70s Progressive Rock Band Gryphon

So today on prog radio (https://www.progradio.com/) the band Gryphon turned up. Now Gryphon are unique. They are a 70s prog band formed by classically trained musicians and include elements of folk and renaissance music. That could be terrible, but it's not. They have recently had something of a revival, and if you look on their website (https://www.thegryphonpages.com/) you can see that they've recently come up with two new albums.

The track I'm listening to is from their 1974 album Red Queen To Gryphon Three, which contains four tracks, each of 8 to 10 minutes. This is very thoughtful, well-written, cleverly transitioning prog. It's sectional, but not jarringly so and it sounds like a whole rather than a bunch of different songs stuck together (a personal bugbear of mine which puts me off quite a lot of Marillion for example). There are repeating themes throughout.

Above all, it's smart. This is music made by people who know what they're doing in terms of composition. It would be really interesting to hear how they wrote it because it doesn't sound improvised.

The full album can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiEI3RtwbMk.

You can find a recent (2016) performance by Gryphon online here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovj3QS1p2pQ). I'll warn you that the opening couple of songs at least are less proggy and more pure renaissance, so don't be put off. This isn't just a concert of renaissance music, it is prog with drums, bass, guitars and keyboard.

Reasons to listen:

  • You are a fan of classic 70s prog
  • You like your prog to be complex
Reasons not to listen:
  • You can't bear the sound of a crumhorn
  • You don't like instrumentals (really?)
I can't recommend Gryphon highly enough. Before today I had heard very little of them, but they are now going on my list as one to explore thoroughly.

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