AboutProg Atlas
About Prog Atlas
A guide to progressive rock scene by scene, band by band, album by album. Written by Marcus Stone, author of the Beyond the Sound book series.
Prog Atlas is my map of progressive rock. I’m Marcus Stone, and I write Beyond the Sound, a series of books that tells the story of progressive rock one scene at a time. This site is the companion to those books: shorter, broader, and organised so you can move from a whole movement down to a single record and back again.
What this is
An independent guide, run by the author of the books it points to. It is not the official site of any band or record label, and I have no connection with the artists written about here. The site has two jobs: to be genuinely useful on its own, and to lead anyone who wants the full story of a scene to the book that tells it.
How it’s organised
Everything is mapped by scene, then by band, then album by album. You can start with a whole movement and follow it down to one record, or work your way back up. Eight scenes anchor the site:
- British Progressive Rock: where the genre took shape at the end of the 1960s.
- Italian Progressive Rock (RPI): operatic, baroque and fearless.
- German Prog & Krautrock: motorik pulse and cosmic electronics.
- American Progressive Rock: big skies and bigger arenas.
- Modern Progressive Rock: proof the music never stopped.
- The Canterbury Scene: jazz, whimsy and English eccentricity.
- Neo-Progressive Rock: the theatrical revival of the 1980s.
- Symphonic Progressive Rock: orchestral ambition across borders.
The books
Beyond the Sound is planned as five volumes: Beyond the Alps on Italian prog, now in a revised second edition; Beyond the Thames on British prog; Beyond the Rhine on German prog and Krautrock, out on 15 October 2026; and Beyond the Atlantic and Beyond the Decades, on American and modern prog, both in preparation. Every volume has its own page here; the published ones also list their contents and offer a free listening companion.
How the site earns money
Two ways, and I would rather say them plainly. I earn royalties when you buy one of my books. And as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made through the Amazon links on this site, at no extra cost to you. The full details are in the affiliate disclosure.
Ready to dig in? Head to the home page, look through the books, or start with the blog for guides and deep dives.