MARTIGAN - CIEL OUVERT - 1996

Martigan biography
This Cologne-based foursome from the mid-80's plays some fine neo-prog in the best tradition of IQ, JADIS, PENDRAGON, early MARILLION and SAGA, but with a subtle and very pleasant flavour of their own. They went through quite a few line changes and now feature Alex Bisch on drums, brother Björn Bisch on guitars, Peter Kindler on bass, Oliver Strahl on keyboards and Kai Marckwordt on bass, guitar, sax, flute and lead vocals (a cross between Phil Collins and Dave Cousins, his vocals are truly outstanding).

Since the mid 90's, the band released two full-length albums and a maxi CD before the excellent "Man of the Moment" (2002); this one is the most mature of the lot and contains no weak tracks. Although no one really stands out, the musicianship is always sharp, the songwriting well crafted and the vocals sincere and powerful. If you wish, you can hear the entire album on their website; the files are highly compressed, however, and the sound quality is very poor.

If you're into neo prog and the words 'strongly melodic', 'accessible' and 'lush/full sound' appeal to you, you definitely ought to give their 2002 album a try. We are talking major-league neo-prog here.
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