On paper, so much of the current progressive rock scene seems like a recipe for disaster: one guy masterminding a specific brand or vision, enlisting guest musicians (often rotating from album to album) to achieve a studio-sterile sound. That was my fear when I heard about Ellesmere, an Italian modern prog project headed by Roberto Vitelli who plays bass and keyboards in addition to songwriting¹. Another ill omen: he changed singers from his previous album. But then I saw a name as I perused the credits to Stranger Skies: Tomas Bodin? From that band I reviewed so many great albums from? More hope: it’s inspired by A Trick of the Tail, my (kinda) favorite Genesis album? Then I actually heard that new singer, John Wilkinson, quite possibly a younger cloned version of Phil Collins. You know, from the A Trick of the Tail era? All in, baby.

So yeah, I love Stranger Skies. It’s very modern progressive rock, meaning lots of good crunchy rock guitars, shifting rhythms and time signatures, loads of keyboards both layered as ambiance as well as a solo highlight, tight little numbers sitting next to long epics, and a myriad of additional instrumentation: yes, we have sax. And flute. The album’s beautifully designed cover by Rodney Matthews illustrates the concept behind the album of two worlds opposed by climate, one cold and captured by the first four tracks, and one warmer, embodied in Stranger Skies‘ closing two epics.

It starts with “Northwards” a great heavy rocker that showcases Wilkinson’s voice, the rhythms playfully shifting between the verses and the anthemic chorus. The guitar playing from Giacomo Anselmi is superb; dude can seriously shred, but never in a way that doesn’t service the song. And that also speaks to Vitelli’s virtues as a songwriter – far from feeling like a dawdling or sprawled studio-trapped experiment, these songs feel alive, and made to be played out to audiences (I’ve since gone back to their earlier stuff and yeah: there’s a fantastic live album in the bunch). “Tundra” has even more of that Collins vocal vibe, and the guitar melodies are super catchy and playful. Drummer Mattias Olsson knows exactly where to keep a steady beat, where to follow the riffing and where to branch out into drum fill nirvana. The a cappella segment at the end? Chef’s kiss.

Vitelli employs a wide array of musicians to realize his goals on Stranger Skies, and there are no less than three guitarists throughout the album. Instrumental “Crystalized” opens with a gorgeous 12-string acoustic intro from Riccardo Romano before giving the reins over to saxophonist David Jackson from some obscure prog band called Van der Graaf Generator you might have heard of. He also has in addition to himself and Bodin another THREE keyboards players, yet the album never feels too keyboard heavy, perhaps owing to how much Anselmi’s guitar playing is featured throughout the song. But they all seemingly come together in a massive anthemic blowout on “Arctic” which closes out the “cold” segment of the album.

Stranger Skies closes out with two tracks each around 12 minutes. The title track takes a repeated melodic motif across its 12 minutes in a somber fashion, building in intensity both instrumentally and vocally; I can’t get enough of Wilkison’s voice. The last few minutes is a frenzy of soloing, with perhaps the extended flute solos from John Hackett as the highlight. Things pick up considerably with closer “Another World”, the keyboards and guitars bringing a driving riff attack to the verses with saxophone taking the guitar’s role in spreading some fiery licks in between. Melodically and lyrically they circle back to “Northwards” tying the whole experience together in a way that is completely satisfying.

It can be hard to get away from recency bias in music, so it speaks to the strength Ellesmere in general that Stranger Skies came out in the middle of January and here we are almost a year later and it’s still one of my favorite albums. Here’s to more music in the future…

¹ To show the incredible amounts of research I put into this writing, it turns out Vitelli DOES have a (fairly) stable band lineup consisting of Anselmi, Olsson, and now Wilkinson. Also they do gig out, as noted. Also, I’ve listed to their previous album Wyrd and it’s also great. Thanks!