Progressive Rock
Trope Audio · 4 September 2026
“Isobar V”, the fifth album by Isobar, an instrumental progressive rock quartet from San Jose, California, came out on 4 September 2026 on Trope Audio (catalogue number TA064), on CD and digitally. It has ten tracks, from “Gravity Itself” to “The Turpitude”, and arrives two years after “Isobar IV”, released in August 2024. According to the label, it was recorded at Dolores Gulch, The Music Shed and Roth Händle studios, and mixed by Robert Berry at Soundtek Studios.
The band is Malcolm Smith on guitars, Marc Spooner on keyboards, Loren Gustafson on bass and Mattias Olsson on drums and percussion. Smith and Spooner write the music, and both were founding members of Metaphor, a progressive rock band from the San Francisco Bay Area that released four albums. The guests are James Vaughn on saxophones, on six of the ten tracks; John Ettinger on violin, on “Oats and Glitter”, “Folie Circulaire” and “The Turpitude”; and Patricio Penin on uilleann pipes, on “The Position of Dr. Mannix”.
Text by Guillem Cardós