(Sound Stuff Records/Ten City Music) 2025.
CD/Digital
Progressive/progressive rock – UK
The British band Zen Orchestra consists of experienced musicians who have been in this line of work for a long time. However, due to numerous circumstances, they have now released their debut album featuring 7 songs. The album is dedicated to their longtime bassist and friend, Stewart Milner, who passed away in March 2023. His place has been taken by Italian Alberto Rigoni.
The group has long been creating and forming this album, which is composed of complex themes, ideologically diverse, and musically oriented towards forms of progressive music that blend the older school with newer trends. The material consists of longer compositions that are arranged in a complex manner, characterized by frequent, sometimes sudden changes in tempo, changes in mood, as well as instrumental duels, where the applied virtuosity of the band members is highlighted. Modern production, which is convincingly staged and realized, somewhat „eliminates“ that older variant of influence that came from the 70s, but which is still present, and in a way that only confirms the great knowledge of the material and music of the members of the group behind it.
Although it is not in its essence, the album of the same name by the band can be considered a conceptual achievement, where all the compositions are interconnected in a certain way. And I would say this is equally musical and psychological. The long-awaited album of the band is in front of an interested audience, which, if genre-oriented towards such a form, can find a lot of interesting and exciting things through the band’s musical solutions.
sep 18 2025
ZEN ORCHESTRA – „Zen Orchestra“
(Sound Stuff Records/Ten City Music) 2025.
CD/Digital
Progressive/progressive rock – UK
The British band Zen Orchestra consists of experienced musicians who have been in this line of work for a long time. However, due to numerous circumstances, they have now released their debut album featuring 7 songs. The album is dedicated to their longtime bassist and friend, Stewart Milner, who passed away in March 2023. His place has been taken by Italian Alberto Rigoni.
The group has long been creating and forming this album, which is composed of complex themes, ideologically diverse, and musically oriented towards forms of progressive music that blend the older school with newer trends. The material consists of longer compositions that are arranged in a complex manner, characterized by frequent, sometimes sudden changes in tempo, changes in mood, as well as instrumental duels, where the applied virtuosity of the band members is highlighted. Modern production, which is convincingly staged and realized, somewhat „eliminates“ that older variant of influence that came from the 70s, but which is still present, and in a way that only confirms the great knowledge of the material and music of the members of the group behind it.
Although it is not in its essence, the album of the same name by the band can be considered a conceptual achievement, where all the compositions are interconnected in a certain way. And I would say this is equally musical and psychological. The long-awaited album of the band is in front of an interested audience, which, if genre-oriented towards such a form, can find a lot of interesting and exciting things through the band’s musical solutions.
zenorchestra.com
Objavio Branimir Lokner • International reviews • • Tags: progressive, Zen Orchestra