The More You Live, The More You Love

COSMOGRAF The Man Left In Space (private release) The joint venture with Festival Records took only one album, since with The Man Left In Space Robin Armstrong takes control in his own hands again, The results is a fourth concept album. Behind the story of a failed space mission the concept album explores the themes of aspiration, achievement, and the failures that our quest for success, sometimes brings. Maybe the themes are stodge, but the music turns it into a fine listening session. His companions on this journey are (well) known names from the prog scene: Nick D’Virgilio, Simon Rogers, Greg Spawton, Dave Meros, Lee Abraham, Steve Dunn, Matt Stevens and Dave Ware. Armstrong does all the vocals on this album and even his wife does some vocals on This Naked Endeavour. Specially the three longer tracks Aspire Achieve, the titletrack and When The Air Runs Out make clear that Armstrong, loves to play his guitarsolos in a Floydian way, which atmospherically deepen the s...

COSMOGRAF When Age Has Done Its Duty (FESTIVAL MUSIC 201107 / BERTUS) When Age Has Done Its Duty is already the thirth concept album of Robin Armstrong with Cosmograf. This time it is about the ordeal of the aging process, looking back on (family) live and dying. Armstrong is assisted by Bob Dalton (It Bites), Steve Thorne, Lee Abraham, Simon Rogers and Steve Dunn (both of Also Eden), Luke Machin (The Tangent), Huw Lloyd-jones (Unto Us) and Dave Ware. The sound produced by the gentlemen is rooted in the progressive rock of the seventies with trips to neo-prog, hard rock and metal with references to Genesis in On Which We Stand and Savatage in opener Into This World. When Age Has Done Its Duty is an album you can’t judge on a first listen. It needs several listening sessions to fathom the album, since Armstrong hasn’t walked the easiest way lyrically and musically. Maybe this is because of the attachements of sounds and confounding factors, which attracks you from the ...

Top ten of the albums on regular play at the moment. A mixture of progressive rock, indie rock, alternative and synthpop made by newbies and long existing bands.   Bastille - Bad Blood Big Big Train - English Electric (part 2) Comedy Of Errors - Fanfare & Fantasy Cosmograf - The Man Left In Space Dutch Uncles - Out Of Touch In The Wild Everything Everything - Arc Fiction - The Big Other Hurts - Exile Mylene Farmer - Monkey Me Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - English Electric