Yesterday’s morning temperature  was 41 degrees at 9:00. That’s just about 10-15 degrees higher than normal morning temperatures in January. So with a temperature like that there was no way I wasn’t running.

I decided to run a four-mile course and followed through on that decision! The only bad part of the run was it was slightly windy when I was running in a southwesterly direction which was for about half of the run. Oh and when I had to stop and tie my shoes!!

The Results

Miles- 4.02     Total Time: 40:36    Pace: 10:05 min/mile

The Splits: Mile 1 10:11  Mile 2 9:59 Mile 3 10:09 Mile 4 10:01  .02 -9:17

Avg HR 141     Max HR 156    Calories Burned: 513

The Soundtrack  Find Your Sun – The D Project.

The soundtrack for the run was Find Your Sun from The D Project. The D Project  is a  Neo Prog band from Canada founded by singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Stéphane Desbiens and author Francis Foy. From their website:

The first album « Shimmering Lights evoked a mix of different music styles; progressive rock, classical, metal including jazz.In 2008, was the release of the album Sagarmatha Dilemma , for which the music was inspired by Mount Everest images and its conquest by the climber Maxime Jean.

In 2011, D Project offered a more rock and direct sound with the album « Big Face. Then came the album  Making Sense which arrived just in time for the band to offer a memorable performance at the 2014 Quebec Summer Festival with Marillion.

Moreover, part of the sound of the last three albums was produced by Andy Jackson, Pink Floyd sound engineer. D Project always surrounded themselves with prestigious musician and artists.D Project is a mix of Pink Floyd, Genesis and King Crimson, but with a personal touch and characteristic sound. ‘’Pink Floyd meets Classic rock’’

About Find Your Sun

Find Your Sun is The D Project’s fifth studio album. Throughout the life of the band  special guests have played an important part in the band’s sound. Artists like: Tomas Bodin from Flower Kings, Martin Orford from IQ and Fred Schendel from Glass Hammer have all contributed to the band’s work.

The core band on Find Your Sun is Stéphane Desbiens / guitars, keyboards, vocals, composer, Isabelle Cormier / violin, backing vocals, Philippe Desbiens / bass and Jean Gosselin / drums

Special guests include:

• Peter Falconer / vocals
• Fred Schendel / keyboards
•  Romain Thorel / keyboards
• Marie Noelle Harvey / violin
• Laura Laberge / cello
• Sylvain Laberge / flutes
• Nathalie Gobeil / bassoon
• Daniel Simon / sax
• Chorale de Saguenay / chorus vocals

Overall, I really enjoyed the album and look forward to.becoming more.familiar with it over the next few weeks. during the first listen both the guitar of Stéphane Desbiens and the violin of Isabelle Cormier caught my attention.

So Check It Out! Again,as for me, I will be checking out their back catalog!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Music of The D Project

Artist’s Website

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

Here is the  video for “Find Your Sun” from The D Project…..

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A Fine Run Highlighted by a 9:52 Mile! – Music by Karibow

Over the last few weeks I have been checking Weather.com’s rating for going for a run. Considering the conditions, clear skies, low temperature and humidity I figured it would be a high rating. It was 8 out of 10. That was slightly lower than I thought it would be, but still great. No excuses if today’s run wasn’t a good one!

The Run

But with that said the run didn’t start out too well. I wasn’t too far into the run before I realized I forgot my Fitbit! I had left it in the house charging. So I turned around and walked back home! I know I never ease into runs like I should so I considered  this minor delay my easing into this run.

So I see out again when I passed the first half-mile mark in under five minutes I thought to myself” could this be the day I run a mile under 10 minutes! Sure enough I ran the first mile in 9:52! Now came the hard part not sucking wind over the next 3 miles!

I slowed down a little but I still felt pretty good. I ran the second mile in 10:19, with an average pace of 10:05. Once again I slowed down a little more but again I still didn’t feel too bad! Mile 3 was completed in 10:38. I looked at my time when I hit the 5k mark and my time was 31:56!

Since at this point in the run I had run my fastest mile and 5K this year I had no problem with slowing down some more. The last mile was 10:50. At the end of the 4 miles I felt pretty good so I gave it a little sprint covering the last 0.13 miles at a 9:33 pace!!
So I was really, really happy with the run!

The Nerdy Details

Total Distance 4.13 miles    Total Time: 42:54  Average Pace: 10:23 (m/m)

Mile Splits Mile 1: 9:52 m/m Mile 2 – 10:19 m/m   Mile 3 10:38 m/m Mile 4 10:50 m/m   0.12 -19:35 m/m

Average Heart Rate ; 150 bpm Max Heart Rate 172 bpm

Calories Burned: 595 cals.

The Soundtrack From Here to Impossible – Karibow

The soundtrack for the run was From Here to the Impossible from the Prog Rock band Karibow. Karibow is a Ctossover Prog band from Germany. From Wikipedia…..

Karibow is a German progressive rock band, the essential elements of the neo-progressive rock with the compositional characteristics of the Adult Orientated rock (AOR) connects. Karibows music is characterized by clear melodic lines, rhythmic complex arrangements and epic, sometimes futuristic text content. Musical relationship consists of bands such as Saga , Marillion and Toto . December 2014 Karibow were with the German Rock & Pop Prize awarded “Best Progressive Band”. Read More

I really like this album and will be writing about it soon! Until then here’s the album trailer!

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The Run….

So while Elizabeth conquered the Broad Street 10 miler yesterday, I conquered the RG Riverside half a ten miler on Saturday, running five miles for the first time this year!! I had set out to run a 4.2 mile course I call the Harper Loop. I have not run that course yet this year mainly because it has a long ascent up Pancoast Avenue and then another shorter ascent up Fairview to Harper. Followed by a descent and short ascent along Harper followed by a longer descent down Cranberry Lane.  I did well keeping a slower and steady pace knowing that the hills would be a challenge. The first three miles were 10:44, 11:06, and 10:54 beat you can guess where the hills were!! I slowed down on mile four because I hadn’t really run a four miler with hills and I was tired. But when I stabilized my breathing thanks to the rhythms of Lis er Stille, I didn’t feel too bad, so I thought “let’s see if I can go five”, knowing that Lizzie was doing ten on Sunday! At least I could do a half of that!!

Boy did the mileage on the GPS on the iPhone increase slowly over that last mile!! I ended up going a lot farther than I thought I would need to go to make that last mile! My last two miles were in 11:47 and 11:39. At least the last mile was slightly faster!! My final time was 56:34. Lizzie’s split at the five-mile mark was 54:38 so I would have only been a minute and change behind her!!

When I told my wife that she said “You don’t have to beat her, you’re 63 and she is 24!” True I thought but hell I’ve been running for most of those years and she’s been running for two!, besides I’d like to be better than her at something!! Anyway, both my 5 mile run and Lizzie’s run have motivated me…. hopefully I can stay motivated!!

The Soundtrack: Empirical Ghost – Lis er Stille from Denmark

The soundtrack for the run was Empirical Ghost from Lis er Stille. Lis er Stille is a Danish prog rock band. They are cataloged in the Post Rock/Math rock sub-genre.

Lis Er Stille is a band from Denmark founded in 2004 as an art project between the painter Vindril and singer Martin Byrialsen. The idea of this project was for Martin to make Vindril’s paintings into music, but as time passed the music grew and a band was build from it….

…When looking at Lis Er Stille from the surface most of their compositions resemble that of post-rock bands as well as some alternative rock bands like Muse, Coldplay and others, but there’s also a prog rock undertone in them. Some people recall past prog rockers when hearing Lis Er Stille while most will likely see links with the modern prog and related bands. Highly recommended for fans of post-rock and the modern alternative / prog bands. Full Biography at ProgArchives.

lis er stille – press photo – by kasper hemme

The musician line-up for the album is….

Martin Byrialsen / Vocals + Keyboards
Asbjørn Helboe / Bass
Tue Schmidt Rasmussen / Guitars
Jon Gotlev / Drums

The music is distinctive and good and I kinda like the vocals. The one bad thing about the album is that is short for a progressive rock album clocking in at 52 minutes for the ten tracks. So the album is great for a four mile run but comes up short (in length only) for a slow five-mile run!! Now what may be a challenge is to complete the run before the end of the album!! To do that I would need to run the course at a 10:24 pace! A challenge for later in the year!!

Links for Further Explorations of Lis er Stille

Official Website: Bandcamp
Facebook
ProgArchives

Here’s a video for the track “Gold Future” from Empirical Ghost by Lis er Stille

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrY7w-MjFvc

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So I came home tonight from being outside all day doing a percolation test in Howell Township, all ready to write about the albums that I listened to on the way to, and from the site, and then……

I was researching the album  Ravens & Lullabies from Gordon Giltrap and Oliver Wakeman. As part of the research,  I went to Oliver’s page on Spotify and found a great album The 3 Ages of Magick-  wait Oliver Wakeman and Steve Howe?? The light bulb goes off over the dim old man’s head…….and at AllMusic I read this about the album……

It seems this album has been tailored for fans of Yes and particularly of their colorful keyboardist, Rick Wakeman. The latter’s son, Oliver, is at the helm of this project, which shares thematic similarities with dad’s Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Granted, there is something unfair about comparing Oliver Wakeman’s music with his father’s, but who could do otherwise? Everything he knows about music he learned from his father. He plays the piano, the organ, even the mini-Moog like him, using the same kind of phrasing and conveying the same conception of romanticism. And the fact that he recruited guitarist Steve Howe to grace half of the tracks on The 3 Ages of Magick will make any Yes fan feel at home.

So here’s YouTube Video for “The Enchanter” keyboard’s by Oliver (son of Rick) Wakeman and guitar by Steve Howe…..

So here is the video,  you can go “into the night” with the great “Road Song”, while I check out the two guys in the middle, and think about which albums from the guys on the ends, I want to listen to tomorrow!! So maybe you’ll read about Ravens & Lullabies and Rubidium by Mashine later or maybe I’ll just fall asleep while reading Cut to the Bone by Jefferson Bass, who knows….not even The Shadow….

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I have kind of let my blog slide a bit, so I wanted to kick 2013 off with a list of some of my favorite albums from 2012.  I’m a little behind with new releases this year, but I wanted to share some of the albums that have stuck with me throughout the year.  Hope you enjoy!

Big Big Train – English Electric Part 1

This album may very well be my favorite of the year.  It sounds to me like it could be a follow up to Genesis’s Selling England By The Pound.  The album has a very English feel to me, full of great melodies.  I enjoyed their previous album The Underfall Year but it really didn’t click with me like this one did.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDyBTqy1Z10]

Beyond The Bridge – The Old Man And The Spirit

I believe in one of my few posts over the past year I mentioned this album, it is probably my favorite progressive metal album in a long time.  It’s big, bombastic, full of amazing vocals and musicianship.  It has everything that I love.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDPNW8o3WSU]

The Night Flight Orchestra – Internal Affairs

This is just a fun, fun album.  Formed by the singer from Soilwork and bass player from Arch Enemy, one would expect a heavy album, and that couldn’t be further from what this is, a straight up classic 70’s rock album with some of the catchiest melodies I have heard in a while.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE99mc_ubHc]

Thank You Scientist – Maps Of Non-Existent Places

This album literally has everything jazz, funk, prog, metal, alternative, horns & strings.  It’s just everything thrown together, but it works and it works extremely well.  This album got a lot of play by me throughout the summer..

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UMfPvl8EgM]

Jess And The Ancient Ones – Jess And The Ancient Ones

This is a more recent addition, but it catapulted to one of my favorites of the year very quickly.  Very retro sounding, great female vocals, songs about satan, how can you go wrong.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofI2heJhcOc]

That’s 5 for now, I’ll post a few more in the coming days.  Hope you check some of these out and maybe find something new to enjoy!

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