Porcupine Tree

Line-up : - Steven Wilson (song, guitar) - Richard Barbieri (claviers) - Colin Edwin (bass) - Gavin Harrison (battery)
Porcupine Tree is originally the project of one man: Steven Wilson, a true music bulimique and an inexhaustible creative ball. In the late 1980s, while he was a musician on No Man Is An Island, he composed a whole bunch of psychedelic songs with Alan Duffy, forming the bases of Porcupine Tree; This material will be released under the name Love, Death & Mussolini (for the anecdote, this recording was accompanied by a booklet telling the group's fictional past) which will be released in 1991 under the title The Nostalgia Factory . That same year Steven (only member of the band) signed with Delerium Records and released On The Sunday Of Life , a compilation of songs he composed between 1984 and 1990. Although music is sometimes close to Pink Floyd , Porcupine Tree is already beginning to develop its own sound and style constantly evolving. Voyager 34 was released the following year, allowing the band to know a first core of fans from the English underground community; This album tells the LSD trip of a boy, hence the psychedelic, ambient and space-rock side of the band's music. It was in 1993 with Up The Downstair that the press began to interest the band, the album being described as a psychedelic masterpiece by Melody Maker magazine. The album The Sky Moves Sideways marks a turning point in the band's career, in fact it can be considered as such from now on, since Steven Wilson is no longer the only member or master on board (although he still has a very large place in the composition). The band then toured to ensure one of their most progressive and floydian albums. Signify released in 1996, the band does not change its habits and continues to explore different territories, making music even more diverse, thanks to the greater place in the writing of other members of the band. A real buzz is built around the band in Europe, which plays for the first time in France in 1997; the same year released the live Coma Divine , recorded during three concerts in Rome, demonstrating the technical qualities of live musicians. Two years later, Stupid Dreams (precedented from the Metanoia EP), where the group completely abandoned its psychedelic influences and its long instrumental beaches; The song is also much more present and better worked. A year later only released Lightbulb Sun, in the continuity of the previous album, with more acoustic parts. Then we have to wait for 2002 for In Absentia , album shot more metal than progressive ; This change is due to Steven Wilson's work at the same time with Opeth. No wonder to find Mikael Akerfeldt on Deadwing , concept-album which is in the continuity of the previous one. In 2007, the band returned to a more progressive context with Fear Of A Blank Planet , an album that contains only one gigantic song, and which once again confirms the band's talent. Furthermore, Steven Wilson is involved in a lot of other projects such as Blackfield (with the Israeli star Aviv Geffen), No-Man, his solo productions, his work as producers ( Porcupine Tree of course, Opeth as well as the next Orphaned Land) or his label Headphone Dust.