The two-day Progdreams Festival at Cultuurpodium Boerderij in Zoetermeer is well on its way to become an annual tradition in the Netherlands after this third edition. This venue is a perfect location for organizing this kind of events. This time seven bands were given the opportunity to present themselves to quite a large audience. During this edition a very special event took place, namely the reunion gig of the Swiss band Clepsydra. On both days the festival was hosted by the well-known Belgian music journalist John 'Bobo' Bollenberg; he had the honour to announce the gigs and to tell some interesting facts about the bands. On the first day the German bands Crystal Palace and RPWL and the Estonian band X-Panda performed, but this review is focussing on the second day with four promising bands on the bill.
 

Eclipse Sol-Air

Mireille Vicogne & Philippe Matic-Arnauld des Lions (r)

The relatively unknown multinational band Eclipse Sol-Air opened the second day of the festival. The band impressed many people in the audience with a mixture of metal, symphonic, folk and neo-prog rock and the use of classical instruments such as a violin and a flute. As befits a true symphonic rock band the tracks lasted often more than fifteen minutes and the dynamics, the blend of different styles and the solid presentation by the seven members quickly drew the audience's attention. However, not only the music was worthwhile listening to; also visually there was a lot going on. Lead singer Philippe Matic-Arnauld des Lions appeared to be a true actor by entertaining the audience with his stage acts. To fortify the lyrics and the music he used several attributes like welding goggles, a book, a telephone, a straitjacket,

Philippe Matic-Arnauld des Lions

an old man's cane and a doctor's white coat. Furthermore the band used a background screen video presentation. Dealing with such a tool is quite difficult, but Eclipse Sol-Air knew how to make it attractive by mentioning the song titles on the screen. The consistent style and the soft colours used provided a very clear impression.

The voices of the male and female vocalists were well-tuned, and the emotional and sincere crossover-prog caused goosebumps by many people. Especially the song Watch Over You had a deep impact since it was dedicated to Anna Kotarska, who painted the cover of their second album Bartok's Crisis (2011). Recently she died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver; she was only 24 years old. During this moving piece you could feel the pain and sorrow of the band members, which caused many people to be carried away with emotion. It was quite an impressive experience, which turned out to be a perfect start of the second day.
 

Harvest

Monique van der Kolk

Eclipse Sol-Air's performance was really convincing and not easy to match by Harvest, a Catalonian band with the Dutch female lead singer Monique van der Kolk.

Jordi Prats

At the beginning of the gig these Spanish neo-proggers made a somewhat poor and unstable impression. Apart from that the relaxing songs sounded quite alike which made it difficult to keep the attention of the audience. However, halfway through the concert they were able to turn the tide. This was not only caused by the improved sound reproduction and the regained confidence of the band's singer, but also by Harvest's new compositions. The new songs contained more dynamics and variation than what we already know from their earlier work, so maybe they will surprise us in the near future. Harvest is still called a promising band, but for the time being it's difficult for them to come up to the expectations live on stage.
 

Haken

Ross Jennings

The British prog rock band Haken made a stormy career after their highly acclaimed third album The Mountain (2013, see review). Most reviewers were enthusiastic and full of praise about the complexity of the music. A day before this festival they had played on the famous Baja Prog Festival in Mexico. Therefore we can't blame them for being four hours late at the venue in Zoetermeer. There was no time left to recuperate from the flight, nor for a soundcheck, so they entered the stage

Charles Griffiths & Connor Green (r)

without any preparations. Well, that's asking for trouble because the sound technicians had to adjust the sound during the first part of the performance. Initially the vocals were inaudible and the drums and bass sounded much too loud, which caused the music to lose all subtleties and details. Hence the first half of the concert degenerated in a jumble of sounds...

However, gradually it became better. The Gentle Giant-like piece The Cockroach King was very entertaining which vivaciously brought us back to the debut album Aquarius (2010, see review). That is to say: until the noise returned by the end of the song; even the singer's microphone failed for a while. It was corrected rapidly, but unfortunately the damage was already done...
 

Clepsydra

Aluiso Maggini

The Progdreams Festival had the honour to facilitate the start of the reunion tour of Clepsydra, the rather famous neo-prog band from Switzerland. The expectations of the people in the audience ran high since most of them attended this festival to watch them play. Would the band still be able to impress just as they did fifteen years ago? Well, the title of the opening's track The Missing Spark proved to be appropriate for the show, because Clepsydra seemed to have no compelling stage act. The interplay between the band members and the audience was almost reduced to zero.

Marco Cerulli

The fact that singer Aluisio Maggini read the lyrics from an autocue didn't either contribute to an attractive stage presentation.

But hey, it's all about the music, isn't it, and that was really stunning! Maggini grabbed many visitors by the throat with his strong pervasive voice. There was also a major role for Marco Cerulli with his emotional guitar playing. Goosebumps! However, Philip Hubert (keyboards), Andy Thommen (bass) and Pietro Duca (drums) excelled on their instruments as well. Clepsydra regaled the audience on great classics from the four studio albums they recorded in the past performing many highlights like No Place For Flowers, The Nest and The Last Grain. The visitors witnessed the return of a true prog legend for whose reunion they have waited fifteen years. It was a perfect ending of the third edition of Progdreams!

Martinka Zandijk-van Noorloos & Arthur Haggenburg (edited by Peter Willemsen)