Magenta kommer ens ærend fra Wales for denne konserten.
Det er derfor den eneste muligheten for å få oppleve dette fantastiske bandet live i Skandinavia i år.
Kjenn din besøkelsestid og møt opp!.

For dere som ikke kjenner Magenta og/eller "Magic Pie har jeg lagt ut noen linker til låt-eksempler og kritikker.

Magenta - diverse låter


Her er hva Stephen Ellis skriver om Magenta etter Rites Of Spring Festival i April 2005 http://www.prog4you.com/Special_Feature-2005/Rites_of_Spring_Festival_2005.htm

: : Magenta : :

Ah Magenta. Where do you start describing this most excellent band? This was the third time I’d seen Magenta and it was by far the best yet. And the fact that Annie Haslam was on hand to introduce Magenta really pointed out how this music and this band in particular have brought symphonic and melodic progressive rock music full circle.

From the opening notes of the programmed keyboard intro to the audience mandated third encore where they had to replay a shortened version of their opening song {King of the Sky} this band had the audience clearly in the palm of their hands. And yes, Christina is ‘worth dying for’.

We were treated to just about all of Magenta’s “Revolutions” and “Seven” as well as the singles “Broken” and “I’m Alive”. In fact if you pick up a copy of their current Live CD you will have a near perfect copy of this RoSFest show.

One big difference and a reason why I do hope a Live at RoSFest CD is released is the wonderful 100% acoustic “Anger” from Seven. Chris Fry sat in a chair with Christina on her knees (and of course barefoot) adjacent to him as he played a most wonderful almost classical guitar version of Anger. With Christina’s angelic voice washing over the audience we were all treated to a rare moment in time where in fact time almost stood still.

One of the great moments of their set was when they came back out for the final encore and asked, nay demanded the audience get out of their seats and come forward to the front of the stage.

It was great to see this crowd of aging prog-rockers out of their seats and bouncing like little kids to the replay of “King of the Sky”. A great and truly unforgettable musical moment.

To me this was as close to a spiritual experience I can have this side of church


Og her er hva John Morley skrev etter Summers End Festival i September 2005 http://www.dprp.net/concrev/summersend.php

And with a sense of déjà vu on to headliners Magenta. I say déjà vu because they have headlined a few festivals of late, including this years Rosfest and last years Progsfest. What made tonight special was the debut of new bass player Daniel Fry (yes, younger brother of guitarist Chris Fry). And he seems to have eased right into the fold beautifully, not a note out of place and looking relaxed and confident. And also with a slightly harder edged playing style, which adds an interesting dynamic to the overall sound of the band. We got most of the Seven album tonight, played impeccably as usual. Good to hear Anger, sung unplugged with just Christina and Chris Fry on acoustic, and also Envy which is not played live very often. What really impressed tonight was the medley from forthcoming album Home. Some of these tracks have been played at previous gigs, but in the same way as the band debuted and honed the Seven material live, after a few listens the hooks and melodies really start to pull you in the more you hear them - and that was very pronounced tonight.

It's interesting to see how their live set has developed over the years to achieve a perfect balance - now that they have a few albums and singles behind them they are able to alternate between out and out rockers like King Of The Sky, shorter and more accessible songs like the singles I'm Alive and Broken, unplugged intimate fare and the epic 20 or so minute songs from Revolutions.

Good to see all of the band having a great time up there tonight - Daniel became much more confident as the gig went on and started edging closer to the front of the stage with brother Chris - add Christina to the mix and that makes for a very interesting and visually exciting spectacle. Mr Rob Reed on keyboards orchestrated the proceedings with his usual aplomb, and played some darn fine keyboards too; second guitarist Martin Rosser got a few moments to shine tonight too and the whole thing was kept together by the formidable drumming of Allan Mason-Jones. And to finish off with, what else but the magnificent epic White Witch from the Revolutions album, which has become a huge audience favorite. I know it will probably not be played live for very much longer to make way for songs from the newer albums, but that's to be expected.

Her er hva Claude Bosschem skriver om Magic Pie på www.progarchives.com

Norway has been known in the recent past for some heavy music like progresssive metal, doom metal or straightforward metal, true progressive rock is not so popular, unlike their Swedish brothers. But that will certainly change with this debut album, because you won’t find anything more progressive than this ‘Motions of Desire’. Even prog icons like The FLOWER KINGS and SPOCK'S BEARD have changed direction, their ‘die hard’ fans are not happy at all with this situation. Maybe those fans should open their minds, because MAGIC PIE picks up the pieces, where the aforementioned bands have left it. Their music holds the middle between symphonic rock of the seventies and modern neo-progressive influences. This band can already get the title of ‘revelation of the year 2005’.

Founded in 2002 they initially played a lot of covers, but they were far more ambitious. If course, you can hear a lot of influences from the recent and not so recent past, but the compositions are very inventive and inspired. Lead guitar player Kim Stenberg is without any doubt the driving force behind the group, next to his brilliant guitar playing he is also responsible for most of the compositions, production, mixing and even the artwork. But this is certainly no guitar album, on the contrary, because especially the ‘vintage Hammond’ and synthesizers of Gilbert Marshall give the music that extra progressive dimension.

The epic of 20 minutes ‘Change’ illustrates perfectly where it’s all about for MAGIC PIE, you get everything you could expect from a progressive track. The interplay between guitar and keyboards is very characteristic, the vocal harmonies and the numerous tempo changes are making this track an absolute masterpiece and already the first highlight on the cd. But don’t think that the music always stays ‘gentle’, because very often it gets a lot heavier with riffs, that may be compared to DEEP PURPLE and ATOMIC ROOSTER. You can hear some acoustic jazzy fragments as well, in fact it is nearly impossible to describe entirely this track, there are so many different music styles. And there is still almost one hour of music to come, too much you should you think, but they succeed to keep this same high level throughout the entire album, one could ask if they will ever be able to equal this.

‘Motions of Desire’ has clearly a MARILLION feeling (also vocally), with a catchy keyboard riff, a dreamy guitar solo and beautiful vocals (the two lead singers are very complementary). Just like the first tracks ‘Full Circle Poetry’ starts with ambient sounds, it has some BEATLES influences, but it reminds more of earlier SPOCK'S BEARD or other TRANSATLANTICS. ‘Without knowing why’ sounds a bit heavier and is a bit different from the first part of the album, although the synthesizers always add that progressive ‘touch’. But just listen to the extraordinary guitar solos of Stenberg, he may easily be compared with the other Scandinavian guitar masters.

Illusions & Reality Part 1 starts a bit folky (flute) and very gentle, but it continues into ‘heavy progressive rock’, especially Part 3 (where is Part 2?) is more into progressive metal (with a touch of DREAM THEATER). ‘Dream Vision’ ends the album right where it started, unequalled musical diversification, complex but yet accessible.

It came across my mind to give the maximum score to this album, but the production can certainly be improved, the only minor point, easily to work around in the future. This album will certainly be in many lists at the end of this year, seldom you will hear such an amazing debut album. Buy this stuff!!

My rating: 9,5/10

Magic Pie - Change