I remember buying the album Destiny? by the excellent Canadian progressive rock band Mystery. Michel St-Père, the guitarist of the band, had then just started his own label, Unicorn Records, to promote his band. Somehow I kept checking the Unicorn site out on regular basis. In the eight years that have past since, I checked out most of the releases on this label. Every Unicorn release is guaranteed something special; from the progressive fusion of Spaced out to the Uzbekistan percussionist Vladimir Badirov. One thing all releases have in common is the fact that you have to dig deep in every album to discover the beauty in it. None of the 21 releases are easy listening and popular prog, which makes it often quite difficult to make up your mind about the music.

Some of the albums I didn’t like at first listening turned out to be my favorites. The only sad thing is that none of the albums ever came close to the brilliant music of Mystery. The first Unicorn Records sampler features over seventy minutes of the label’s best selling releases. Most of the tracks are taken from albums released during the last four years. This sampler gives you an insight in the work of Unicorn Records but also gives you an idea of the progressive music scene in Canada.