Cailyn
Voyager (Land of Oz Music, 2015)
Cailyn Lloyd is one of the most talented guitarists in the American progressive rock scene. Even though she has an admirable technique, her focus goes beyond shredding, developing complex symphonic progressive rock.
Voyager is a theme album dedicated to space exploration. As Cailyn explains in the liner notes, she fell in love with The Planets suite by Gustav Holst. The album was initially conceived as a progressive rock version of The Planets suite, but it evolved into a musical representation of the Voyager missions with orchestral arrangements, memorable blues guitar progressions, outstanding keyboard performances, meditative sections, and more.
Cailyn recreates four of Holst’s compositions dedicated to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The rest of the compositions are originals by Cailyn, dedicated to the various moons the Voyager spacecraft visited and photographed: Europa, Enceladus, Titan, Miranda, Uranus, Ariel, Triton, Heliopause. The other two tracks, Voyager and Pale Blue Dot are dedicated to the N.A.S.A. space probes.
Even though Cailyn is known primarily as a dazzling guitarist, she plays many other instruments and is a skillful orchestrator. Cailyn still plays plenty of guitar parts, but she also performs extensive keyboard work throughout the album.
The lineup on the album includes Cailyn Lloyd on guitars, bass, keyboards, synthesizers, drums and percussion; Neil Holloman on drum set; Deryn Cullen on cello; Ian East on saxophone; and Nancy Rumbel on English horn.
Cailyn has created a charming world where progressive rock, classical music and space exploration find a common ground.