Ambient Den is a new project featuring Ben Craven, Tim Bennetts, and Dean Povey (the band name being an anagram of the bandmates first names). They release their self-titled debut on 28th July, and you can grab a hold of a copy at https://ambientden.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-den

In true prog tradition, this is a concept album telling the tale of a search for humanity’s new home amongst the stars, and the transforming of a suitable world fit for habitation.

We have six tracks (and four additional single edits as bonus tracks) to discuss. First off, let’s look at the video taster for the full album.

We start with Part 1 of Future History, a short introduction or overture to the main album, the opening notes spartan in its musical descriptor of a group traversing the ether, the acoustic guitar rather pretty, this then giving way to a fine guitar burst. A great start which serves as a very strong appetiser for the main courses to come.

For All Mankind follows, and I have embedded the single edit for you below. It is some three minutes shorter than the album track. Again, the start is rather dreamy before lifting into a space rock theme. I like the expressive vocals on this album, telling a story in fine fashion, melodic and narrative. For me, the real hook into the album came at the four-minute mark here,  a glorious keyboard burst which took me right back to classic progressive rock days. You close your eyes, and you see the voyage and the hopes and fears of its participants, the guitar solo heightening that, rich in its emotion, loud and proud, in the manner of symphonic prog days gone by, but with such a catchy melody underpinning everything. I just love the extended closing passage, the guitar triumphant in its ecstasy.

Provenance follows, the word, of course, referring to the earliest origin of a people or object. From the off, this track owes its provenance to Gilmour and Floyd; the guitar burst is magnificent, and you would need to have a heart of stone not to be moved by it. This track is yet another strong contender for this website’s instrumental track of 2025, and there is some mighty fine music in contention for that award. Superb stuff and one for fans of Gilmour and Floyd’s later output, the piano genuinely moving as a closing segment.

Earthrise is up next. The album version is not far short of the epic length, whereas the single edit is about four minutes shorter. The beginning reminds me a bit of the recent output of Enigmatic Sound Machines, and there is a funky vibe beneath the electronic surround, the vocals questing, the guitar soaring in parts. This trio have a classy and experienced manner in the wall of sound they bring to you, the ability to change gear at the flick of a switch, so the acoustic guitar solo three minutes into this gem of a song, the need for an earthrise in their dark skies putting the listener sharply in the emotions of those futuristic travellers seeking to recreate that beauty we are slowly destroying as a species now, with some strong classical influences making their presence known on this before a pure rock out a la AMLOR’s finest moments.

Terraforming follows, that stuff of futuristic fiction for as long as I have been a sci-fi fan, and now, of course, being spoken about seriously by scientists as a potential solution to our present climate change woes. This is a massive epic in excess of sixteen minutes, and is a joy from the moment the piano thumps its introductory notes alongside an expressive acoustic guitar before the electric guitar and room-filling collective take over, the power of the transformation and the spectacular amount of energy required to achieve such a feat coming out so loudly from the speakers, a delicious bass melody leading a nice fusion passage, the mix of rock and choral pastoral an Oldfield or Phillips would be pleased with, Hammond-led madness in a race against the elements, the choral voices filling the planetary auditorium, the organ turning deep and dirty in a passage Lord himself would have admired, the guitar riff taking its cue this time from earlier Floyd, the spirit of Pompeii alive and well in this trio, racier prog metal staggeringly loud and proud riffs, swirling heavy psych rock insistent in its grandiose project, the beauty of the successful change then coming in the symphonic choir, transformation accomplished, the sound of life bursting out before the close brings exhaustion, the comedown following the excitement. A smorgasbord of influences, impacts, sounds, and simply stunning, an epic for our times.

We close with the second part of Future History, and, again, I have embedded the single edit version below for you to enjoy, which is only about a minute shorter than the full album track. It starts with pure jazz fusion, a funk delight to get you up and dancing in celebration at the secure future of our species against the cosmic forces gathering. I take this track as a “glass half full” piece, that, whatever fate and our leaders throw at us, we will eventually triumph, and the extended guitar solo is precisely that, a triumph.

I think this is a fine album, one that makes me happy listening to it, and I can think of no better reason to recommend it to you.