Out of the blue arrived this album from Mark W. Costoso, who releases his music under the Cos banner. And what a pleasant surprise it turned out to be! Mark, being a trained pianist, has a history in songwriting for others, but also has released some more stuff before this, his third album. And he is pretty much a one-man band, with some exceptions. And while listening, one name kept popping up in my head, Todd Rundgren. Mainly because of the vocal timbre of Mark. So I smiled when I read the bio he sent afterwards, where besides acts like Yes, Kansas and Genesis, Rundgren is also listed as an influence.
The first 4 tracks are mainly keyboard based prog, easy on the ears but done with taste and with convincing arrangements. Track 5 (Resurrection part 1) sees him bring out the hard rocker in him. Another surprise here is the addition of the talented female singer Jessie Wagner, who kills it on this and the following song (Resurrection part 2, same musical idea, but this time mainly piano and vocal and a different lyric).
Even while I suspect that most of the time the drums are programmed, I enjoyed listening to the music Mark has put together. This is an hour well spent for anyone who is comfortable with the names I mentioned earlier.
