Back in stock: Progressive Rock

Review: Stranger Skies is the fourth discographic chapter of multi-instrumentalist Roberto Vitelli's Ellesmere project, musically and visually strongly linked to the previous Wyrd, released in 2021. From an iconographic point of view, in fact, the collaboration with the famous illustrator Rodney Matthews, creator of a marvellous cover painting depicting two opposing worlds, one 'cold' - linked to the first four songs of the album - and one 'warm' - connected to the two long closing compositions - is here renewed. Stranger Skies thus once again deals with the theme of travelling and discovering new, unexplored worlds, the real trait d'union of all Ellesmere's records. Musically, we are fronting work that naturally follows in the footsteps of Wyrd; a magniloquent and energetic symphonic progressive rock, no longer largely instrumental as previously heard, but including a real singer that perfectly fits Roberto's songwriting: his name is John Wilkinson, co-author with Roberto of the title-track's lyrics. The main inspiration sources for this album are Genesis' 'A Trick of the Tail' and Rush's 'Moving Pictures'.