Pendragon-Men Who Climb Mountains

[Rufus]

Pendragon's Nick Barrett has confirmed the band's tenth album is entitled Men Who Climb Mountains.

And although he refuses to describe exactly what the record is about, he says it's a "long musical journey."

Barrett reports in his blog: "Sometimes I get asked to write a detailed description of what all the songs are about. It takes about two hours. This time I thought, 'Sod it – what it’s all about is in the lyrics! Leave it to people to find their own dimension in it; it’s much more fun.

"Most of the songs came from ideas that just came out of playing my guitar and piano over the last couple of years, and messing around with new sounds, particularly delays and vibrato.

"What I’ve done is broken them up into lots of smaller songs and pretty much linked them together so that they run into one long musical journey. I like this way of working."

He says that while the overall effect is "very melodic," individual tracks present different atmospheres including atmospheric, lo-fi, rocky and sublime – and he adds of the song In Bardo: "Yup, a welcome return to some of the Dragon's jazz-rock past."

Men Who Climb Mountains is Pendragon's first album with drummer Craig Blundell, following the departure of Nick Higham. The band tour Europe towards the end of the year with three UK dates included:

Nov 06: The Ferry, Glasgow

Nov 07: The Citadel, St Helens

Nov 08: 229 The Venue, London

Men Who Climb Mountains provisional tracklist
Belle Ame

Beautiful Soul

Come Home Jack

In Bardo

Faces Of Light

Faces Of Darkness

…For When The Zombies Come

Explorers Of The Infinite

Netherworld

[Paulrus]

Hmm, I didn't know that Scott Higham (not Nick) had left the band. He'll be missed (though not that much since he keeps popping up everywhere on lots of people's projects these days).

More info about Craig Blundell:

Craig is respected globally as one of the leading educators, clinicians, motivators and innovators of his instrument and a true ambassador for British drumming. He is a face for Premier, Roland and Paiste internationally and over the years has played with many legends of music from many different genres. In more recent times he’s been working on many Progressive projects from Frost* to playing on albums alongside members of King Crimson Porcupine Tree, Van Der Graaf Generator and many more. He also writes music for TV and film that is aired in over 30 countries including a substantial amount of the drums for the BBC.

IMO Pendragon benefited from the harder direction in their past several albums and it'll be interesting to hear what the new stuff sounds like.

[emperorken]

I wouldn't consider Pendragon among my favorite neo prog bands, but I thought their last album "Passion" was very good. I'm interested to see what they come with this time.

[Duncan Glenday]

Pendragon's Nick Barrett has confirmed the band's tenth album is entitled Men Who Climb Mountains.

They wrote an album about me? I'm honored!

LOL

[bill g]

I like the earlier Pendragon albums. They rather lost me with the last couple. 'Not of this World' and earlier albums I think are quite nice. Be interesting to check this out.

[ThomasKDye]

I liked "Pure" okay -- in fact, I thought it was brilliant and their best album -- but "Passion" went TOO far afield for my taste. I'm sorry they lost Scott Higham too, as his drumming electrified "Pure". I'll be curious to hear this one.

[snowsnow]

I liked their change of direction. Pure was simply outstanding and their last album contains one of my fav prog songs of the last few years - This Green and Pleasant Land.

I always look forward to a new Pendragon album - autobuy for me

[Wounded Land]

Pure was simply outstanding and their last album contains one of my fav prog songs of the last few years - This Green and Pleasant Land.

I agree. What a great tune.

I came on board with Pure, so the sound of the past two albums is the sound of Pendragon to me. Both of those records took a long time for me to get into fully, but they both ended up as some of my favorites for their respective years.

Looking forward to the new one.

[JKL2000]

I didn't much care for the sound of the last two albums. In fact on headphones they gave me a headache, so I'm not sure I've made it through a full listen to each. I prefer their softer, more traditionally neo sound.

[progmeister]

I liked their change of direction. Pure was simply outstanding and their last album contains one of my fav prog songs of the last few years - This Green and Pleasant Land.

I always look forward to a new Pendragon album - autobuy for me

I wholeheartedly agree and can't wait!

[lazland]

Can't wait for this one.

Btw, it was Passion which had This Green And Pleasant Land, a classic track.

[sergio]

bugger, Scott left... not very lucky with drummers, eh. Edge of The World from Believe is the best song ever created on planet Earth. Cant wait for the new masterpiece, hoping new drummer will be as edgy as Scott was.

[Wilcey]

Not long to wait now until the release of Men Who Climb Mountains - presales have begun today and you can also listen to "Beautiful Soul" from the album via YouTube on the website. www.pendragon.mu

W x

[JKL2000]

Just listened to Beautiful Souls. Not loving it - I really have a hard time with the "rock" sound from the last two albums and this. It's so far from the sound they had on their earlier albums. It's like if Camel was doing albums that sounded like this now - it was the fluid guitar solos that I loved about Pendragon. And I enjoy Barrett's vocals too, but these albums are just painful to listen too somehow. If this is the song they chose to preview, I assume it's representative, but perhaps not. I'm more interested in the live "house concert" recording on CD2 than the new album, really.

I remember seeing video (on one of the bonus DVDs? I forget) of Barrett meeting with a consultant who was telling him how to better market Pendragon for a younger audience - this was before or around when Pure was released, and I fear he's tried to deliberately to change Pendragon's sound rather than letting it change naturally. As I said upthread, I've never made it all the way through the last two albums.

[Wilcey]

Beautiful soul. (just the one)

I think the video you were referring to the guy was trying to persuade Nick (unsuccessfully as it happens - maybe you should have let that reach it's conclusion) to market in a different way.....that's MARKET not WRITE MUSIC .......no one ever would persuade Nick to do anything musically he didn't want to.
You are entitled to your opinion but based on not actually listening to a full album it seems somewhat odd and also a little weird to buy an album that you don't actually listen to.

[robh]

no one ever would persuade Nick to do anything musically he didn't want to.

I should &*"^$ well hope not.

Anyway, Pendragon are one of those bands from whom I buy on trust.

[JKL2000]

Beautiful soul. (just the one)

I think the video you were referring to the guy was trying to persuade Nick (unsuccessfully as it happens - maybe you should have let that reach it's conclusion) to market in a different way.....that's MARKET not WRITE MUSIC .......no one ever would persuade Nick to do anything musically he didn't want to.
You are entitled to your opinion but based on not actually listening to a full album it seems somewhat odd and also a little weird to buy an album that you don't actually listen to.

I wasn't suggesting Nick altered the sound on the consultant's advice, just that he was open to some suggestions in marketing merchandise differently ( to-shirt colors that appealed to a younger market, etc) and that perhaps he had updated the band's sound a bit to also better capture that market. I happen to have all Pendragon CDs except for Kowtow - even the compilations, live stuff, the DVD with Clive, etc. so obviously I'm a big fan of Nick. I just don't care for the sound of the two most recent albums. I know many liked them so it's just opinion.