What a lovely song. I’ve yet to see Townsend live and I must fix that one of these days.

I love prog but don’t rarely do any deep dives into it, as sometimes it’s just too darn boring for my ears. But there’s one artist that I can turn to all the time and always have a good time, and that’s Steven Wilson.



I’ve been a fan of his since the heady days of Porcupine Tree’s 2nd-last album, Fear Of A Blank Planet (and if you can find the 5.1 mix of it, jump on it because it’s awesome). I even saw them live when they toured on that album. They played it start-to-finish during the first half of the gig, and in their 2nd set they played material from PT’s extensive back catalogue. But most of it went over my head, because I wasn’t that familiar with the band at the time. What a waste!

But yeah, Steven Wilson. Awesome. He’s such a music nerd, that the sound of most of his work sounds far better than the output that has been through the hands of dedicated producers and mixers. Anyone who can make a jazz flute work in the context of a live prog rock performance derserves a big thumbs-up in my opinion.