Evening Games (Satellite, 2004)

Here's another excellent epic by Satellite, from Poland. "Evening Games" is the title track of their 2004 album and has all I like in a (neo) prog song. Let's see: many mood and tempo changes, atmospheric and heavy passages, beautiful keyboards, an excellent guitar work, effective and passionate vocals. Should I ask for more? Well, there is more. Actually, there are very well found melodies and some emotional peaks. The technical skills are important, no doubt, but it's only when a tack moves me that I'm compelled to listen to it again and again.

"Evening Games" was the second album by Satellite.

This happened with "Evening Games" and its 16:45 minutes litterally fly away in the blink of an eye. Those guys know how to mix old and familiar prog sounds and innovative solutions, bombastic riffs and pastoral paintings. Last but not least, they succeed in keeping such a long song under control, meaning their musical architecture is strong and perfectly planned: each passage finds its place in the big picture. Not so easy, my friends...

The Evening Wind (Satellite, 2003)

Some years ago a friend of mine, a classic prog fan, asked me about neo-progressive; he had just heard some Marillion and wanted to know more. I submitted this song to his attention and he was positively surprised. Satellite is a Polish band founded by members of split up Collage (there's somenting about them too in this blog), especially by drummer Wojtek Szadkowski, who also signs most of the new band's songs. Their music is exactly what neo-prog is or should be: lighter than pure synphonic rock but never trivial, never too easy or poppish. "The Evening Wind" opens the first album by Satellite, called "A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset" - wow, the title itself is a challenging one! - and is a 12 minutes well written and well performed track, obviously IMHO.

You can't be wrong: this is a Mark Wilkinson's art...

The vocal themes are pleasant and rather fast tempo, keyboards provide some anthemic riffs, often duelling with guitars, while the rythm section always sustains and diversifies the track pace. Some changes from fast to low tempo are very good and remind me of best IQ's songs, with a stronger accent on airy melodies. In addiction to this, there are intriguing lyrics about the difficult transitions from sorrow to hope we all experience sooner or later. This song is like a riviving whipping of chilly breeze, the Evening wind we sometimes welcome as an old friend at the end of the day.