This week’s POTW is very special. It’s Nothing But Epics, a collection of prog rock, compiled by Staalklang, from Norway. According to Staalklang, the rule for music to be included is that, “it has to be epic, meaning recurring themes, keychanges, beatchanges, progressive, odd, cinematic.”

It certainly does all that. Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Yes all feature, as well as Staalklang’s own music, and he has not shied away from including longer tracks, that might not get a look in on other playlists, due to their length. In fact, the longest track is over half an hour, which is highly unusual for a compilation, but well worth the time listening!  Similarly, some of the tracks – such as ELP’s Tarkus – are more demanding to listen to, making this playlist a pretty rare find. You may find that you want to listen to this when you don’t have competing distractions, to really appreciate the complexity of the music.

Staalklang is a multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, drums and keyboards, and who is interested in both rock and electronica. He is making his own approach to ambient music – he has already completed his 4th album, late last year, and says that progressive rock and ambient electronica are the genres closest to his heart.

Overall this playlist is a very immersive listening experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it, as well as contributing several suggestions for tracks to include.