Most recently, the Americans Steve Babb and Fred Schendel had great success with their project Glass Hammer. The genre-ironic story about the time-traveling prog nerd Tom on "Chronomonaut" (2018), for example, amused the otherwise sometimes very serious retroprog fan community. Now Glass Hammer return to their roots. Already their 1993 debut "Journey Of The Dunadan" was inspired by Tolkien. On "Dreaming City" the "Sword & Sorcery" factor (subgenre of fantasy literature) is now also extremely high. And also musically they have come up with some new ideas. In any case, everything is ready for the prog round table.
eclipsed: How you doing in Corona times, Steve?
Steve Babb: We had a lockdown, and in addition we had a tornado hit us in the area here in southeast Tennessee. On the street across the street from my house and recording studio it looks like a bomb hit. There's really a lot of hardship here. Only half a mile from my own, hundreds of homes have been destroyed. We're used to this kind of thing in this area, but the lockdown exacerbated the problems. It's bad, let's talk music instead...
eclipsed: Okay, why didn't you do a "Chronomonaut" sequel and unpack the fantasy story "Dreaming City" instead?
Babb: I've always wanted to dock to the world I designed on "Inconsolable Secret" in 2005. But "Dreaming City" is not Part II, it just refers to the same mythology. It's about a man in an extremely desperate situation: he has lost all hope and must now fight to regain his zest for life. You know, basically a very simple story: an evil wizard, the damsel in distress and the guy with the magic sword!
