LIVE REVIEW – RECORD COLLECTOR

“To experience the soaring, experimental, epic musical investigations of their new album, alloyed with essential choices from its previous incarnations, ESP proffers an expanding musical pathway ahead. From the opening synth pulsations of ‘The Rising’ they unlocked a new musical door, the new release’s symphonic prog highlights entrancing the room.” – Full Review – Paul Davies – Record Collector

Gareth’s Prog Blog 16/10/2019 Live report – ESP Project, Half Moon, Putney

“The Rising album launch – another beautifully crafted addition to the canon from Tony Lowe’s ESP Project” – Gareth’s Prog Blog

Though ESP has had a wide-ranging cast of musicians in its brief history, Tony Lowe still manages to skilfully steer the band ever onwards and upwards. This gig, with an acoustic duo incarnation of Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate providing the support slot, was to promote the launch of the latest ESP Project release The Rising. I’d urged prog fans to get to see ESP after the performance marking the launch of their debut, Invisible Din in November 2016, highlighting them as new standard-bearers for 21st century symphonic prog; three full-length albums and one EP in, I stand by my words. Though 2018’s 22 Layers of Sunlight deviates from full-on symphonic with a post-rock feel, the writing, execution and production all remain first-class and this is retained through the EP Three and The Rising, two releases with a stabilised line-up. The show included material from all ESP releases and was warmly received. Consummate professionals, the performance was delivered almost perfectly – a brief interlude was required to reboot a patch, allowing Damien Child time to interact with the audience and there was a degree of lack of Child’s vocal clarity when the musicians were in full flow. As much as I like the Half Moon, I suspect that a more forgiving space would better suit the cinematic nature of their material, but I’m aware of at least two converts present on the night who had never previously heard the band

ESP Live at Danfest 9 in Leicester – Saturday 30th November TICKETS