https://www.dprp.net/reviews/2025/052#ambient-den
Edwin Roosjen
Ambient Den is the new progressive rock collaboration from Australia with Ben Craven, Tim Bennets and Dean Povey. A spontaneous creation originating from the lockdown periods. I know multi-instrumentalist Ben Craven from his album Monsters From The Id. He also created some other interesting releases like Great & Terrible Potions and Last Chance To Hear. Ambient Den is completed with drummer Dean Povey and keyboard player Tim Bennets from the band Seven Day Mask. Fun fact, the band name Ambient Den is an anagram of the names Tim, Ben and Dean.
The music of Ambient Den is in the symphonic prog style. I hear a lot of Ben Craven, but the music on this album is a mixture of the three members. Just like on Monsters From The Id, I hear influences from Pink Floyd, Nolan/Wakeman, Marillion and Steve Hackett.
Instrumental intro Future History Part 1 brings me back to the 1980s neo-prog sound. The first song that really shows what this band is about is For All Mankind. Ambient Den is not all Ben Craven, but For All Mankind sounds a lot like Die Before You Wake (from Craven’s album Monsters From The Id), easily noticeable if you listen to the Single Edit edition of that song.
That is also a thing on this Ambient Den release. At the end of the album it features four edited versions of longer songs. Personally, I think it is nice to hear the main features captured in a shorter song, but each has their own judgement if these extra edited songs are a welcome addition or not.
On Provenance the neo-prog style continues. An instrumental track with a lot of melodic guitar solos. Earthrise is great, with its slow pace and an earworm of a chorus. At the centre is a piano part with acoustic guitar soloing, a combination that I personally like very much and it works very well here. The second part of the song is heavier and more intense.
Terraforming is over 16 minutes long, with more piano and acoustic guitar — love it. The fuller sound later on is made by several added layers of keyboards. Although mostly instrumental, the second part has some chanting voices that remind me a lot of Pink Floyd. The last part has the keyboards more upfront with some great melodic guitar solos.
I was expecting a nice mellow ambient instrumental outro with Future History Part 2 resembling part 1, but it is completely different. This one is swinging all over the place. I was not expecting that! For a progressive rock album it’s an odd one to close, but it sure does work.
Ambient Den is a good addition to the world of progressive rock. I for sure hope that this is not a one-album project.