New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The guitarist and songwriter of progressive rock known as Joe Cantamessa has released his debut solo EP record, "Transcending." The extended-play album contains 18 minutes of listening and has been proudly published as an independent release without the direction or influence of the corporate music industry. Sonorous, passionate, towering and inspiring, Joe Cantamessa's "Transcending" EP truly delivers on its title.
New Jersey's Joe Cantamessa cites as influences classical re-visionary Neil Zaza,
Dream Theater founders John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy, composer Paganini, prog death metal group Ne Obliviscaris, Australian instrumental rocker Robert Spurling, French black metal band Peste Noire, classic rock legend
Captain Beefheart, and the fundamental prog-rock crew, Yes.
Cantamessa's own "Transcending" EP is a genuine, green branch of the prog rock movement that brings it thriving into the 21st century. While he is not alone in this, "Transcending" stands as one of the best examples of indie prog since the scene's revival over the last decade.
Joe Cantamessa describes his debut solo album as "a four-track EP that sets the mood for one's own mental imagery. The absence of words allows you to focus solely on the music and gives you a consistent stimulus that shuts out distractions from your environment."
That instrumental narrative like this thrums at the core of the progressive rock movement should not surprise the prog-rock fan. What is surprising, however, is how effective, evocative and even visceral a four-song EP by a solo artist can be. The tracks on "Transcending" dovetail into and out of one another. They rise and swirl like bats from a cave. They dive into the chest of the listener and become unexpected feelings, fresh ideas from somewhere in the aether.
While one could wax poetic about Cantamessa's expertise on guitar, really it is his highly melodic, highly intuitive songwriting which overachieves. He's developed his seemingly innate writing skill over a slew of music projects (I Am the Trireme, Inanimate, Remnants of Winter, The Banner, Desolate Sorrow) but as is often the case, it may be his time as a music teacher which has ultimately refined his creativity.
Joe Cantamessa has been playing guitar since the age of 13. He has cut several records, including full-lengths, and is professionally endorsed by Colorado's The Guitarmory, Ltd., who provides a Joe Cantamessa signature guitar-pickup set and Guitarmory D3-7 guitar.
Definitive proof that all the above results in high-grade, top-shelf, cutting-edge progressive rock may easily be sampled at the artist's official website (link provided below).
The "Transcending" EP by Joe Cantamessa is available at over 700 online music stores worldwide now. Get in early, prog rock fans.
