Circe Link & Christian Nesmith Talk Arcana on The Prog Corner
The duo behind one of 2024's boldest prog records sat down with Scot Lade for a deep dive into tarot, tape, and the art of sounding like 1974 without faking it.
Arcana has been turning heads since it landed on Think Like A Key Music last year. The sixteenth album from Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, and their second full-tilt progressive rock record after 2022's Cosmologica, channels the long-form ambition of classic Yes, the pastoral weight of Genesis, and the rhythmic complexity of Gentle Giant into five movements inspired by the Major Arcana tarot deck. It is, by any reasonable measure, one of the finest prog albums released in the last decade, and word continues to spread.
On March 15, Circe and Christian appeared on The Prog Corner, Scot Lade's popular YouTube show and one of the progressive rock community's most trusted platforms, with 17,000-plus subscribers tuning in for weekly deep dives into both classic and contemporary prog. The nearly three-hour conversation covered the making of Arcana, the duo's 20-year creative partnership, and the unlikely path that brought a singer with nine genre-defying solo albums and the multi-instrumentalist son of Michael Nesmith together into the orbit of classic progressive rock.
Watch the full live broadcast
What makes Circe and Christian's work compelling, and what came through clearly in the interview, is that none of this is cosplay. Christian Nesmith doesn't just play prog; he understands its architecture from the inside out, having spent decades scoring films and steering theatrical productions (Moscow's Hair, LA's Hedwig and the Angry Inch) where complex musical structures are a working requirement, not an indulgence. Circe Link's voice, meanwhile, sits in a lineage that has more in common with Annie Haslam or Sandy Denny than with any contemporary reference point: layered, expressive, and capable of carrying a ten-minute piece without ever losing its centre of gravity.
The response in The Prog Corner's live chat and comments section speaks volumes. The conversation has already racked up over 650 views in its first few days, strong numbers for a channel that cultivates a knowledgeable, deliberate audience rather than chasing clicks, and the enthusiasm from viewers discovering the duo for the first time has been infectious.
Arcana is available now on CD via Think Like A Key Music.
