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josh_campbell

josh_campbell

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Hello fellow composers! My name is Josh. I wasn't sure what kind of reaction (if any) I would get for posting in here. Like most of you, I am a composer of different styles, including orchestral, honing my craft and finding my way.

Well, my other passion is progressive rock and metal and I have dedicated alot of my time to recording my own self performed/produced albums. I've just released my second studio album, Sentian, Vol I Revelation.

Sentian, Vol I Revelation
Sentian, Viol II Revolution

This is instrumental music, highly arranged and conceptual based. Other friends/users of this forum have suggested I post it here, so here you go. There are orchestral elements of course, but there is also heavy use of synths. Either way, I feel these albums are very topical and would love to hear any feedback.

My question is, do we have any other users out there, into prog rock and prog metal? It would be cool if there are! Hit me up with your songs or thoughts on prog.

Sentian_AlbumCover_FINAL3000px.jpg
Click to read more...
 
josh_campbell said:
Hello fellow composers! My name is Josh. I wasn't sure what kind of reaction (if any) I would get for posting in here. Like most of you, I am a composer of different styles, including orchestral, honing my craft and finding my way.

Well, my other passion is progressive rock and metal and I have dedicated alot of my time to recording my own self performed/produced albums. I've just released my second studio album, Sentian, Vol I Revelation.

Sentian, Vol I Revelation
Sentian, Viol II Revolution

This is instrumental music, highly arranged and conceptual based. Other friends/users of this forum have suggested I post it here, so here you go. There are orchestral elements of course, but there is also heavy use of synths. Either way, I feel these albums are very topical and would love to hear any feedback.

My question is, do we have any other users out there, into prog rock and prog metal? It would be cool if there are! Hit me up with your songs or thoughts on prog.

Sentian_AlbumCover_FINAL3000px.jpg
Click to expand...

Hi Josh, Love what you did! I'm partial to Prog Rock personally, I find it is a genre that has always resonated with me, rarely boring. I grew up in the 60s and 70s with ELP, PFM, Curved Air, Genesis, Ekseption, Triumvirat, and beynd with IONA, Dream Theater, Rush, etc. Hardly "easy music," but challenging, engaging great instrumental storytelling.

So far I heard two of your songs and love the journey! :) Great production, (love the drums and synths) and the multiple directions the music goes without feeling it's losing its relevance. Do you play all "instruments?"

Very well done!

Andre
 
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I'm not a professional musician but I did a foray into Prog folk/rock last year to self-produce a cover of a song by Magna Carta, Lord of the Ages. I was well-received by the band. I had members of Celestial Fire (IONA) contribute and that brought it home for me. I took care of the keys, virtual synths, arrangements and mixing.



Peace,

Andre
 
creativeforge said:
Hi Josh, Love what you did! I'm partial to Prog Rock personally, I find it is a genre that has always resonated with me, rarely boring. I grew up in the 60s and 70s with ELP, PFM, Curved Air, Genesis, Ekseption, Triumvirat, and beynd with IONA, Dream Theater, Rush, etc. Hardly "easy music," but challenging, engaging great instrumental storytelling.

So far I heard two of your songs and love the journey! :) Great production, (love the drums and synths) and the multiple directions the music goes without feeling it's losing its relevance. Do you play all "instruments?"

Very well done!

Andre
Click to expand...
Hi Andre, thanks so much for the kind words, that means alot. Yes, I played all the instruments, apart from the drums that I programmed with GGD Modern & Massive. All those bands you mentioned are absolutely on the list of my influences. ELP especially comes out near the end of the last track on Vol I. Rush, Dream Theater, much the same. Some of these guys I've not heard of, I'll check them out :)
 
topaz said:
Love your music Josh, thanks for sharing. Big Frost fan here but love lots of prog artists.

be proud. great music sir ;)
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Oh thanks so much! Highest of compliments indeed. Yes Frost* are one of my favorite all time groups. I love the way Jem leans more to the synth/electronic side of things as well. I think that's what makes this great.
 
topaz said:
Love your music Josh, thanks for sharing. Big Frost fan here but love lots of prog artists.

be proud. great music sir ;)
Click to expand...
creativeforge said:
I'm not a professional musician but I did a foray into Prog folk/rock last year to self-produce a cover of a song by Magna Carta, Lord of the Ages. I was well-received by the band. I had members of Celestial Fire (IONA) contribute and that brought it home for me. I took care of the keys, virtual synths, arrangements and mixing.



Peace,

Andre
Click to expand...

This piece is great Andre. I thought it was really nicely mixed and I liked the mixture of modern ambient sounds along with the retro 70s instrumentation. Very cool. Reminds me of the group Beardfish.
 
Hi Josh, I‘m a fan of prog too, namely Genesis, with some sprinkling of Yes and Rush, but also listen to a wide and varied pallet. I find a lot of prog fans are also into composing more orchestral pieces, either for pure pleasure or commissioned. The love of instrumentals and letting instruments ‘sing’ in prog is a good grounding. Will give your music a listen when I get a chance later this week!
 
Hi Josh, similarly I am a music composer and also a keyboard player in London prog circles. I played with the band called Karnataka until 2017. I co-write and released the Secrets of Angels Album with the band and some other live albums and DVDs and album got some awards in the prog circles. Nowadays playing with Hayley Griffiths Band, working on the new album. I shared stage with many other great bands of Prog with my bands in the UK and in other parts of the world.

This year I have two prog band albums in production with some other big names of the genre in the UK and Turkey.




 
I listened to Vol I and liked it very much. As others already said, very good and creative synth usage and a nice balance between vintage and modern.
But did you ever consider recording it with real drums and guitars (the guitars aren't real, right?)?

So here's my story: I started a 2-man-epic-prog-rock-project with a friend in 2003. We wrote a concept album (called Exodus like your 2nd track) and then started recording it song by song.
The things happend in life and we split up with other bands we were currently playing in and lost our rehearsal room. So we had the album half way finished but couldn't record drums any more.

A few years later we wanted to continue but couldn't agree on the drums. My friend wanted to use programmed drums but I found them too lifeless. And still we didn't have a room to record real drums.

Fast forward to 2021. My friend has now moved with his familiy to another city. A few weeks ago we had a phone call and I talked about continuing the album. I had the idea to have a drummer I had previously worked with on fiverr record the drums. So we talked to that drummer and he recorded a demo of one of the tracks and then we all decided to give it a go and record the album with him.
To have a consistent drum sound we're going to re-record the drums for all tracks with him. We're now almost finished preparing the backing tracks for him, so we're very excited what he will deliver in the next weeks.
We still have contact to some of the singers we had, but lost contact to some others, so we will have to find some new singers as well.
We're doing this as a hobby, so the whole process might still take some time. So hopefully, I can present the final result here in 2023 (20 years after we started it).

And I'm very excited to have some new opportunities to use all the libraries I aquired out of GAS ;)
 
josh_campbell said:
My question is, do we have any other users out there, into prog rock and prog metal? It would be cool if there are! Hit me up with your songs or thoughts on prog.
Click to expand...
Nice songs of yours. Thanks for opening this thread.
I have done my share of prog playing & listening.
As a life-long King Crimson fan I only discovered earlier this year that Fripp is married to Toyah Wilcox. Here is Toyah singing/performing one of the finest arrangements I've heard in a long while. Believe me "21st Century Schizoid Man" this lady gets it. Check it out:

 
Riz said:
Hi Josh, I‘m a fan of prog too, namely Genesis, with some sprinkling of Yes and Rush, but also listen to a wide and varied pallet. I find a lot of prog fans are also into composing more orchestral pieces, either for pure pleasure or commissioned. The love of instrumentals and letting instruments ‘sing’ in prog is a good grounding. Will give your music a listen when I get a chance later this week!
Click to expand...
Cheers Riz. Yes I think the style just naturally attracts those sorts of people. Both those bands are high on the list for me. Track three from Vol I will is very reminiscent of Genesis.
 
philamelian said:
Your album is right my type of music btw. Congratulations with the release. This weeks album listening sorted. :)
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Ah thanks very much my friend. I appreciate that alot. Well done on the awards, they were well deserved for sure. I'm getting Ayreon vibes quite alot (which is always a good thing in my books!).
 
FlyingAndi said:
I listened to Vol I and liked it very much. As others already said, very good and creative synth usage and a nice balance between vintage and modern.
But did you ever consider recording it with real drums and guitars (the guitars aren't real, right?)?

So here's my story: I started a 2-man-epic-prog-rock-project with a friend in 2003. We wrote a concept album (called Exodus like your 2nd track) and then started recording it song by song.
The things happend in life and we split up with other bands we were currently playing in and lost our rehearsal room. So we had the album half way finished but couldn't record drums any more.

A few years later we wanted to continue but couldn't agree on the drums. My friend wanted to use programmed drums but I found them too lifeless. And still we didn't have a room to record real drums.

Fast forward to 2021. My friend has now moved with his familiy to another city. A few weeks ago we had a phone call and I talked about continuing the album. I had the idea to have a drummer I had previously worked with on fiverr record the drums. So we talked to that drummer and he recorded a demo of one of the tracks and then we all decided to give it a go and record the album with him.
To have a consistent drum sound we're going to re-record the drums for all tracks with him. We're now almost finished preparing the backing tracks for him, so we're very excited what he will deliver in the next weeks.
We still have contact to some of the singers we had, but lost contact to some others, so we will have to find some new singers as well.
We're doing this as a hobby, so the whole process might still take some time. So hopefully, I can present the final result here in 2023 (20 years after we started it).

And I'm very excited to have some new opportunities to use all the libraries I aquired out of GAS ;)
Click to expand...
Hi there. Thanks for listening. The only thing that isn't real is the drums, which I used GGD for. I just work really hard to play them as accurately as I can. My story isn't that different from yours to be honest. Life moves forward and so do people etc. My philosophy though is and has always been to just get it done; don't let anyone hold you back (especially flaky drummers). I don't really care about execution. It's a means to an end. And at the end of the day, I will only produce to the best of my ability and that's all one can ask for. Just expressing myself is the main objective.
 
b_elliott said:
Nice songs of yours. Thanks for opening this thread.
I have done my share of prog playing & listening.
As a life-long King Crimson fan I only discovered earlier this year that Fripp is married to Toyah Wilcox. Here is Toyah singing/performing one of the finest arrangements I've heard in a long while. Believe me "21st Century Schizoid Man" this lady gets it. Check it out:

Click to expand...

Thanks very much. Yeah I couldn't find much on this website about prog, so everyone's coming out of the woodwork which is great to see! Yes I follow Robert and Toyah on Instagram which is always entertaining. This is a cool cover. Just on the topic, see what you think of 'Power' by Kanye West. He sampled this track.
 
Riz said:
The love of instrumentals and letting instruments ‘sing’ in prog is a good grounding.
Click to expand...
Very good observation. I love that aspect too. I read somewhere lately someone referring to Keith Emerson as being the Jimi Hendrix of keys, and I understand what he means. My first fascination as a kid was to listen to whole classical vinyls, box sets by Reader's Digest or others.

And when I first heard of Pink Floyd, it was their film at Pompei broadcast on TV. I found many of the expansive sonic explorations mesmerizing. Songs didn't have to be 3 min long, and instrumental music could be much more than a vehicle for lyrics, but have their own stories without words.
 
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creativeforge said:
Very good observation. I love that aspect too. I read somewhere lately someone referring to Keith Emerson to the Jimi Hendrix of keys, and I understand what he means. My first fascination as a kid was to listen to whole classical vinyls, box sets by Reader's Digest or others.

And when I first heard of Pink Floyd, it was their film at Pompei broadcast on TV. I found many of the expansive sonic explorations mesmerizing. Songs didn't have to be 3 min long, and instrumental music could be much more than a vehicle for lyrics, but have their own stories without words.
Click to expand...
Keith Emerson was the boss quite frankly.
 
josh_campbell said:
Thanks very much. Yeah I couldn't find much on this website about prog, so everyone's coming out of the woodwork which is great to see! Yes I follow Robert and Toyah on Instagram which is always entertaining. This is a cool cover. Just on the topic, see what you think of 'Power' by Kanye West. He sampled this track.
Click to expand...

I am drawn to the idea of song that becomes bigger than its original as it goes on to be incorporated by other genres/artists/generations. Sort of how Dickens' story characters find themselves outside their origins.

You mentioned metal in your OP....

Earlier on in vi, I brought up a heavier band Converge out of Boston. Normally I don't listen to hardcore punk; however, I discovered them being featured in a Berklee College of Music sound engineering class re their Jane Doe album. The polar opposite of Jon Anderson; yet, they connect.



Please continue to post your stuff on vi. There is a cadre of the savvy here who know and love the progressive.

Now it's the beauty way to go "Take off eh".
 
josh_campbell said:
Keith Emerson was the boss quite frankly.
Click to expand...
My older sister had been studying classical piano for years at the time I brought Pictures At An Exhibition home. Like most of us at the time, she didn't have a grid for what she heard, and she yelped at some of the things she heard, positively blew her classical mind. :)
 
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