About Cosmograf

Biography

Cosmograf is a progressive rock project lead by Robin Armstrong, a multi instrumentalist musician from Waterlooville nr Portsmouth UK. The sound is rooted in 70s classic rock with a contemporary and progressive twist.

He plays guitar, keyboards, bass and drums, sings, and records, producing himself and fellow collaborating musicians, in his home studio, 'The Trees', self built at the bottom of the garden. "The project is now in it's third incarnation, with a number of talented musicians from the progressive rock community performing and writing on the new album 'When Age has Done it's Duty'".

'Neo prog' is about as close as you can get to a label but the occasional lapse into straight metal or even classical, often dumbfounds a catch all description. I've never been very talented in weaving the genres seamlessly together like 'Yes' would do. It's fairly clear where it's at though, when you listen to it.

I've always enjoyed music that polarizes audiences and demands attention. As a teenager I was captivated by Deep Purple's fusion of Heavy Rock with Baroque intros or lead lines. It's just fun, to throw in something that is completely unexpected but yet just fits.

I much prefer to write music around concepts. Progressive Rock allows you the freedom to span genres, stop and start in different tempos, insert mad sound effects and generally tell a story or simply create a soundscape with no real meaning. This creates a musical freedom far beyond the commerical rules and constraints of a 3min pop song.

'The Trees'

Named because of it's position nestling adjacent to leafy woodland in suburban Waterlooville, 'The Trees' was built by Robin in 2009. It's totally purpose built timber structure, soundproofed and packed with a 64 track PC based recording studio running ProTools 8. We have around 10 guitars, a Vox valve amp, custom built Roland TD20 electric VDrum kit, and various synths/ keyboards. This compact setup provides everything you need to record vocals, guitars, keyboards, and VDrums, with acoustic drums being outsourced to a larger facility.

Reviews

Cosmograf has been reviewed by a number of Progressive Rock web sites including:

• Review of End of Ecclesia - Prognaut.com
• Review of End of Ecclesia - Silhobbit.com
• Review of End of Ecclesia - Background Magazine

Influences

The following musicians have shaped my musical plasticine which should give you a fairly good idea where the heritage of my sound stems from:

cosmograf

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