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Ian Neal — This Gemlike Flame
(Bandcamp no#, 2026, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2026-07-17

This Gemlike Flame Cover art

It won’t take more than ten or fifteen seconds into the opening track “How Dreams Do Creep (for Souls Asleep),” a nine-minute three part epic, to know that Ian Neal loves prog, and exactly who his biggest influence is; it sounds like he’s carefully studied and immersed himself in the sounds of Tony Banks’ synthesizers, in particular the post-Gabriel Genesis era from Trick of the Tail through Duke, and reproduced that in his own music to an exacting level, although Neal’s compositions throughout This Gemlike Flame are certainly original enough, it’s mainly the arrangements. So if you are a fan of that particular era, the sweeping synth textures and delicate twelve-string guitars and all that, keep reading as this is most definitely an album you should enjoy. Neal is a British composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist (synths, guitars, vocals, organ, piano, Mellotron, bass pedals, drums, pretty much everything) who currently resides in Greece, where he has his own recording studio. He’s got about four albums before this one, going back to around 2005, so those would probably be worth checking out as well. What sounds like a full band on the seven tracks at hand is for the most part him, although Kyle Nish (Kalaban) plays drums on one track, and Evgenia Papamikrouli provides backing vocals on four others. He’s a solid guitarist as well, not just the gentle twelve-string arpeggiations but with some fiery solos as well, and pretty much all of that can be heard in that opening track, along with his vocals. Moving along to a shorter cut, “Late States, Eden's Gates,” one will hear echoes of “Unquiet Slumbers...” though mixed up with plenty of original ideas, though the power, majesty, and compositional prowess are all in tow. The flute patch that opens “Enitharmon's Dream” will trigger other memories, a gentle piece rich with synths and piano, while another epic length piece, “Cretan Angel” (four parts), would sit nicely next to any track on Wind and Wuthering if Collins were singing — Neal’s vocals are somewhat less powerful and imposing.  Many of these tracks feature little if any drumming, and for that reason represent the more pastoral side of the mid-Genesis idiom (as well as solo Hackett and solo Banks). The softer “Of Aether, Rose and Spangling Dew” builds slowly toward the closing epic “Leonardo,” with its powerful structure and beautiful piano and keyboard arrangements, not to mention a blazing guitar solo mid-way through that would sound right at home on Spectral Mornings or Defector. If one loves that majestic musical grandeur that guided many of us through the 70s when everyone else was listening to punk and disco, This Gemlike Flame will remind you why.

Filed under: New releases, 2026 releases

Related artist(s): Ian Neal

More info
http://ianneal.bandcamp.com/album/this-gemlike-flame

 

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