When a band comes from out of the blue to totally knock you off your feet, they either stay for a long time or dissipate as quickly as they arrive. Our featured artist this week, sadly, chose the latter route. Introduced to American audiences as the opener for NEARfest 2000's pre show, this French quartet came out of nowhere and dazzled the crowd with their virtuosity as well as complex song writing. Led by guitarist Chris Casagrande, the complexity here is original, yet refreshing. Amazon.Com has this to say, "...still dominated by an amazing guitar with a definitely mastered technique, [their] music can blend the hot and the cold, and it becomes each time more lyrical and quiet. The virtuoso sages are in the style of UK...Even if they are splendid and varied, Laurent Lacombe Coulomb's keyboards still remain here to accompany Bertrand Hulin-Bertaud, and Emmanuel Mario's drums, a virtuoso rhythm section that enjoys sequences of complete changes...". ProgArchives goes even further stating that the band "...is one of the most adventurous groups of recent years..." Sadly, after a second album that was more jazz than progressive, the group seemed to disband. Very little information is known about this outfit, but this is an album that is simply too good to sit in the archives. For those of you who have never heard our featured artist, prepare to be blown away. Please join us on Tuesday night (February 9th) at 8pm as we spotlight the 1998 release by Priam, entitled ...3 Distances / Irregular Signs....