Prog Nose (The Netherlands)

Julien Carayon is a 27 years old rock-guitar player, with almost 12 years  of guitar playing in his fingers; 99% self-taught, the remaining 1% is the very few instructional books he bought so far. His main music influences are Dream Theater - Liquid Tension Experiment -Planet X - Steve Vai - Joe Satriani, Pat Metheny - Jimmy Hendrix...Mike portnoy (for programming drum tracks ).

Carayon spend hours listening to these Maestros, trying to cultivate an own style, composing “non-80’s-style-shred music” and avoiding cliché.... although many influences and a kind of a typical Joe Satriani sound can be found by listening to this album. Julien is passionate by instrumental music, a world with no borders and just plays what comes up in his mind.   

The production of this album is well done and sounds good but due to the fact that he produced the album by himself there are a few minor things that can be found (less of power sometimes and a mechanical feel by the drum programming). Although he’s young and talented enough to explore a wide range of techniques and styles.   

The positive thing on this album is that he reflects many music styles like rock, metal and prog. Carayon is going to form a progressive music band and with the right attitude I think Julien is going to surprise us with such a project.
    
Review by Johan - Prog-nose