Unitopia was an Australian progressive rock group formed 1996 in Adelaide by core members Mark Trueack (vocals, percussion) and Sean Timms (keyboards, vocals, mandolin, lap steel guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo). Joining in 2005 were additional long-term members Matt Williams (guitar, vocals, banjo), Tim Irrgang (percussion), Shireen Khemlani (bass, vocals), Monty Ruggiero (drums, percussion) and Mike Stewart (saxophone, flute, clarinet, percussion, keyboards). The band's sound centred on prog-rock, reminiscent of Yes, Genesis and Renaissance, it also including elements of world, classical, jazz, hard rock, and groove. In the early days the founding duo worked with conductor/arranger Timothy Sexton and the Adelaide Art Orchestra to create a characteristic symphonic prog sound, which they captured on their debut album More Than a Dream from 2006. Two years later they released their excellent second album The Garden. This epic two LP set highlight's the band's superior musicianship, and has been judged by many critics as one of the better albums to come out of the post-80's neo-prog world. Truack's vocals are intriguing in a Gabriel-esque way, the jazzy instrumentation interlaced with more symphonic elements provides a nice textural complement and the songs themselves are memorable. The band released two more excellent albums before dissolving shortly thereafter: Artificial (2010) and Covered Mirror Vol 1 Smooth as Silk (2012), the last being a covers album containing interpretations of classic progressive rock tracks. Trueack, with Unitopia members Matt Williams, Tim Irrgang and David Hopgood, then assembled a new band called United Progressive Fraternity. UPF have two albums to date, Fall In Love with the World (2014) and Planetary Overload Part 1: Loss (2019), which continue in a similar vein to Unitopia, but with notably heavier passages. Before forming Unitopia, Mark Trueack worked as a record company executive for EMI Music and pursued his passion for performing by creating a Genesis tribute show, "The Genesis Touch". Sean Timms owns and operates Timms Tunes, audio/music post production facilities. He is an engineer, composer, arranger and producer with credits in the film and advertising industry. Artist Website: wikipedia/Unitopia Featured Albums: Unitopia Related Artists: United Progressive Fraternity, The Tangent
