{"id":412,"date":"2026-03-04T21:20:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/?p=412"},"modified":"2026-03-04T21:20:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:20:21","slug":"2025-08-25-profil-prog-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/?p=412","title":{"rendered":"2025-08-25 – Profil Prog (Review)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.profilprog.com\/profil-reviews-2025\/ambient-den\/ambient-den<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we might have guessed, AMBIENT DEN isn’t a band in the literal sense, but a project initiated by Ben Craven, whose 2022 album blew us away (it’s in my top 60 albums of all time, just to show the musical tsunami it was).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Craven, a lifelong Pink Floyd fan, stays true to the same spirit that we can legitimately associate with the entire space-psychedelic fringe of the seventies and its worthy representatives like Eloy, Hawkind, and Jane, to name just a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Future History Part One” is merely the introduction to “For All Mankind” and its epic eight minutes (11\/10). The keyboard theme is of rare beauty, so much so that you find yourself humming it after just a second listen, later joined by Ben Craven’s breathtakingly lyrical guitar work. The vocals are near perfection. What more can we say? Nothing. A must-have for the pantheon of progressive music across all decades. Autopilot is essential for the instrumental “Provenance” (10\/10), a crossroads of Pink Floyd and Camel (you’d swear you were listening to Andy Latimer and his infallible fingering at his peak). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what about the following track, “Earthrise”? It’s pure coincidence that it’s also a Camel title (Mirage, 1974), but with a distinctly more Floydian inspiration, fueled by the joyful notes of an acoustic six-string and Tim Bennetts’ piano, which joins the party halfway through (10\/10). The electric guitar takes center stage in the second half (okay, there aren’t any lions in Australia!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transition to the sixteen-minute epic “Terraforming” is so seamless that I didn’t even notice it on the first listen! The piano again, the acoustic guitar again, David’s (sorry, Ben’s) electric guitar, the bouncy and colorful organ, Dean Povey’s metronomic drumming\u2014it’s all there, for a track of remarkable beauty and precision (10\/10) that throws in a burst of Carl Orff in its final section for grandiose choirs that drive the point home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second part of “Future History,” which closes the album (I’m not counting the subsequent single editions), with its honky-tonk piano and a haunting bass guitar groove, is by far the weakest track on the album (7\/10). It must be said that the rest is of such a high standard… I listen to it, but with a certain detachment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For everyone, myself included, few people had grasped the meaning of AMBIENT DEN; it is simply an anagram of the first names of the three band members (Tim, Ben, and Dean). As of today, my number one for 2025, there are five months left to find something better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Original:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comme nous pouvions nous en douter AMBIENT DEN n’est pas un groupe au sens litt\u00e9ral du terme mais un projet initi\u00e9 par Ben CRAVEN dont l’album de 2022 nous avait ravi les cages \u00e0 miel (il figure dans mes 60 meilleurs de tous les temps juste pour dire le tsunami musical qu’il est).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben CRAVEN grand admirateur de PINK FLOYD depuis toujours, reste ici dans le m\u00eame esprit auquel nous pouvons l\u00e9gitimement associer toute la frange spatio psych\u00e9d\u00e9lique des seventies et ses dignes repr\u00e9sentants comme ELOY, HAWKIND ou JANE pour n’en citer que quelques-uns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Future History part one” n’est que l’introduction pour “For All Mankind” et ses huit minutes dantesques (11\/10), le th\u00e8me au clavier est d’une rare beaut\u00e9 que l’on se prend \u00e0 fredonner d\u00e8s la seconde \u00e9coute, rejoint plus loin par la six cordes de Ben CRAVEN d’un confondant lyrisme, le chant est proche de la perfection, que pouvons-nous ajouter ? Rien. A inscrire au Panth\u00e9on de la musique progressive toutes d\u00e9cennies confondues. Le pilotage automatique s’av\u00e8re obligatoire pour l’instrumental “Provenance” (10\/10) \u00e0 la crois\u00e9e des chemins de PINK FLOYD et de CAMEL (on croirait entendre Andy LATIMER et son doigt\u00e9 infaillible \u00e0 son apog\u00e9e).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Que dire de la pi\u00e8ce suivante “Earthrise”, pur hasard que ce soit aussi un titre de CAMEL (Mirage mill\u00e9sime 1974), mais d’une inspiration nettement plus floydienne aliment\u00e9e par les joyeuses notes d’un six cordes acoustique et le piano de Tim BENNETTS qui s’invite \u00e0 la f\u00eate \u00e0 mi-chemin (10\/10), la guitare \u00e9lectrique se taillant la part du lion dans la deuxi\u00e8me moiti\u00e9 de la pi\u00e8ce (ok il n’y a pas de lion en Australie !).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le passage vers le p\u00e9plum “Terraforming” de seize minutes se fait en douceur \u00e0 tel point qu’\u00e0 la premi\u00e8re \u00e9coute je ne m’en suis pas aper\u00e7u ! Le piano encore lui, la guitare acoustique encore elle, la guitare \u00e9lectrique de David (pardon de Ben), l’orgue sautillant et bigarr\u00e9, la batterie m\u00e9tronomique de Dean POVEY, tout y est, pour une plage remarquable de beaut\u00e9 et de justesse (10\/10) qui nous balance dans sa partie finale une gicl\u00e9e de Carl ORFF pour des ch\u0153urs grandioses qui enfoncent le clou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La seconde partie de “Future History” qui cl\u00f4t le disque (je ne comptabilise pas les \u00e9ditions singles qui suivent) avec un piano bastringue et un groove de guitare basse lancinant sera la plage largement la plus faible de l’opus (7\/10), il faut dire que le reste est d’un tel niveau\u2026je l’\u00e9coute mais d’une fa\u00e7on un peu d\u00e9tach\u00e9e.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pour tous, moi compris, peu de personnes avaient relev\u00e9 la signification d’AMBIENT DEN, il s’agit ni plus ni moins de l’anagramme du pr\u00e9nom des trois comp\u00e8res (Tim, Ben et Dean). A date mon num\u00e9ro un de 2025, il reste cinq mois pour trouver mieux.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.profilprog.com\/profil-reviews-2025\/ambient-den\/ambient-den Translation: As we might have guessed, AMBIENT DEN isn’t a band in the literal sense, but a project initiated by Ben Craven, whose 2022 album blew us away (it’s in my top 60 albums of all time, just to show the musical tsunami it was). Ben Craven, a lifelong Pink Floyd fan, stays true… Read More »2025-08-25 – Profil Prog (Review)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions\/414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ambientden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}