Oaksenham - Upon All The Living And The Dead (2018)

Oaksenham is a band from Armenia, who have released two albums in 2002 and 2006. After a long pause they have this year released their third album, which is the featured album of the weekend.
It is not untypical for bands from eastern Europe to include local folk into their music, which is the case here, too. Their blend of mostly instrumental violin driven Armenian folk, rock and jazz elements form an exciting symphonic prog mix, which would certainly appeal to all who like 70's Genesis, Yes, Camel and Renaissance.

Attention! Europe switches back to Normal Time while North America does not! Check the times below:
Starport Omega : Saturday 6 pm SLT (Sunday 02:00 CET, 01:00 GMT)
Floating Islands : Sunday 3 pm SLT (23:00 CET, 22:00 GMT)
My streaming URL

Gleb Kolyadin (2018)

Gleb Kolyadin is a pianist and one half of the Russian duo Iamthemorning from Sankt Petersburg. With Iamthemorning he released three albums between 2012 and 2016. Now he has released a solo album with some guest musicians, including:
Steve Hogarth (Marillion) - vocals
Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) - keyboards
Theo Travis (Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson) - flute, saxophone
Nick Beggs (Steven Wilson) - bass
Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson) - drums
and many more.
It is, of course, these guest musicians that attracted me to listen to this album, and it was worth it!
The album is a mixture of modern classical piano music and rock music, which I can imagine Bach and Stravinsky, if they lived today, would also enjoy. In parts it is reminiscent of Renaissance, Keith Emerson and Patrick Moraz.
For me this release is the surprise of the year.

Starport Omega : Saturday 6 pm SLT (Sunday 03:00 CEST, 02:00 BST)
Floating Islands : Sunday 3 pm SLT (Monday 00:00 CEST, Sunday 23:00 BST)
My streaming URL

Uriah Heep - Living The Dream (2018)

To be honest, after their album Salisbury from 1971 and their hit single 'Lady in Black', which was very popular at least in Germany, I did not follow the career of Uriah Heep much. So I was positively surprised when I listened to their new album 'Living The Dream', which was released only this year. It is not as great as Salisbury, but it is a very solid piece of classic hard rock, with guitarist Mick Box as the last remaining original member.

Starport Omega : Saturday 6 pm SLT (Sunday 03:00 CEST, 02:00 BST)
Floating Islands : Sunday 3 pm SLT (Monday 00:00 CEST, Sunday 23:00 BST)
My streaming URL

Riverside - Wasteland (2018)

Riverside, a band founded in 2001 in Warsaw, Poland, has released seven albums so far. After the long time guitarist Piotr Grudzinski passed away, they decided to continue as a trio on their seventh and latest album, with several guitarists as guests. How did this change influence their music? I would say, the music became less heavy metallic and more melodic, which is good for all who love more melodic and symphonic style prog rock. With this release they went on a similar path as Opeth, and I am really surpised of the good compositional quality of the nine new songs on the album. Their creativity seem to be unbroken!

Starport Omega : Saturday 6 pm SLT (Sunday 03:00 CEST, 02:00 BST)
Floating Islands : Sunday 3 pm SLT (Monday 00:00 CEST, Sunday 23:00 BST)
My streaming URL