Ellesmere - Stranger Skies CD
SKU
27-AMS 343 CD
The fourth release by Roberto Vitelli’s Ellesmere project and another good one.
“Stranger Skies” is the fourth recording chapter of the Ellesmere project by multi-instrumentalist Roberto Vitelli, musically and visually strongly linked to the previous “Wyrd” of 2021: from an iconographic point of view, in fact, the partnership with the famous illustrator Rodney Matthews, author of a wonderful cover painting that depicts two opposing worlds, a 'cold' one - linked to the first 4 songs of the album - and a 'hot' one - connected to the two long compositions that close the album. “Stranger Skies” therefore once again deals with the theme of travel and the discovery of new unexplored worlds, the true trait d'union of all Ellesmere's albums.
Musically we are faced with a work that naturally continues the discussion interrupted with "Wyrd", in the footsteps of a grandiloquent and energetic symphonic progressive rock, no longer largely instrumental as in the past but with a real singer at the service of the compositions, in the figure by John WIlkinson, co-author together with Roberto of the lyrics of the title track. The main names that inspired this album are Genesis of “A Trick of the Tail” and Rush of “Moving Pictures”.
As usual, the Ellesmere project makes use of a large group of classy collaborators, who in this, in addition to the main nucleus composed of Roberto Vitelli (bass, keyboards and main songwriter), Mattias Olsson (drums), John Wilkinson (vocals) and Giacomo Anselmi (guitar) are Clive Nolan (keyboards), Graeme Taylor (acoustic guitar), Tomas Bodin (keyboards), John Hackett (flute), David Jackson (saxophones and wind instruments), Bob Hodges (keyboards), Stefano Vicarelli ( keyboards) and Riccardo Romano (backing vocals, 12-string acoustic guitar). A must for every lover of symphonic prog and modern progressive rock!”