US band Yeti, from 2000's Things to Come plus 2nd release (2004's Volume, Obliteration, Transcendence), limited time only

From discogs:

US avant-rock band in the Zeuhl tradition, that is modelled on the music of Magma, adding copious amounts of contemporary classical references and angular rock dissonance in the vein of King Crimson and Univers Zero.

The band's creative thrust was cut when kingpin Doug Ferguson died, but the rest of the band kept on recording a second album, adopting a more stoner/metal approach.

Probably people are familiar with this band, which I thought only released the one album back in 2001. And it definitely did sound like a US version of Magma with the crazy angular riffs and from outer space vibe, like the Xalph I posted here once. Or you could say the Bozon Cold Fusion find is like this, but a little bit more toned down and less insane.

But as it says above keyboardist Doug Ferguson (who was a member of Vas Deference O.) sadly passed away in that same year, and the remaining members recorded another album in 2004 which is slightly more guitar based but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's stoner metal. There are a bunch of live recordings that most have never heard which I'll also post subsequently. They play long meandering and space rock type material which you can hear here on youtube.

In addition I'll post flacs limited time only as usual, though the limit is extended now with the new site we are using.

From the second album the first track is posted here.

Pepe Maina 3, Birds of Passage from 2006

 

Here's a really remarkable one, that just blew me away. Definitely the best one since his seventies work which is why I put this one separately.  I would go so far as to say it's almost better than the first 2 because of its intensity and cohesion and the quality of the original compositions. Quite impressive-- considering this is some 30 years after the style of music was in fashion, culturally.

Information here, note the lovely album cover, an outlier for the artwork too considering the times of release.

Coloured Noises, posted on youtube here, starts the album off with the usual themes and sounds of composed orchestral type passages on acoustic instruments plus keyboards, eg synthesizers with overlying flute melodies, extremely professionally played and also recorded in a crystal clear fashion.

Birds Against the Sky, posted here, features all the hallmarks of his style particularly the gentleness and flowing sound that never become boring through the different musical variations he runs through.

Even the lovely old mellotron makes an appearance, for ex. on the track called Rainbow.

Too bad about internet archive, presumably in trouble for copyright stuff.

It was too good to last long, I guess.

Pepe Maina, Part 2 [Snow, Winter Sea, Res Obscura, Koan]

 

More of the same... Consistently good and enjoyable music throughout all these releases, all very well composed and played.

From Snow, the Illusion of Silence:

youtubed here

From Winter Sea, Fire:

youtubed here

Res Obscura, title track:

youtubed here

Winter Day from Koan:

youtubed here

I'll try to get more too since a bunch of the CDs are available for purchase from Japan, oddly. Guess they love him there?

Well-known Italian composer Pepe Maina, Part 1 [Canto dell'arpa, Scerizza, Winged Fever, Pagan Night]

It's likely everyone knows him well.  One of those multi-instrumentalists who plays just about everything on his releases, and quite beautifully and flawlessly too. It's instrumental and electronic keys based so you could say it leans into the new age territory. When I recently checked the discography though I was surprised to see he released dozens and dozens of albums after his auspicious 1970s start.  These never really strayed from the prog electronic style that he began with, which is a good thing, and here and there are well worth hearing, not that I've explored even the majority by this time, though I hope to go through all of them. The music was not too much diluted down by the new age simplicity spirit that took over in the post70s decades.

Another version, less complete perhaps, of his discography is listed on progarchives here.

We can start with the first two wonderful albums, the first (Song of the harp and flute) of course, marred by the ridiculous cover photo of the teeth being brushed-- like, what was he thinking?? 

I 'll post flacs for the first 2.

From that one, Spring Song:

If you haven't heard the Canto dell arpa, you can here the sumptuous beginning of it on youtube here.

From the beautiful follow up called Scerizza (cannot find meaning of that word online, someone can assist?) La Danza del Pulcini, youtubed here:

From Winged Fever, 2003, the title track, which is definitely a little new agey but beautifully arranged, alternatively on youtube here.

From Pagan Night (2010), the oddly titled Tunes from Idetunes:

This one is on youtube here for your listening pleasure. The 12 string guitar and the intro sound eerily like something by Anthony Phillips on one of his beautiful solo albums--god how I love those to death.

As long as internet archive is down I'll post youtube links as well.

Pocket Orchestra Pheonix

 

Here's an American group that did just a wonderful RIO style, discogged here, going over all the craziness you'd expect from say Rascal Reporters or Samla M. Manna or somesuch, in the classic angular, jagged, dissonant, but approachable manner, all of it recorded in the glory days, late 70s to early 80s. A review from rym for ex.:

This musicians had a lot of surprises to offer! Knebnagäuje is not the title of the album, it's the name of the band before they called themselves Pocket Orchestra. Both bands (same musicians) didn't release any LP. What a shame! The label MIO released this CD 2005 from old demo-tapes with a very good sound. The original tapes date from 1978/1979 (Knebnagäuje) and 1983 (Pocket Orchestra). But on CD you will find the titles in an unusual order. It starts with the tape from 1983 (1-4), before you will hear the tape from 1978/1979 (5-8).

The biggest surprise is the wonderful weird music which is difficult to describe. Imagine very talented and fun spirited musicians mix in their own way something that sounds like Henry Cow, Univers Zero, National Health, Matching Mole, Von Zamla, Soft Machine, musique concrete, a big portion of madness and unpredictability and in smaller doses Zappa, Gentle Giant. This complex madness with a method is in my eyes and ears an extravagant and beautiful planet everybody should discover in the widths of the avant-prog universe.

So I was surprised to see there was another release simply called Phoenix from more recently, I guess a kind of compilation detailing their evolution from 1978 onwards, with a live recordings from the early 80s.

I absolutely adore the well-composed track called RV that permutes in so many ways through so many different musical styles:

While the internet arch. is down, for now on youtube you can hear it here.