Höstsonaten (Autumn Sonata) is a swedish movie. What a strange name for an Ialian prog band.

Reverse paradox of Gazpacho, in a way.

Yeah, I know. Apparently it's no coincidence: they took their name from the film. Guess they really liked it! Good name though. Great band.

Indeed, good observation!

I'm tempted to watch it now.

Nice song by the way :) I'll check them out.

Their stuff seems pretty hard to get. Let me know if you want any PMs...

Nobody's mentioned Aksak Maboul:



They were Belgian, I think. They released some great stuff in the late 70s.

Aksak Maboul certainly is a lot of fun. I don't personally think of it as prog rock, but more as a sort of avantgarde dadaist group of musicians .. more typically Rock In Opposition (RIO). I don't like it when prog lays claim to all avantgarde music.

I fell in love with their first album a little while back. This is one of my favourites :)

They're commonly classed as avant-prog, and as far as I was aware the RIO movement was based on progressive bands exploring progressive ideals?

Anyway, yeah, the first and second albums are excellent.

i keep hearing about this RIO thing

pray, tell me more

and i don't want to wiki it, cos those guys are really dry

Wikipedia has them down as avant-rock. Progarchives have them down as avant-prog. Who's right and who's wrong?

In general I prefer to use the label prog rock about bands which were obviously rock bands using their ideas to expand on rock music. Rush, Yes and Hatfield and the North are good examples. I don't think RIO and prog rock are necessarily exclusive so I can possibly accept that Aksak Maboul occasionally plays prog, but I don't really think either of the songs we posted are prog rock songs. One is a humorous cover and the other sounds like some half-silly (yet awesome) theme from a strange television series. Progressive rock, no (imo). Avantgarde and humorous, yes.

There are many cases where I feel the "prog rock" label is not entirely suitable. If you have a band that is a reduced symphony orchestra that plays avantgarde chamber music, I just don't see where the "rock" part comes from. Another example, Robert Wyatts solo career is generally considered "prog", but I don't think he ever really tried to make a prog rock album. It's just that his music is avantgarde and so "prog rockers" (those who like prog) who represent the largest general group of consumers interested in alternative music apply the prog rock label to it, even when it's just a man in a wheelchair singing and playing mellow songs on the piano. I can see it's avantgarde, but what's so "rock" about that?