Progressive rock is having a genuinely good week, and if you're not paying attention, that's your loss.
Prog's latest Tracks Of The Week has landed seven new cuts across the spectrum, and the names alone should be enough to stop your scrolling. Steven Wilson, The Pineapple Thief, Kalandra, The Ocean, Sometime In February, John Holden, and the ambient jazz trio of Jonathan Crossley, David Kollar and Lukas Ligeti. That's not filler. That's a proper week.
The big one: Steven Wilson goes village
Last year Wilson turned his gaze outward to space on The Overview. On Requiem For A Village, due November 6, he's done the opposite, pulling the lens right back to insular village life, folk horror atmosphere and narration by David Tennant. Genuinely intriguing pivot.
What makes it interesting is his stated intention to reintroduce human imperfection into the music. Analogue synths with their unpredictability, instruments that aren't perfectly in tune, Wilson picking up violin and oboe and drums without claiming to know how to play them. "Approaching the music with a sense of innocence and seeing where it took me," he says. "And where it took me was to the village." That's a confident artistic statement, and we're interested to hear how it lands in full.
The rest of the seven, and none of them are wasted
Yeovil's The Pineapple Thief are building towards their next album Far And Wide with the new single God Knows. Frontman Bruce Soord is unambiguous about what it's about: regret, mistakes, ghosts coming back. The band also have a UK and European headline tour locked in for 2027, so that campaign is very much in motion. [Their profile in prog has been consistently strong](/uprise/music/top-new-prog-from-lonely-robot-kompendium-giant-sky-and), and God Knows looks set to keep it that way.
Norwegian duo Kalandra offer Lost In The Dark, the second single from The Other Side, out November 13 through By Norse. It's inspired by vivid and recurring dreams, and the band describe the song as being about self-discovery, and the paradox of searching so hard for yourself that you end up feeling more lost. Beautifully put, and the music matches it.
The Ocean have teamed up with Tangerine Dream's Thorsten Quaeschning for Milk Of My Dreams, with parts recorded at Hansa Studios in Berlin, where David Bowie tracked Heroes. The collaboration apparently grew out of a week spent at Quaeschning's Berlin-Rudow studio, where the band describe his workspace as feeling like a synthesiser museum, with everything connected and ready to play. That's the kind of creative environment that tends to produce something worth hearing.
US instrumental trio Sometime In February have shared Nightlight, a deliberately free-standing single separate from their next album cycle, leaning into early-2010s progressive metal and djent influences. Guitarist Tristan Auman is upfront about it: it's something they appreciate but usually avoid. The honesty is refreshing.
John Holden's Mohawk River previews his seventh studio album Thresholds, due October 2, featuring guests including That Joe Payne. And the ambient jazz trio of Crossley, Kollar and Ligeti have released They Are Coming through former King Crimson Chapman Stick player Trey Gunn's 7D Media label, a detail that tells you plenty about the kind of serious company they're keeping.
[Progressive rock's capacity for range](/uprise/music/gentle-giants-octopus-represents-all-of-progressive-rocks-virtues-a) is exactly what makes weeks like this worth tracking. Seven tracks, seven different corners of the genre, zero dead weight.
Vote for your favourite. Wilson versus Pineapple Thief is the obvious headline bout, but don't sleep on Kalandra.