Ivory - Sad Cypress mp3 download

Samulkis

Nice album of late-period German prog fronted by father and son Ulrich and Thomas Sommerlatte. Ulrich was already around 64 when Sad Cypress was recorded. He had a classical background and was conductor of the Hannover Symphony at one part of his career. Unlike many other people his age, he loved the prog rock scene (although I wondered if his son helped influence him that way). Several other members were included, including vocals, guitar, bass and drums, while the Sommerlatte father and son were handling keyboards. In the late '70s there were a bunch of Genesis-inspired bands, like Kyrie Eleison, Neuschwanstein, the Florida band Babylon and this one. So it should come as no surprise who I recommend Ivory to: those who enjoy those said bands. Christian Meyer's vocals sound a lot like Peter Gabriel, but the keyboards from both of the Sommerlatte avoids copying the Tony Banks style, at times I get reminded more of the Eloy style of synth playing. This album was recorded in 1979, released in 1980 on Jupiter Records. Now I won't say this is groundbreaking or mindblowing, but still a pretty fine slice of late '70s Genesis-inspired symphonic prog! For some strange reason Prog Archives has Ivory categorized as "Psychedelic/Space Rock", which I can't understand, this is very much a symphonic prog album. As for that "space rock" element is the spacy Eloy-ish keyboards, that's it. This album is often dismissed, as too many of these Genesis-influenced bands, but of these kind of bands it's certainly one of the better. At a time Genesis was giving us Duke, it's nice to see bands at the end of the '70s/beginning of the '80s that still acknowledged the Gabriel-era Genesis, and Ivory only proved that. It certainly isn't as mindblowing as the early prog from the first part of the 1970s, but certainly one of the better albums I've heard released after 1978.

Djang

The Issue came in a gatefold cover