MARQUETTE is a resolutely contemporary group that designs its music with highly elaborate complexity, a sort of collection that does honor to the progressive scene by approaching genres from all eras with incredible modernism. This album is musically excellent as well as the mix and the production as the influences are numerous without being pregnant, the environments and atmospheres deeply visual as well as the frequent changes of atmospheres. The multilayers of synths are in perfect harmony with the old guard such as the organ and the mellotron, the classic prog is in total symbiosis with this vision of the future which transports us far from our cottages. The instrumental passages of symphonic progressive rock are often associated with metal and touches of jazz in a dazzling cinematic environment, bringing an impressive musical panel by its diversity of genres such as Rock, Canterburry, Hard, Metal, Jazz, Jazz / fusion. A few lengths will not detract from the intrinsic quality of this work, because it is and will undoubtedly remain one of the most successful of the year! 

RELAYERFR

DEVEAUX

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I wouldn't be all that surprised if Marquette's second album "Into the Wild" made it into quite a few of the best of 2020 lists some people enjoy to write down in late December. The compositions are subtly quirky and challenging, but without being overtly so, the musicianship is excellent, as is also the case for mix and production. Eclectic, mainly instrumental progressive rock is the overall name of the game, and those who find music described in this manner to be interesting should give this album a spin. On a small side note, there's a very minor treat in store here for Swedish listeners, one I suspect they'll appreciate when they encounter all three instances of it.

Windhawk

Olav Martin Bjørnsen

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The band is the project of Markus Roth with the help of guitarist Achim Wierchem and others. The first album released in 2015 was showing some potential . The new album has been made with the help of some new guest musicians. The album showcase some great musicianship with Sebastian Schleicher playing some exquisite guitars, and Markus on the keyboard, and piano parts. This album has plenty of long instrumental passages of floating symphonic prog rock with a little dose of metal which sounds modern despite some influence from the old school of prog rock. The compositions here have improved a lot from the first album. ''Seven Doors'' with his 14 minutes push all the right buttons bringing on on a pleasant journey by using many instruments to create a lot of texture to the music. While no violinist is credited here, there is some recorded sound of the violin here. The short ''Criminal Mind'' song brings a new mood in the jazz territory with a bit of cool singing and that haunting keys sound. In the next songs, the band infuses a Prog Metal in the Drem Theater style with some lighter parts by bringing the pace down. That leads to the final big epic, and the title track bringing some beautiful flute and piano parts to set the mood before the music gets many twists and turns like a typical long prog rock song. I give this 4.5 stars.

RDTPROG
Louis

 

 

MARQUETTE, band formed by keyboardist drummer Markus Roth and assisted by talented guitarist Sebastian Schleicher of Amberfield, complex orchestral group often with prog metal, metal prog symphonic, retro-prog and jazzy orientations! This 2nd album combines the best of his two previous groups Horizontal Ascension (melodic prog) and Force of Progress (an unprecedented fusion of progressive metal and jazz), an album of which was released at the start of the year, and brings vocal space to certain tracks. The symphonic has its part and makes the link between metal and pure progressive rock. "No Answer" sets the tone by unifying prog metal and jazzy in a remarkable way. "Seven Doors" is one of the two great pieces that may take you far into the prog metal regions, instruments ranging from violin to violin. intimate drawers; Pink Floyd and Camel ring at the corner of the ears; the Philip Glass sound from the start bewitching, the break at 11 minutes with this sinister violin, austere and beautiful at the same time and the sax will not leave you indifferent. "Criminal Kind" denotes with the addition of a voice and jazzy cool tune with an Eric Serra boosted bass. "Alexander Supertramp" changes shape again with a soaring mythological oriental synth and a heavy and surly metal riff. "Sensuality" with this whispered voice in intro leads to an energetic jazzy-progressive incursion. "Portrait of Men" and a second sung title, more jerky phrasing on a raw nursery rhyme, intimate almost funky rock that may explain a little the intellectual excesses of the hero Christopher McCandless in search of the Atman. We are very much in the tradition of a Dream Theater with softer, even ethereal sequences. "Into The Wild" takes place a great and long final progressive instrumental epic like a great journey, an initiatory rite (ah this aria at 4'45 '' why I see GENESIS there !!) where flute, piano, trumpet create a climate made memories going as far as bossa nova at one point; the suite starting with an enlightened and lively composition made of nods to a number of dinosaur groups; At no time have I felt a length in this song and in this album of more than an hour. Neoprog or instrumental artrock with jazzy but very progressive touches, Marquette is a very good group in a vein to be explored, mixing power and varied breaks on a well-known basis to avoid too confusing listening; I was won over and amazed by this simple and innovative genre.

ALAINPP

mass-art

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