Spleen Arcana second album is currently being recorded, day by day, track by track. Some of you bought the first album on cd, some of you bought a digital version, some others bougth both versions. Many others prefered the free download. What will you choose for Spleen Arcana second album? This poll is yours… Feel free to explain your choice in the comments below.

July heavy rotation. Old music as always apart from Ayreon, IQ and Zoe Keating. Do you know Zoe Keating? I discovered her music at an Amanda Palmer gig and her new album, Into The Trees, is absolutely beautiful – layered cello – music. By the way, I think that Magma’s last album is about to become one my favourite album of them.

So this is my playlist but what is yours?

Eclectic playlist for June. As you can see, Transatlantic last album is still on heavy rotation and their gig in Paris in May just made me play it even more! I found Bat For Lashes Two Suns special edition which includes a documentary dvd. Such a beautiful voice and soulful artist, I can’t stop playing her two albums. Pendragon, Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd, Perry Blake, Spock’s Beard and so on… So many inspiring and excellent music!

Yesterday heavy metal lost one of its best voice, if not the best. I’ve been a fan of Dio’s voice for a long time as I’m one of those who think that he was Black Sabbath’s voice. I really like first Black Sabbath albums but for me there’s nothing like Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules, truly epic albums! My favourite songs are “Children Of The Sea”, “Heaven And Hell”, “Lonely Is The Word”, “The Mob Rules” and “The Sign of the Southern Cross” (maybe my favourite one, so epic!). I discovered heavy metal through these albums and it reminds me many good memories.

And what about his work with Rainbow? Songs like “Stargazer”, “A Lignt In The Black”, “Gates of Babylon” are just masterpieces and featured all Dio’s vocal talent and charisma. Rising by Rainbow is one of my favourite albums from any styles, it’s timeless, powerful and epic, hard rock at its best!

Holy Diver, another classic, and The Last In Line from Dio solo carreer are fantastic albums as well, with songs like “Holy Diver”, “Don’t Talk To Strangers”, “Rainbow in the Dark”, “Egypt (The Chains Are On)”…

I didn’t listen enough to Heaven & Hell’s album but I need to. I’m truly sad to not have seen them live. Anyway, his music will be played over and over and will always sound special to me. Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll

“If you listen to fools, the mob rules”

“The world is full of kings and queens
Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams
Its heaven and hell,
And they’ll tell you black is really white
The moon is just the sun at night
And when you walk in golden halls
You get to keep the gold that falls
Its heaven and hell”

I’m back from a little trip to London which was fantastic! Two days which was really inspiring… It was great to walk and cross the famous Abbey Road and see the famous recording studio. Musically speaking, Abbey Road reminds me more of Pink Floyd than the Beatles because of some of my fav pictures of the Floyd from this legendary studio. Anyway, it was stunning to see this studio for real, I can’t imagine how it is inside!

A nice coincidence was to see accidentally through the hotel window the Battersea Power Station made famous by Pink Floyd’s Animals album. Well, I’m pretty sure it’s the famous factory (picture below) was not far from its location but maybe someone could confirm?

I couldn’t help myself shooting this Les Paul Custom (picture below), sadly waiting for being played behind her cage. What a beautiful and impressive guitar! I wish I could play one someday…

Another prog rock reference is the Porcupine Pub (and its tree) near the Astoria, is this the truth behind the meaning of Porcupine Tree’s name? Who knows… ;)

Time passes so fast… I’ve been busy enough with the revamping of spleenarcana.com which took me a lot of time, well approximately a month. As you guess, I listened to a lot of inspirational music. A visit to my previous recording place was truly fantastic and inspirational too, as you can see in the picture below, I found some of my favourite albums on vinyls which are always a huge source of inspiration visually and of course musically. Don’t “Close To The Edge” bring to you some beautiful landscapes pictures in your mind? I can’t help feeling those albums are my “desert island” albums…

Anyway, here is my March/April playlist :

• Nexus by Argent
• Lady Lake by Gnidrolog
• The Final Cut by Pink Floyd
• A Curious Thing by Amy McDonald
• Harmonium by Harmonium
• Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin
• Argus by Wishbone Ash
• Grave New World by The Strawbs

Still into Transtlantic and Magma last album which are absolutely great. I bought Talk by Yes and if it’s not a masterpiece and I’m not really a fan of this era, “Endless Dream” is a great epic track.

I played for the first time 666 by Aphrodite’s Child from Spotify, great to find this album there, it’s an awesome album! I enjoy a lot Bat For Lashes as well, her two albums are really beautiful, emotionnaly creative.

And I play a lot Neal Morse’s albums, Sola Scriptura is so great! It’s probably my favourite album from him. I came back to his last one, Lifeline, which is not as good but its eponym epic track is still awesome.

Feel free to share your playlist…

Still a lot of music to start 2010 in the best possible way! So as you can see, Transatlantic’s new album is still on “heavy rotation” here! Sure it’s maybe not as good as the first two albums but it’s still my favourite 2009 album and a great epic progressive rock opus. Crises by Mike Oldfield… I didn’t like it in the past… Not really but somehow, I learnt to like it and now I can say that “Crises” is one of my favourite epics from Mr Oldfield. Elegant Gypsy by Al Di Meola is one of my favourite album at the moment, the guitar work is really awesome! I came back to The Incident by Porcupine Tree and I like it better than before, when I bought it. And there’s always some great classics like Pink Floyd’s albums…

As always, feel free to share your playlist…

Obviously, heavy rotation of November is The Whirlwind by the giant Transatlantic and the new release by the mythic Magma called Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê. Easily two of the best albums of this year in my opinion. The Whirlwind is a huge epic prog party with a fantastic production (Pete Trewavas bass sound is excellent, as his playing of course), I had a lot of expectations regarding this release and I’m not disappointed at all! Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê is a great release too, from the darkest side of progressive world, otherwordly enigmatic.

And I’m still listening to the last Porcupine Tree, Guilt Machine and some other titles :
- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John
- Tommy by the Who
- Cosmic Egg by Wolfmother
- The Scope by Subaudition
- And a huge revival for the Flower Kings : Flower Power, The Flower King, Retropolis, The Sum Of No Evil, Back In The World Of Adventures…

Epic November, isn’t it?

What about your playlist?

October 2009 : Some old prog rock classic of course… Moving Waves, great album which is not just the crazy “Hocus Pocus” song, the 23 minutes long epic “Eruption” is just excellent! QE2 by Mike Oldfield became one of my favourite albums from the artist, his guitar sound and playing are fantastic. Some vintage electronic prog with Force Majeure by Tangerine Dream (one of my favourite) and Heaven and Hell by Vangelis (epic!!). There’s always some place for an Iron Maiden album and actually, it’s Dance Of Death, not my favourite one but still good (and the classic Live After Death which is great!). At last but not least : The Incident of course! Album of the year? One of the great albums of 2009 for sure!! (I have to wait for Transatlantic’s album to talk about “album of the year”, or not…). I can’t tell that it’s my fav Porcupine Tree album but again, high quality modern prog rock, I love “Kneel And Disconnect/Drawing The Line” – Perfect!

I just discovered Bat For Lashes and I can’t stop listening to Two Suns on Spotify. A multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/visual artist with a great voice, beautiful melodies and arrangements.

As usual, I’d be curious to know YOUR october playlist…