Dream Aria – Transcend

Dream Aria is a progressive quartet plus guests led by keyboardist/composer Don Stagg and fronted by singer Ann Burstyn. Their music revolves around Burstyn’s magnificent voice. She shifts effortlessly from soaring and operatic to Egyptian to Kate Bush-style to pop vocals worthy of early Heart. The music is pretty clearly progressive rock, but there are elements of rock, pop, new age, electro, gothic, ambient, and world music in this unique blend. Fans of female-fronted prog bands such as Magenta and Mostly Autumn will certainly want to give Dream Aria a listen, as will fans of those gothic metal bands with female vocals, as long as they can live without the metal. However, Dream Aria’s style is distinct from all those bands, with more synthetic textures and an electro-pop edge.