The Beatles, ELO, Genesis, David Bowie, Queen, Steely Dan,
Claude Debussy, Supertramp, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Move,
The Herd, Klaatu, Patrick Moraz, Elton John, Frank Zappa,
George Gershwin, Ray Charles, Todd Rundgren, Alan Parsons Project,
Yes, The Eagles, King Crimson, Plastic Ono Band, Peter Gabriel.
Sounds Like
Agents Of Mercy:
The Review - Prognaut:
Agents Of Mercy, for those that don’t know, is a side project from The Flower Kings mastermind, Roine Stolt. Nad Sylvan of Unifaun provides a bulk of vocals with his unique voice. They are joined by on different tracks by an amazing roster of guest drummers; Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson, Tuner etc.) Zoltan Csörsz (TFK, Karmakanic) and Jimmy Keegan (Spocks Beard Live). Fellow TFK member, Jonas Reingold provides fretless bass.
Musically, Agents Of Mercy falls under the song oriented symphonic progressive rock genre, which is very similar to Roine and Nad’s respected bands. They do have a unique identity. The uniqueness comes partially due to Nad’s vocals, as it takes a while to get used to. A brief description is a mix of classic Yes (Roine’s guitar playing) & mostly Lamb-era Genesis (Nad‘s vocals).
Once you start listening to The Fading Ghosts Of Twilight, you are instantly hooked. Each song is like a musical and lyrical journey. The lyrics are often cynical, which is another part of the band’s unique qualities. My favorite tracks are the opening title track, “The Unwanted Brother”, "Afternoon Skies" (shows off an acoustic side of the band), “Heroes & Beacons”, “A Different Sun“ and “Ready To Fly”. These tracks stand out the most for me.
The Fading Ghosts Of Twilight is by far one of the best releases of 2009. I believe that this is both artist’s most inspired work to date. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a long road for these agents. Perhaps they’ll support the album with a tour and maybe even gracing one of the many progressive rock festivals here in the USA. There are many elements on this album, that draws me to progressive rock in general. So a high recommendation is in order, especially for fans of The Flower Kings and Unifaun.
Here’s another Roine Stolt project, it’s one of Progwalhalla’s best running items so I was very curious to their sound. Well, to me the 12 varied and melodic songs sound as a blend of progressive pop, Art-rock (Queen, 10CC), symphonic rock (Genesis and Procol Harum) and modern progressive rock (Spock’s Beard, The Flower Kings), tastefully arranged with a wide range of instrumentation (from a lot of vintage keyboards to ukelele and fretless bass by Jonas Reingold). The English vocals sound inspired, the lyrics have a (often cynical) meaning and we can enjoy many different atmospheres in the 12 compositions, from dreamy and slow rhythms to bombastic.
Roine Stolt delivers many fiery and biting guitar solos along work on the acoustic guitar, lap steel guitar and ukelele and Biggo Zelfries has an important role by pleasantly colouring the songs with his Minimoog, Hammond, Mellotron and acoustic – and electric pianos, his work gives a typically Seventies touch (especially on the titletrack, Heroes & Beacons and Bomb Inside Her Heart) to Agents Of Mercy their sound, apparently this modern and accessible sounding progressive music appeals to many progheads.
"Agents Of Mercy" is a new side project by Flower Kings leader ROINE STOLT - here in collaboration with Unifaun's singer NAD SYLVAN
- the band released their debut album "THE FADING GHOSTS OF TWILIGHT" in March 2009.
(get it from: merchandise@flowerkings.se)
And now the time has come to see what they can do in a live setting:
First up was the premiere at the wonderful Rhineland Loreley - NIGHT OF THE PROG-fest:
AGENTS OF MERCY
New project - New Album
On March 7th 2009, Foxtrot Music released a brand new album "The Fading Ghosts Of Twilight" - by the new project called AGENTS OF MERCY.
The album will initially be a LTD edition Digipack with 77 minutes of brand new music.
Agents Of Mercy is a project spawned from a "low key" acoustic project that Roine Stolt set out to do in 2008, but after getting singer Nad Sylvan (Unifaun) onboard to do a few "guest vocals" it turned into a full production prog album where Nad got more involved and did most of both lead and backing vocals on the album.
Songs got longer and vocal arrangements more elaborated and more symphonic and the common love of late 60's and early 70's prog and artrock is all over this album.
A few favourite drummers tracked for the 12 songs, Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson, XTC, Mr Mister, Stickmen etc.) Zoltan Csörsz (TFK, Karmakanic) and Jimmy Keegan (Santana, Spocks Beard Live) the eccentric Biggo Zelfries did most of the piano, violin and analogue keyboards and TFK bassist Jonas Reingold added some fretless bass spice too.
A cluster of artful influences ranges from The Beatles, Queen, ELO, (early)
Genesis, Supertramp, CSN&Y, Klaatu, The Move, Pink Floyd, XTC, Claude Debussy, (early) Bowie.
Silas Toball (www.silastoball.com) did the mysterious artwork for us and the album is mixed by agent Stolt at Cosmic Lodge as usual.
Tracklist:
1- The Fading Ghosts Of Twilight
2- The Unwanted Brother
3- Afternoon Skies
4- Heroes & Beacons
5- Jesus On The Barricades
6- Wait For The Sun
7- A Different Sun
8- Ready To Fly?
9- People Like Us
10- A Soldiers Tale
11- Bomb Inside Her Heart
12- Mercy & Mercury
GET YOUR COPY OF THE NEW TRANSATLANTIC ALBUM FROM FLOWERKINGS MERCHANDISE
One click on the album image will take you there !!!!
"T H E W H I R L W I N D"
I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)
Well......I had the CD in my player for a couple of weeks straight and I really enjoyed it thoroughly. At that point, I pulled it out for an occaisional play, to let it grow on me. I hadn't played the CD for about a month, when I pulled it out again.......and WHAM!!! It hit HARD!!! It IS one GREAT CD!!! The songs are all very well written with parts that stick in your memory.....and the dynamics are awesome. Nad's vocals are superb, the man uses his voice like an instrument, always full of emotion and blends perfectly with every song he sings. You can't beat the sweet tasteful guitar tones and playing of Roine Stoltz. The keyboard work is like heaven and all drummers are EXCELLENT and compliment the bass playing in one tight rhythm section. This is definitely a Highlight of 2009 for me.........a much treasured musical surprize. Rob
We had a carload of 6 for the Detroit Oct 13 show, and every one of us loves to go to lots of big and small concerts. And, as seasoned concert-goers, we all agreed that the "Power of Two" show was the concert of the year and then some...
Wonderful, impressive, emotional, funny, fantastic fun, monster musicians, ... you made us laugh, you made us cry, and everything in between.
We are all so grateful for an amazing musical experience.
Thank you Roine, Jonas, Lalle, Nad, Göran, and Nick. Great sound, great musical power!!
GUYS, YOU BLEW MY MIND ON SUNDAY IN TILBURG!!!! THIS WAS ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS IVE EVER SEEN!!!! THE agents WORK SO WELL LIVE, KEEP IT GOING!!!! ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!!! ALL THE BEST FOR THE REST OF THE TOUR!!!! ... maybe see you a second time around frankfurt :) keep rockin'n'lovin
I hope everything went well yesterday. Good luck with the rest of the shows! Remember to say Hi to Uwe from me. Be careful on the road. Hasse (HFMC, The Flower Kings)
Hey Roine & friends!! Thanks so much for accept the add!!! Congratulations for this new project and great album, sounds amazing!!! Good luck with the upcoming shows!!!!!!!!
We're a cover duet from Spain that play songs of bands like Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Nightwish, Mike Oldfield, Neal Morse, Deep Purple, Jewel...
Thank you for being among our friends. Have a nice music. Very theatrical and live to be even more beautiful. If one day you come to play in Florence, let us know that we come to feel. Hello and good music.
Thanks for the support and the friendship! Check our Myspace for our new music. Maybe it's nice to know that our debut CD will be released at the end of the year!
And if you guys need a band for support act, don't hesitate ;)
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