As soon as you listen to the opening notes of Light In The World, you know that this album is going to spread no small amount of joy in the world. Moon Halo is the collaboration between Mostly Autumn keyboard colossus, Iain Jennings, and Riversea vocalist & guitarist, Marc Atkinson. Jennings keys bring a warmth before Atkinson’s tender voice kicks in.

Many recent albums have been understandably directly impacted by the Covid pandemic. For this album, I believe that the theme is as much to look forward, to be blessed by renewed family, friends, and loved ones contact again, as opposed to just a bleak backward looking reflection on lockdown.

There are guest musicians to die for. Marc’s Riversea colleague David Clements provides us with a deep, funky bass groove on the title track, ex Mostly Autumn drummer Alex Cromerty lends his subtle drums, and Heather Findlay Band Martin Ledger shows extreme versatility and dexterity on guitars. Last, but by no means least, there is the sublime and deeply beautiful voice of one of my favourite musicians, Anne-Marie Helder of Panic Room and, you guessed it, formerly MA. Any album which features this exceptional talent is an auto buy in Lazland, and it was her appearance on this which alerted me to the album and subsequently purchase the debut album, Chroma.

Embrace This Life is a lovely invective to enjoy each moment we have on this Earth and is almost six minutes of reflective and thoughtful music. By this stage, you know you are in the company of something really rather special. You lie down on the settee and simply let it wash all over you. As stated above, there are 13 tracks here, and I was originally going to jot down a few highlights for this review, but there aren’t really any “highlights” – it is all so bloody marvellous.

This Is All There Is has an urgency to it, four and a half minutes of music with a thundering rhythm.

There are some wonderfully symphonic keys on We’ve Still Got Time, a track which strikes me as a reminder to us all that crises in life are only ever transient and we should never give up and always renew our lives in the face of our inevitable mortality. You might think, therefore, that this is a somewhat maudlin affair. Not a bit of it, though. It is, in fact, really rather tender. “It’s not over until it’s over, don’t give in, don’t give up, start again”. This is a wonderful piece of music, and the closing passage is classic orchestral progressive rock.

Wasteland has some interesting Helder choral voice to begin with before progressing into a rather joyful commercially tinged track featuring tender harmonies and interesting sound effects, all underpinned by a thumping rhythm section. There is a marvellous guitar solo at the close backed by a beautiful vocal effect.

Reconnected is a reflective track and a true ensemble piece. The vocals are particularly lush on top of a crying guitar and pulsating bass/drum line. I might add here that the guitar here puts me in mind very strongly of a certain Mark Knopfler, one of the finest exponents of the instrument of all time. This track is a top three favourite of 2022, it really is something very special.

About You & Me is such a contrast from that. This track has a deep soul & funk vibe, and I love it.

Stories To Tell reasserts the prog credentials of the ensemble with a rich Middle Eastern feel which is reminiscent of much recent Hackett and some Panic Room. It is a deep, menacing at times, human confessional. The brass effects are particularly effective, and we get a wonderful switch to an Americana vibe with two minutes to go before a closing passage which has keys lifting us in a Gothic fashion with more lovely Atkinson & Helder vocal harmonies.

Back To Normality is a bright and breezy track representing the end of the dystopian nightmare we all lived through in those strange times.

It Was You will have vinyl fans salivating at the sound of the needle hitting the record and the crackles at the start and close of the track. This is a beautifully crafted, and beautiful, song. The bright keys and the lush vocals combine with Phil Collins type percussion sequencing from Duchess to give us the finest commercial prog/pop I have heard since Oldfield’s Man On The Rocks. This is a lovely track with some delicious guitar licks especially, again very much Knopfler influenced. If there were any justice in this world, it would be a number one single, but there isn’t, and it won’t be, but we can all assist decent music by doing our bit and getting this wonderful album.

The Sandman Is Waiting is an altogether darker affair, a dream of the world ending and again has a mid-Oriental vibe to it. Two minutes in, there is a such a powerful synth lead which takes me back about 40 years (not all the 1980’s were bad, you know). These themes exchange blows with each other rather akin to a musical tennis match before the nightmare manifests itself a minute and a half from the end – this becomes a dark, heavy, thundering, and very powerful gothic heavy rock passage. What a track!

Life Goes On closes proceedings. It presents us with a wee bit of bluegrass to cheer us up at the start! It reflects on those we have left behind but looks forward “as long as the world keeps turning, life goes on”. I have been listening to Deep South a fair bit lately, and this fantastic track stands strong comparison to that outfit very well. The Helder chants at the end are haunting above the understated band.

This has been a very long review. What I hope it does is reflect just what a special musical album this is. It has it all. Get to their Bandcamp page and invest some of your hard-earned readies, because you really will not regret it. A certainty for at least a top ten album of 2022.