Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem marries the resonant stringed instrument of that name skilfully and intuitively in a glorious collaboration with the work of bassist Dave Holland, drummer Jack DeJohnette and pianist Django Bates on Blue Maqams.

Sometimes when these older and previously more established named progressive rock bands try to reform or generally carry on trading upon the success of their previous greatness it can often prove to be a distinctly huge disappointment. But, believe me this seventeenth studio album by Kayak, due to be released in Europe on January 12th 2018, is quite magical, full of beautiful melodic passages, wonderful keyboard / guitar interchanges and lovely symphonic instrumental arrangements. In fact the entire affair is a total delight from start to finish completely refreshing with the more melodic “Kayak” trademark sound coming to the fore rather than their sometimes more jazz tinged complex musical side. Maybe the influence for this oh! so melodic album, so rich in piano and swirling keyboard patterns, was due entirely to the original and founder ‘Kayak’ member Ton Scherpenzeel who wrote and composed pretty well all of the material but much praise must be lavished upon axe man ‘Marcel Signor’ for providing oodles of utterly majestic and exquisite guitar.