin Schmidt (The 1975, Placebo, The Gaslight Anthem, etc.).

But despite its seemingly chaotic creation, Aphelion is arguably the most fluid and cohesive album Leprous have made to date. Rich in sonic subtleties and organic warmth, it’s thrilling proof that a lot can be achieved, even in the most challenging of circumstances.

Armed with some of the most spellbinding music they’ve ever made, Leprous are keen to be at the front of the queue when live music becomes a fundamental part of our lives once again. In the meantime, Aphelion is a timely reminder that this band can touch hearts and soothe souls like no other.

Line-Up:
Einar Solberg – vocals/keys
Tor Oddmund Suhrke – guitars
Robin Ognedal – guitars
Simen Børven – bass
Baard Kolstad – drums

LEPROUS Links
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube

LEPROUS will be headlining the Night Of The Prog Festival on Sunday, 16 July 2023!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in the WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to A Nighttime Disguise

NOTP 2023 – Saturday, 15 July: VENUS PRINCIPLE confirmed!

VENUS PRINCIPLE were formed in autumn 2019 after several of its members decided to part ways with CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX. Still fully in love with dark, melodic art rock and psychedelic music, this group of close-knit friends was not content to just sit at home.
Stand in Your Light is their debut album and it is a work of love. Passion drips out of every note from the bitter-sweet honeycomb of solemn melodies that VENUS PRINCIPLE have created. Although this is the first record from the British-Swedish collective, these hymns for the burdened and broken come audibly with the profound maturity of hard earned experience from all the veteran musicians involved. Although classic rock lies at the heart of Stand in Your Light, VENUS PRINCIPLE add many ingredients of their own to the canonical elements.

Venus Principle – Photo: Jenny Ekholm

Foremost pain and darkness permeate each track, spawning a terrible beauty ruling in triumphant glory. Yet shadow cannot exist without light, which the British-Swedish musicians provide in delicate moments of hope, tenderness, and warmth. In these aspects of Stand in Your Light, the metal spirit of some of the protagonists on the album reveals itself and provides balm for the wound that the split has caused.

Band Line-Up:
Daniel Änghede
– vocals, guitars
Daisy Chapman – vocals, piano
Mark Furnevall – keyboards, guitars, backing vocals
Ben Wilsker – drums
Pontus Blom – bass

Venus Principle Links
Official Website
Bandcamp
Facebook
Instagram

VENUS PRINCIPLE will perform on Saturday, 15 July 2023 at the Night Of The Prog Festival!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in the WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to Rebel Drones



NOTP 2023 – Friday, 14 July: ABEL GANZ confirmed!

Abel Ganz is a Scottish band with a long history – with origins going back to the neo-progressive rock revival of early 1980s, influenced by 1970s prog rock bands like Genesis and Yes. After many personnel changes through this period [and losing their lead singer to fellow Scottish band Pallas] the band called it a day in early 1990s.
Several years later, the band reformed with a new line up including long-term drummer and producer Denis Smith. After the very successful comeback album Shooting Albatross the band again underwent changes when original founding members retired from the band.

At this stage in their career Abel Ganz decided a fresh approach was needed and they completely reinvented their sound to include elements of Scottish folk and Celtic influences. The resulting self-titled 2014 ABEL GANZ album was a great success for the band with many magazines & critics declaring it the band’s best album so far.

The Life of The Honey Bee, And Other Moments of Clarity was the eagerly and long-awaited new album from Scottish prog maestros Abel Ganz and came out in 2020. A concept album comprising of six thematically linked pieces exploring our relationship with memory and loss. The liminal space between a fading ‘what was’ and an anticipated ‘what is to come’.

The album recalls the hazy technicolour of long remembered summers and the sepia of a love forgotten. A place where we blur the boundaries of returning and renewal. The lyrics chart the course through recollection to premonition. These words are both deeply personal and universal, hope for what is next and a lament for what we have lost.
The new album has taken six years to realise and follows on from the self-titled 2014 opus Abel Ganz.
The influences on the new album continue in a similar vein – further developing their eclectic mix of folk, rock, metal and Celtic styles. The album’s trajectory shifts between crunching guitars, subtle acoustic instruments, strings, soaring Hammond and emotive grand piano all connected by lyrical storytelling and timeless vocals and harmonies.
Produced by Denis Smith, mixed by the legendary Simon Vinestock [Texas, Blur, Robert Plant, Simple Minds] and mastered by Jacob Holm-Lupo [White Willow / Opium Cartel] the album also includes a beautiful guest performance from multi-award-winning, former ‘Scots Singer of the Year’, and acclaimed solo artist Emily Smith.

The Live-Band:

Denis Smith: Drums
Stephen Donnelly: Bass Guitar
Dawid Zielinski: Guitars
Mick Mcfarlane: Vocals, Guitars
Alan Hearton: Keyboards

ABEL GANZ Links
Official Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Bandcamp

ABEL GANZ will perform on Friday, 14 July 2023 at the Night Of The Prog Festival! The line-up for Friday is now complete!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in the WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to One Small Soul from their most recent album:

NOTP 2023 – Saturday, 15 July: THE MUSICAL BOX performs GENESIS – confirmed!

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway – the worldwide final show!

Canadian Band THE MUSICAL BOX will return to Germany for the last ever performance of the legendary Genesis The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway show on the Loreley, headlining the Night Of The Prog Festival on Saturday.
THE MUSICAL BOX, founded in the early Nineties, are not a typical tribute act. They are specialists and recreate every detail of early Genesis shows. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway was the most ambitious early Genesis show and it was never filmed – so The Musical Box give Genesis fans (and other interested music fans) the ultimate chance to see this show.

BACK IN 1974
In May 1974, the Selling England By The Pound tour being over, Genesis approaches its most ambitious project: writing and recording a concept album.
Many ideas are proposed, including the story of The Little Prince. But finally, the band accepts Peter Gabriel’s proposal to write a contemporary story set in New York City, which he entitles The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
The band set up at Headley Grange in England to write the music. Genesis quickly realized that they had material not just for two, but three good sides, so they decided to produce a double album. Meanwhile, Peter writes the lyrics himself, with minimal help from his bandmates on just one or two songs.
The album is recorded in Wales in August 74 and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is finally released on November 22nd, 1974. Much work went into preparing the show and the entire new album would be performed live. The tour was scheduled to start in October in England, but eventually was postponed when Steve Hackett injures his hand.
The first concert is performed at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago on November 20th. After only five concerts, Peter Gabriel decides to leave the band at the end of the tour.
Even though the tour is a success, mainly in Europe, Genesis finds that the production is not stable enough to be recorded, so the show is never filmed.
After more than 100 Lamb shows [see complete list of tour dates here], Genesis performs its last concert with Peter Gabriel in May 1975 in France. In August 1975, the announcement of Peter Gabriel’s departure from Genesis was officially made.
It was the end of an era.

FROM DREAM TO REALITY
From the beginning of its project in 1993, it was obvious to The Musical Box that recreating The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour would be its greatest challenge. In July 2000, The Musical Box received a 1 year license from Genesis and Peter Gabriel to recreate The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway in Canada. Never before had any other band obtained these grand rights. To fulfill its mission of accurately recreating the original tour, The Musical Box assembles extensive documentation, mainly in the form of more than a 1,000 photos and slides. A few Super-8mm private movies give a better understanding of the choreographies and the general atmosphere of the show.
The Musical Box received (from Genesis) copies of the 1120 slides used in the original tour. More than a month is necessary to put them back in order and situate them in the songs. Finally, thanks to Genesis and to people who worked on the original tour, most of the remaining questions about the show were answered.
For the music and the sound, the same instruments and equipment Genesis used for the album were found. Access to Michael Rutherford’s original guitar and the acquisition of a rare Micro-Fret 6 string bass allowed an exact reproduction to be made. Masks, costumes, make-up, accessories, sets, lights, special effects, choreography and staging of the show are all recreated with meticulous precision. The ‘Slipperman’ alone required nearly 2 months of work, each detail being scrupulously reproduced by hand. To re-create the ‘Lamia’, many models were necessary, including a full size prototype.
The Musical Box’s first presentation of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was performed at the Spectrum in Montreal on October 11th, 2000 more than 25 years after the last performance of Genesis with Peter Gabriel.
In 2004, The Musical Box has been granted a 2 years world wide license to perform The Lamb and this time they toured North America and Europe with this show. Another license enabled them to present this show one last time. They are currently touring with The Lamb show and this tour was an is the last chance to see that spectacular and unique show live. After they concluded the European leg of their tour in Italy a few weeks ago, the last run of shows takes place in North America until June. But there will be one final show …

THE MUSICAL BOX will perform the full The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway show one last time – on the Loreley at the Night Of The Prog Festival. It will be their last ever performance of that show – worldwide!

What Phil Collins said in 2005 about the show:
“Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and Fans….
Well 30 years has whistled by and we find ourselves on a celebratory journey back to 1974 to rediscover that ancient work…. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. I remember it like it was yesterday, the writing sessions in the rat infested Headley Grange, near Guildford… Pete in one room with a grand piano with sheathes of blank paper waiting to be filled with lyrics, every now and then joining the rest of us as we thrashed through various jams and unfinished pieces of songs that were floating around. The incredible day we “wrote” what was to become The Waiting Room… then titled Evil Jam, improvising wildly through our dictionary of the nastiest noises we could find, and then, when suddenly our “mood” shifted so did the weather outside, from thunder and pouring rain to sunshine and rainbows….. I guess you had to be there, but it WAS very special!!!
The recording at a Farm in somewhere in Wales. Us set up in a barn, with the Island Mobile parked by the pig sty….. John Burns ever ready with a roll up!!! Having more material than the time to finish it, we ended up doing 24 hour sessions at Island Basing Street Studios, now Sarm West (home of Frankie goes to Hollywood the Band Aid single to name but several). Racing to finish tracks so we could get it all wrapped up in time to go to America and play the entire double album before a bewildered public, who had not heard a note of it as it hadn’t been released yet!!! Now that WAS interesting! It also leads me to why I’m writing this. The Lamb was never filmed for posterity. There are some very short patchy videos, very scratchy quality, taken by fans from an audience P.O.V…. but otherwise nothing to jog your memory, until now that is.
The Musical Box are a group of artists who have, over the years, painstakingly recreated various periods of the early Genesis years, with amazing accuracy and aplomb. In the early days, whenever we were invited to go to a bar to see a band playing some of our stuff, I was always amazed at how they actually played it BETTER than we did. Nowadays there are a few bands out there doing it, but right at the top of the pile are who you have come to see tonight…. The Musical Box.
I’ve heard of them for ages, but never gotten around to ACTUALLY see them. Having done so, I have to say it’s an eerie feeling because they have uncannily captured US BACK THEN in every way. Using the original back projection slides from our old show, they now have the advantage of technology unavailable to us back then. We probably only managed a handful of shows (at most) where everything worked as it should have done. Tonight, God willing, you’ll see the show as it should and could have been back then if the projector hadn’t caught fire, or if the operator hadn’t pressed the wrong button by mistake and fast forwarded the slides to the next song!!! Hey, this was the 70’s remember!!! Anyway I doff my hat to the lads and their crew…. they’ve picked up the baton and run with it, and it’s there for all to see. Enjoy it.”
Phil Collins (the singing drummer)

THE MUSICAL BOX Links
Official Website
Facebook
Fan reviews (German Genesis Fanclub website)

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in the WiV Ticket Shop!

NOTP 2023 – Friday, 14 July: ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN confirmed!

Anneke van Giersbergen performs Kate Bush!

When someone wrote on Twitter that Anneke van Giersbergen was the only person she could think of who could be trusted with Kate Bush’s music, it made the Dutch singer think that this might indeed be a fascinating challenge. Anneke had discovered Kate Bush as a teenager and spent countless hours listening to the Hounds of Love album. Her admiration for the enigmatic Bush had never faded, although Van Giersbergen—unlike her idol—craves performing live.

This Night Of The Prog show is the first time that Anneke will be paying homage to Kate Bush outside the Netherlands. Out of respect for Bush’s authenticity, she has reimagined the songs within her own sound universe, but for every Kate Bush fan, this is a unique opportunity to hear these songs live.

After thirteen years as the front woman for melancholic metallers, The Gathering, Anneke van Giersbergen struck out on her own in 2007. Since then, her creativity has known no bounds. Anneke quickly solidified a successful solo career, and has recorded and performed with Canadian metal genius Devin Townsend multiple times. She has also lent her serene yet powerful voice to the likes of: Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen, Icelandic folk group Árstíðir, Within Temptation, Amorphis, and prog legend John Wetton.

Anneke van Giersbergen sings Kate Bush

2012’s Everything is Changing was something of a milestone in Anneke’s solo career. The album, which was the first to be released under her own name, received two Edison Award nominations – Holland’s most prestigious music prize – in the categories ‘Best Female Artist’ and ‘Best Album’.

In 2015, Anneke van Giersbergen and Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) released their collaborative album The Diary under the name The Gentle Storm.

In October 2017, Anneke’s progressive metal outfit VUUR released their much-anticipated debut album. In This Moment We Are Free – Cities entered the Dutch Album Top 100 at number 2, Anneke’s highest-ever chart position.

Forever the unpredictable artist, in late 2018, Anneke released Symphonized, an 11-track live orchestral album. It was recorded at two career-spanning concerts alongside Residentie Orkest The Hague, and features rearrangements of songs from her entire back catalogue.

2019 saw Dutch music copyright organisation Buma Cultuur honor Anneke with the Buma ROCKS! Export Award. This is their award for the Most Successful Dutch Artist Abroad in Heavy Music.

In 2021, the release of her new solo album The Darkest Skies Are The Brightest saw Anneke surprise her fans all over again.

ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN Links:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN will perform with her band on Friday, 14 July 2023 at the Night Of The Prog Festival, presenting a special “Anneke performs Kate Bush” Show!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in the WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to Running Up That Hill (live):

NOTP 2023 – Friday, 14 July: TIME SHIFT ACCIDENT confirmed!

TIME SHIFT ACCIDENT are an instrumental quartet that bridges the gap between progressive rock and jazz/rock fusion. The band will open the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 on 14 July!

The band was formed at the end of 2013 by a couple of young musicians with a focus on jamming together, but over the following years the band attracted some very experienced musicians and gradually developed their own repertoire, naturally combining elements of Latin, metal and jazz alongside prog rock and fusion to create their own mix of styles.

In 2019, this development culminated in the recording of their debut album Chronosthesia and a European tour together with US prog rockers District 97. Only one week after the album’s release, the Nuremberg quartet already played a highly acclaimed gig at the legendary De Boerderij in Zoetermeer. The eight tracks of the debut were very well received by both the live audience and critics, features and interviews in magazines like Eclipsed and iO Pages followed.

The rhythm section has been the core of the band since the end of 2014: drummer Paul Ettl, meanwhile studied jazz drumming with a degree from the Musikhochschule Nuremberg, effortlessly combines groove, taste and crooked bars, while bassist Michael Schetter (Relocator, ex-Seven Steps to the Green Door) contributes driving and melodic bass lines and a large part of the compositions.

On guitar since the beginning of 2017 is Dave Mola (Effloresce), whose flair for melodies and funky fusion sound might surprise all those who previously associated him more with the heavier side of progressive metal.

Keyboardist Günter W. Schmuck joined the band at the beginning of 2019, but has already clearly shaped the sound of the band with his organ and synthesizer sounds, his improvisational talent and numerous compositional contributions. After studying jazz piano at the Munich Jazz School, Günter recorded albums with the Fred Drumski Trio and the SHS Trio and led, among others, his own jazz quartet, the salsa band Orquesta Mistica and the band of the “Flames of Gospel” choir Bamberg.

Chronosthesia, Time Shift Accident’s debut album, was released at the end of 2019 on Generation Prog Records: an exciting musical journey through the worlds of progressive rock and jazz fusion, full of melody and groove, crowned with memorable solos. The album is available on Bandcamp.

TIME SHIFT ACCIDENT Links:
Bandcamp
Facebook
Instagram

TIME SHIFT ACCIDENT will open the Night Of The Prog Festival on Friday 14 July 2023!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in the WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to Cold Case (live) here:

NOTP 2023 – Saturday, 15 July: WISHBONE ASH confirmed!

50th Anniversary „Argus“ Show!

The band was formed in London in 1969, during the seething birth of the progressive rock scene. WISHBONE ASH took advantage of this musical environment and produced a distinctive brand of melodic rock. This is how they became one of the most influential guitar bands ever. Inspired equally by traditional British folk, American jazz and R&B, the band won adoration from fans and critical acclaim in equal measure. Energy and melody have made “The ASH” a standout act that is currently being discovered by a new generation of loyal rock fans. Over the years, the band has experimented with various musical genres, from folk, blues and jazz to pedal-to-the-metal rock and electronica.

Founding member and lead singer Andy Powell joins Mark Abrahams on twin lead guitars. Bassist Bob Skeat, a band member for 25 years, sets the rhythm together with Joe Crabtree, one of the best British drummers of the younger generation.

SEASIDE FESTIVAL 2019, Spiez © BEN ZURBRIGGEN FOTOGRAFIE www.ben-zurbriggen.ch

At the beginning of 2020, the album Coat Of Arms was released – just in time for the band’s 50th anniversary – and the tour for it could still be completed before the pandemic. Among 12 tracks, the two outstanding rock anthems Stand As One (incl. music video, see below) and Back In The Day form the basis of the album, which was enthusiastically received by critics and fans. It was their 25th studio album!

With their album Argus, however, WISHBONE ASH made music history in 1972 and eventually created their biggest commercial and artistic success. From the iconic album design by Storm Thorgerson, to the outstanding reviews and fan reactions, to the influence this album had and has in the music world, Argus can combine all the components of a great classic in rock history. As part of the show at the Loreley, they will play this classic (among other tracks from their catalogue) in full length.

WISHBONE ASH Links:
Website
Facebook
Instagram

WISHBONE ASH will perform on Saturday, 15 July 2023 during this year’s Night Of The Prog Festival!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in our WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to Stand As One from 2020:

NOTP 2023 – Saturday, 15 July: AEDON confirmed!

Somewhere between alternative and progressive, Aëdon manage the perfect mix of energy, lightness and melancholy. Surprising chord changes, three-part vocals and varied songs characterise their music.
The band was founded in 2015, and their EP Leaves Turning Red was released a year later. The band name Aëdon means “nightingale” and goes back to the tragic story of the goddess Aedon from Greek mythology.
As an act of Peter Bursch’s EURO ROCK project, Aëdon have already played several concerts in France and Holland. In addition to numerous gigs throughout Germany, festivals such as Essen Original, Hardtbeat Festival, Vaccuumfest and Taumzeit Festival are among the highlights.

Aëdon

AEDON are:
Simon Gatzka (Lead Vocal, Guitars)
Maximilian Krüger (Guitars, Backing Vocals)
Stephan Nabbefeld (Drums)
Alexander Dachwitz (Bass, Backing Vocals)

A happy coincidence brought the band to the attention of Bertram Engel and Peter Keller.
Bertram Engel is a drummer, composer and producer. He has been drumming in Udo Lindenberg’s Panikorchester since the 70s and is a permanent member of the Peter Maffay Band. There he met guitarist Peter Keller, who also belongs to the permanent Maffay ensemble. Peter Keller is an Echo Award winner, composer and producer of Peter Maffay, Laith-Al-Deen, a-ha, Karat and other top acts. Gripped by the 2021 Gentle Rain, Bertram Engel and Peter Keller teamed up as producers for the first time and invited Aedon to Hamburg’s Chefrock studios. In just a few days, three existing songs were perfected – AEDON are ready to conquer the music world in 2023.

AEDON themselves about their music:
“Mood is important to us. We want to make music that you can let yourself fall into, that you sink into and that won’t let go of you for days”.

AEDON Links:
Website
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
TikTok

Now AEDON will open the festival day at the Night Of The Prog Festival on Saturday 15 July 2023! So welcome from Germany: AEDON!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in our WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to AEDON’s single Raise Your Voice

NOTP 2023 – Friday, 14 July: AGUSA confirmed!

AGUSA are a progressive rock band from Malmö, Sweden. Since the start in 2013, AGUSA has been an important name in the Swedish psychedelic prog scene, also on the international stage.
With influences from Nordic and Latin American folk music, as well as with deep roots in space rock, kraut rock and jazz, AGUSA also have a traditional foundation, but interpreting it in their very own way and with a strong identity of their own. The music takes you back to the 70s but also to something new and unexplored. A live experience you won’t forget, with meditative soft parts as well as epic ecstasies and with the occasional visit to the darkness of hard rock. The band’s instruments are flute, guitar, keyboard, bass and drums, and all five musicians are based in Malmö, Sweden.

AGUSA from Sweden

Mikael Ödesjö plays guitar, Jenny Puertas the flute, Simon Ström is on bass, Nicolás Difonis plays drums and Roman Andrén Keyboards.
AGUSA have released four studio albums so far and their fifth album is scheduled for June this year. AGUSA have performed in many places; throughout Scandinavia, Roadburn in Holland, in Poland and several times in Greece and Italy together with names such as Os Mutantes, Dungen and Anekdoten, just to name a few.

Now AGUSA will take the stage at the Night Of The Prog Festival on Friday, 14 July 2023. So please welcome from Sweden: AGUSA!

AGUSA Links:
Bandcamp site
YouTube Channel
Facebook
Instagram

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in our WiV Ticket Shop!

Listen to “Uppenbarelser” (Revelations) from their last studio album “En Annan Värld” (Another World) from 2021:

NOTP 2023: Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets confirmed (Headlining on Friday)

Nick Mason was a founding member of the legendary band Pink Floyd and launched Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets in 2018. The project consists of Nick Mason, Gary Kemp (Spandau Ballet), Guy Pratt (Pink Floyd Live Band), Lee Harris (The Blockheads) and Dom Beken. Together they played their first acclaimed live shows in 2018 at venues including Dingwalls London, The Half Moon in Putney and several shows elsewhere. Nick Mason and his band limit their track selection for the live set to the very early years of Pink Floyd. And doing so, they fulfilled a heart’s desire for many fans.

Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets have since been playing to enthusiastic audiences all over the world, such as at London’s Roundhouse, where Pink Floyd once performed their celebrated shows in the 1960s. They have also releases a Blu-ray with a recording of the Roundhouse show. In 2019, they were already headlining the Night Of The Prog and thrilled fans at the Loreley.

Saucerful Of Secrets live at Night Of The Prog 2019, Photo by G. Brenters

Now they are returning to Night Of The Prog and the Loreley and will further develop their repertoire in 2023. Songs from Pink Floyd’s early albums, up to the 1972 album Obscured by Clouds, will be part of the set and of course Echoes will also be played as part of the new “The Echoes Tour” set.

Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets will be headlining on Friday 14 July 2023!
It will be the only live appearance in Germany in 2023!

Tickets for Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in our WiV Ticket Shop!

Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets Links:
Official website
YouTube Channel
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

The Echoes Tour – Poster

Night Of The Prog: Warm-Up Party (13 July 2023)

To kick off this year’s NIGHT OF THE PROG Festival, there will once again be a warm-up show at the Loreley Weinstübchen on Thursday, 13 July 2023. Performances by two bands are planned. One of them will be the Peter Gabriel tribute band Diggin’ Gabriel. We will announce a second band in the next few weeks.
Tickets cost 30 EUR. For those who bought an Early Bird ticket at WiV, the ticket price is 25 EUR.
Reservations can be made directly via Email to WiV (info@wiventertainment.de). The reserved tickets will then be available at the box office and will also be paid for there.

More about Diggin’ Gabriel:
http://www.diggin-gabriel.com/

There is also a Facebook event page.

NOTP 2023 – Saturday, 15 July: FRANCK CARDUCCI confirmed!

After his great performance at the Night Of The Prog 2017, Franck Carducci now returns to the Loreley on 15 July 2023!

His first album Oddity was full of promises for the start of an epic journey but it is on stage where Franck starts to carve his signature–costumes, make-up, psychedelic atmospheres, humour and sensuality. Yes, you think of Genesis, of Alice Cooper and David Bowie, of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd too.
But eventually, you will no longer think of anybody else.

Following the release of the highly anticipated album Torn Apart, featuring special guest Steve Hackett (Genesis), the Tearing the Tour Apart hit the road in Europe and Franck reinforced his show as one of the most irresistible in the rock scene. 2017 saw the release of a live DVD/BluRay of that tour, which ended on stage of the Night of the Prog festival, where Franck and his band won the audience by storm.

Franck Carducci, as Master of Ceremonies, leads his Rock ‘n Roll Circus where each of his players embodies a side of his music.
Who can explain how a 12 string guitar extra neck would be added to a bass guitar, how a powerful guitar riff would go with a hot belly dance, or a Mellotron solo would end up in a duel with a didgeridoo?
Who can also explain how Achilles, guitar and sword in hand, would kidnap a sensual Alice from her Wonderland?
However, let them pick you up and take you in the palm of their hands – you won’t want to leave until the very last note of the concert.
Your senses will not be given a second of rest while these characters take you to a place where dreams are kings, emotions are queens and musical genres are crossed with no borders.

September 2017 was the start of On The Road to Nowhere, where the band won the “Best Overseas Band”-award from UK magazine Classic-Rock Society.
After the release of his 3rd opus The Answer in November 2019, Franck hit the road again in 2021/2022 with his “Fantastic Squad” for The Answer Tour with a highlight supporting Sting in front of 15,000 people.
Immerse yourself into the spectacle and let yourself go as you embark on a journey into a colourful, flamboyant and fun musical universe, which is open and accessible to all.

Franck Carducci and his band The Fantastic Squad will perform on the Loreley on Saturday, 15 July 2023.

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in our WiV Ticket Shop!

Franck Carducci Links:
Official website
YouTube Channel
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

NOTP 2023 – Friday, 14 July: ALEX HENRY FOSTER confirmed!

Alex Henry Foster, who attracted attention in Europe especially last year, is a Canadian singer and co-founder of the band Your Favorite Enemies, with whom he released four albums. The death of his father in 2016 marked a break in Foster’s life and he left the band.

Windows In The Sky, his first solo album, was released in 2018 and went straight into the Canadian Top 5. The album was made with the help of his old bandmates. Two years later, it was released worldwide, followed by the live album Standing Under Bright Lights in 2021, which was recorded for a CD/DVD release at a Montreal music festival.

For Foster, music has always been a refuge, a gateway to other worlds. His father’s Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath albums and his mother’s old rock’n’roll singles provided escape from the realities of growing up poor in Montreal. “That town does not treat poor people well,” he says. “I come from a difficult background, very blue collar. Music kept us together as a family. It was the most beautiful gift I could have received. My parents had nothing, and, in music, they gave me everything.”

Alex Henry Foster live (photo taken from his website)

His music unfolds a hypnotic effect, especially live – the tracks are sometimes improvised and extended to more than 20 minutes by the very well-rehearsed band. It seems as if there is a blind understanding among the band members, as if they are all very good friends with each other and as if they have already experienced a lot together. The audience is also integrated again and again and taken along by the charismatic frontman Foster. The tracks themselves often start quietly and increase into large, sometimes wall-of-sound thunderstorms of sound. Foster lets the listener share in his pain and despair and seems to process his past over and over again, almost like self-therapy. He grabs the audience with it because probably everyone has had to go through loss and grief in their own way. With this, Foster finds the connection and connects his audience to each other….
The intonation of Foster’s chanting sometimes reminds one of Anne Clark‘s great deeds of the 80s …

In Europe, Foster most recently performed as the opening act for the band The Pineapple Thief and impressed the audience there.

Alex Henry Foster and his band will perform on the Loreley on Friday, 14 July 2023.

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in our WiV Ticket Shop!

Alex Henry Foster Links:
Official website
YouTube Channel
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

NOTP 2023 – Sunday, 16 July: SOEN confirmed!

PLEASE WELCOME, on SUNDAY: SOEN!

SOEN is a multinational progressive rock supergroup, who started to release music in 2010. The original lineup consisted of former Opeth drummer Martin Lopez, Testament and Sadus bassist Steve Di Giorgio, Willowtree vocalist Joel Ekelof and guitaris Kim Platbarzdis. The first song “Fraccion” was released on the band’s official website in October 2010.
Funding member drummer Martin Lopez, describes Soen’s Music as “melodic, heavy and intricate”.
Soen have never shied away from exploration and analysis of self or society, both as musicians and expressionists. 2012’s “Cognitive” beat a firmly heavy, progressive metal path, before 2014’s “Tellurian” saw Soen star to to stride freely into their own power and unique visions. Their third offering, “Lykaia”, was a conceptual journey exploring earthier places. Soen’s fourth album “Lotus” came out in February 2019.
“Lotus” contains dissertations on modern society such as “Rival”, “Covenant” and “Martyrs” that are the fraught with poetic, finitely designed confusion and chaos.
Their latest album “Imperial” (2021) was mixed and mastered by Kane Churko, who has worked with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne and Bob Dylan. Eight crisp, sharp, and supremely constructed songs spanning frustration, reflection and hope, “Imperial” is the most fierce and dynamic release of Soen’s journey, which will engage the listener immediately and sustain long after this crazy time has passed, its rich details destined to make it a classic metal album of this era.

SOEN will perform at Night Of The Prog for the first time on Sunday, 16th July!

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in our WiV Ticket Shop!

SOEN Links:
Official website
YouTube Channel
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

NOTP 2023 – Sunday, 16 July: ESTHESIS confirmed!

ESTHESIS confirmed for Night Of The Prog 2023

Esthesis is a progressive rock band formed by Aurélien Goude (music, lyrics, keyboards, vocals, guitars, bass and other stuff). The current line up is composed of Aurélien Goude, Baptiste Desmares (lead guitar), Marc Anguill (bass) and Arnaud Nicolau (drums).

Esthesis music is characterized by many influences (british rock, film score, jazz, ambient, metal, electronic music…) and primarily based on emotion and ambiences. After a first sold out EP in 2019 (“Raising Hands”), Esthesis released their debut album in November 2020 (“The Awakening”). The album was received well and Esthesis won the Prog Magazine Reader’s Poll in December 2020 (“best unsigned band 2020”).

Their new album “Watching Worlds Collide” has been released in August 2022 on the independent label Misty Tones. 7 new songs, 7 encounters and stories between different worlds that intersect and collide, with varied atmospheres. From jazz to alternative rock, from electro to movie music, “Watching Worlds Collide” is radically different from “The Awakening” but just as cinematic and emotional.
The album is now available on Bandcamp in two CD editions and digital versions.

ESTHESIS will perform at Night Of The Prog for the first time on Sunday, 16th July

Tickets for the Night Of The Prog Festival 2023 are available in our WiV Ticket Shop!

ESTHESIS 2022

Watch “Place Your Bets” on YouTube:

LINKS:

Official Website
Bandcamp
ESTHESIS YouTube-Channel