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Peninsula - 2026 - "Revelation Space" (48:47; Knoydart Records) The latest album from the quartet of George Robertson (drums and percussion), David Boothby (guitar, soundscapes), James Blackford (guitar), and Tom Blackford (bass, synth, soundscapes, xenochrony) comprises three long-form compositions built from improvisations recorded in December 2024 at Karma Studios, Stoke Newington and released in April of this year. These days I listen to a great deal of improvised music, although I prefer the term “live composition”, and given the complexity of the music on show it is quite difficult to believe much of this was not rehearsed beforehand as these feel much more like carefully constructed and scored pieces. Mind you, I do not know how much work was undertaken after that event to result in the album I am now listening to, but whatever happened it really works. Here we have a guitar-led ambient progressive rock album with tendencies towards classic Pink Floyd, Vangelis, Jean Michel Jarre and others which definitely has some space rock tendencies but not nearly as overtly space or rock as that genre tends to be. What it is, is an album where the listener can find themselves falling deep inside and drifting away and it is wonderfully relaxing while also having direction and drive. It is an album which greatly rewards being played on headphones when the listener wants to be removed from the drudgery of day-to-day life and instead wants to fall deep into the soundscape, and in this was the “space” certainly makes sense in that one can easily imagine this as an astronaut having lost their umbilical cord and is now drifting, endlessly tumbling with the cosmos around them. I thoroughly enjoyed this album, and although I have no idea how it came to me (after nearly 40 years my record keeping has now approved) I note this is available on Bandcamp for just 5 pounds which is a bargain. Kev Rowland, August 2026 Progtector: August 2026 Related Links: Peninsula