(Progressive Rock / Neo Prog) The Psychedelic Ensemble - The Tale Of The Golden King - 2013, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The Psychedelic Ensemble biography

The Psychedelic Ensemble is a one man band who chooses to remain anonymous, with the only outside collaboration being with Janos Marton and Alexandra Serban, who together with the artist, carefully selected images produced by artists at the Living Museum as imagery for the album.
The project came about some years ago, starting after the artist stumbled on an article in The New York Times about an exhibition featuring art from the Living Museum, a center devoted to artistic production by patients at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York. Then in the summer of 2008,an NPR interview with psychiatrist and Living Museum curator, Janos Marton struck a chord that brought about the conception of the opening of The Art of Madness: I think that creativity, and artistic production, is almost a symptom of mental illness. From there the album was written and recorded over 3 months in 2008.

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=5153

When I started to listen to this record I thought the singer was from Britain because he sung so nicely. The voice wasn't very unlike the singer's of Big Big Train of United Kingdom. This album seems to be a story of a king and a kingdom. The Psychedelic Ensemble is an anonymous one man band but it really doesn't sound like ONE man. It gets help by singing from Ann Caren on a couple of tunes. The picture seems to be an old style church window. "The Tale of The Golden King" was released 2013.
The music of this record is a great adventure for the listener. He meets musical intertexts from the Medieval times, from Yes, from classical music, folk storys and the tradition of prog music in particular. Especially important on this record is the keyboards; they are driving the music forward and do not apologize for anything. Not afraid for hitting the highest notes and almost reuse Yes themes the Psychedelic Orchestra manages to make an awesome prog record. Because I am seldom totally pleased I think it was a bit too long and didn't hit the really best points but the standard is high and the record is very even. There is no bad tracks. The "worst" did get 7/10 points by my and the best 9,5/10 so the high class is indisputable.

The vocals are very good, I said they sounded British, and that is kudos. The female helping voice(also solo) on two tracks was so nice, I am a little sad they were'nt used more. On "The Queen of Sorrow" and "Great Day" Ann Caren sings and does it very well. The male voice has an unusual feeling too. The keyboards sound retro or original and on "The Prophecy of the Seer-The Transformation of the King" the beginning riff of Yes' Heart of the Sunrise seems to be reused just like on "Finale-Arise!-Great Kingdom" where I think I hear something of "The Fish"(Fragile). Those intertexts do great in this music. It feels very real all the time: the keys, the drums and the guitars. My favourite track is "The Golden King" which is very orchestral and encreases all the time, where we hear a lot of a beautiful voice, a flute and an orchestra. The ending track is almost as good as the last mentioned, also very orchestral and a main theme returns.

This record is amongst the best til now from 2013 and really worth listening. Perhaps I should give it some more examinations to be fair, now I nearly drowned in the music. I will give it four strong stars!

Review by DrömmarenAdrian (progarchives.com)

The Psychedelic Ensemble: Anonymous - All Instruments
With:
Ann Caren: Lead and Backing Vocals
The Psychedelic Ensemble Orchestra: Conducted by Jonathan Roberts