Nine Skies - 5.20XL (2024) {Special Edition, Remastered} CD-Rip

Finally available again on a reissue. French progressive rock collective Nine Skies have been weaving together their rock, jazz, classical and progressive influences for a number of years now – combining their acoustic instrumentation with deep, poignant and poetic lyrics featuring characters from modern city life.Their second album, Sweetheart Grips, released in late 2019, was a dense, complex and often heartbreaking exploration of a young soldier's experiences in World War II. This latest release, 5.20, is still recognizably Nine Skies, but overall more introspective and tender. They retain the plaintive, melancholic vocals and lyrical content, but the music is almost entirely acoustic on this occasion, yet has a layered depth, complexity and richness, with intertwining acoustic guitar and piano, complemented by strings, flute, saxophone and rhythmic percussion. The musical journey is beautiful but also challenging – dark and sad, but also hopeful and uplifting. Guest appearances by Steve and John Hackett as well as Damian Wilson are perfectly timed and contribute to an excellent, contemporary and intimate exploration of the human condition, illuminating life, death, faith, struggle, suffering, despair and finally hope. The shadow of the current pandemic seems to have somehow etched itself into the music without having to be overtly referenced. Nine Skies have produced a complex, challenging yet beautiful album that is truly progressive and produces a power and depth that belies the mainly acoustic approach. The whole band harmonizes beautifully with the strings and guest musicians. The darkness of Anne-Claire's powerful, poetic lyrics, which tell of struggles and despair at the time, cannot completely block out the uplifting vision they also point to and the need for us all to somehow carry on.