The Guildmasters – Liber de Dictis (Seacrest Oy, 2022)
The Guildmaster is a superb multinational band that combines masterfully-crafted progressive rock with early music and traditional folk. Their new album, “Liber De Dictis“, features excellent progressive symphonic rock with influences from prog-era Genesis, Camel, Banco and Pendragon together with acoustic sounds from medieval and Renaissance Spain and Italy, as well as folk music elements from Southern Europe and Celtic music.
Although the musicians on this album collaborate on other projects such as The Samurai of Prog, the main composers within The Guildmasters are the Spanish and Italian members of the band. Vocals are in English, Spanish, Italian and Finnish.
“Liber De Dictis” is on the iconic Finnish Seacrest Oy label, known for its splendid releases that include state of the art progressive rock, beautiful artwork and detailed booklets.
The lineup includes multi-instrumentalist and composer Rafael Pacha (Spain) on zither, recorders, acoustic & electric guitars, nyckelharpa, crumhorns, frame drum, viola da gamba, toumbeleki, Hackbrett psaltery, bouzouki, mandolin, Peñaparda frame drum, classical guitar, virginal, accordion, bagpipe, whistles, mrindangam, Coimbra Portuguese guitar, tabla, Venezuelan cuatro, bodhrán, handclaps, cajón, keyboards; composer and Mad Crayon member Alessandro di Benedetti (Italy) on grand piano, keyboards, vocals; composer and The Samurai of Prog’s Marco Bernard (Italy/Finland) on Shuker bass; and composer and The Samurai of Prog’s Kimmo Pörsti (Finland) on drums and percussion.
Guests include Marco Grieco on keyboards, accordion, hand claps; Evangelia Kozoni on vocals; Paula Pörsti on vocals; José Manuel Medina on keyboards; Tommaso Fichele on vocals; Patrizia Grieco on tamburello napoletano; Beatrice Birardi on tamburo a cornice, darbuka, castanet; Rubén Álvarez on electric guitar; Manoel Macía on Baroque guitar; Carlos Espejo on vocals, hand claps, and “jaleo” (shouts of encouragement); Daniel Fäldt on vocals; and Sara Traficante on flute.