Featured CD - Satellite : A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset

[Duncan Glenday]

According to a genius reviewer, on a site we used to all know...

Satellite is a progressive rock band from Poland, created by the former leader of Collage. This is their debut album. A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset is a full, richly textured, album, delivered with a maturity and elegance that represents the best-of-breed of neo-progressive rock.

The opening “The Evening Wind” is a 12-minute epic rich in keyboards and acoustic guitar, and sets high expectations for the rest of the album. “On The Run” is a 14-minute piece, which introduces three guitars backed by rich keyboards, ending in a beautiful guitar solo and a gentle female chorus. As with most songs the lead vocals are muted, and never get in the way of the music.

The 6th song “Now” is also long, at 10 minutes, and has a 70’s style chorus that could have emanated from Cantebury. The title track is an 11-minute masterpiece that starts softly and builds up to a memorable climax with strong guitar and keyboard interplay. The final track is “Children” - a soft piece, with gentle piano, delicately muted lead guitar, and almost lullaby-soft vocals.

Vocalist Robert Amirian shows limited range and the tunes are not the most memorable, but his delivery is soft and effortless. The vocals do not lead the music, but are an integral part of the music, as they should be in prog. This is not the song-oriented neo-prog that has been so roundly criticized in the past decade. The lyrics are in English, with no noticeable accent. Guitarist Sarhan deserves special mention. He does not appear to be a John Petrucci or an Arjen Lucassen, but his solos are things of beauty, soaring and expressive.

No music is perfect, and the one criticism here is a lack of variety. The music is excellent, but it seems that a snippet from any one song could be inserted into another, without undue loss of integrity.

This is Satellite’s debut album but it is very clear that these are accomplished musicians, and the production quality is excellent. Contrary to popular belief neo-progressive is not bad progressive, and Wojtek Szadkowski’s Satellite goes a long way toward making that point.

As a side note - their web site is excellent, as is the artwork on the album cover. The sleeve was designed by Mark Wilkinson, whose resume includes artwork for Marillion, Fish, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Peter Gabriel, Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Asia, and many others. See him at http://www.the-masque.com

(Be gentle - it was the first review that 'genius' ever wrote!)

http://www.progressiveears.com/asp/i...views/2003.jpg

[emperorken]

Excellent album. My favorite by Satellite. (and that review is spot on)

[bobert]

I love this album, for me it is the best of the trilogy from Satellite which starts with A Street Between Sunrise and Sunset, continues with Evening Games and concludes with Into the Night, all are excellent but this one being featured here today is the crown jewel. Brilliant guitar work and melodies throughout.Nothing real complicated here musically but a fine piece of work.

[TCC]

Saw them at Baja Prog 2007:
"Contrary to popular belief neo-progressive is not bad progressive, and Wojtek Szadkowski’s Satellite goes a long way toward making that point."

Agree!.

Regards,
Tomás.

[gingernut]

A brilliant album. A brilliant band. So unusual that a drummer is the creative force.

[bill g]

I like the album, but am missing the point about the reviewer. I think the review is spot on. Or is it Duncan's review? Okay, I think I'm getting it as I write this. Anyway, I think its a nice album, and their best. Haven't heard it in years.

[JIF]

I dig the Mark Wilkinson cover art. It's certainly Marillion-esque.

[flatliner]

Love this album! In fact, I love them all. Big fan of Nostalgia as well. Anything after that one?

[battema]

I'm not really much of a neo-prog fan...but I got this one by accident due to a mixup in an order through one of the prog vendors (was ordering a David Sancious album, if memory serves). They were nice enough to let me keep it, so I figured I'd at least give it a whirl

Actually rather liked it, enough to check out a couple of the subsequent ones as well as one of the Collage albums.

[sergio]

I remember that one... posessed some interesting melodies and playing, but from what I gather transition between themes was too abrupt, that seamless bridging was missing. Also Amirian was singing with some restraint in his voice. Maybe I should go back and do a refresher. Subsequent Sattelite releases didn't leave any notch in my book. Also the lead guitarist was gone at some stage and replaced by the one who played rythm on Sunrise (and occasional drums, if i remember correctly). And he seemed to be less inventive in guitar department.