Sentimental Mercenaries

Standing in the ancient amphitheater of Pompeii, waiting for Marillion to take the stage, feels like one of those rare moments where time folds in on itself.

More than forty years ago, their music became part of my inner world. It has accompanied me through different chapters of my life, eventually finding its way into Chapter Two: Leon, where their influence helped shape both the atmosphere and the emotional language of the album.

To experience this concert here, in Pompeii—a place where history, art, and memory coexist—is something I never imagined when I first discovered their music.

Sometimes we spend so much time looking forward to the next project that we forget to stop and appreciate the journey itself.

Tonight, I’m simply grateful to be here.

Thank you, Marillion, for decades of inspiration.

UTWÓR DNIA / SONG OF THE DAY
25 VI 2026
Sentimental Mercenaries - Lover's End [Chapter Two: Leon]

Utwór dnia prezentowany jest o godz. 8:15, 9:15, 13:15, 14:15, 16:15 i 17:15.

Not every text begins as lyrics and not every musical experience ends as music.

Tonight while watching and listening to Incubus by Marillion a space opened and this poem emerged. Not part of a future release, not a lyric in progress — simply a moment in the creative world from which Sentimental Mercenaries grows.

The Present

I held ambitions in thousand file cabinets
Where paper held the pure flow of desire
And I lost the touch with the storage
Which was placed in clouds unreachable
Flown away and disappeared out in a storm

Naked and dried of my sensible being
Reached the pile of perfumed memories
To ignite the melody which screamed
It must make it real against the need to forget

Form the nostalgia in black and white film
To the bare naked crack of a bone
I took a smile and drank it of consommé
Made of heavenly touch of love

It is all that there is the newspaper headline call
Listen to the naked truth
No solace in being a veteran in counting the seasons
It is the here and the now that matters

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This is a review by Erik Fraanje on Background Magazine. We are blessed.

Sentimental Mercenaries - Chapter 2: Leon BACKGROUND MAGAZINE Review BACKGROUND MAGAZINE - Critical and honest magazine for progressive rock and closely related music.

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Sentimental Mercenaries – Chapter Two: Leon, A Love Letter To Fish-Era Marillion Artwork created by Dorin Hajon Music can be a magical experience. From time to time, during the course of my journey exploring music, a truly magical moment has occurred. Sometimes it is falling in…

I am deeply grateful to Alain Massard and Prog Censor for this extraordinary review of *Sentimental Mercenaries – Chapter Two: Leon*.

Reading such a detailed and emotionally perceptive response to the album was honestly overwhelming for me. What moved me most was not only the musical analysis, but the understanding of the emotional and introspective world behind the music.

This album was created as an homage to an era of progressive rock that shaped me profoundly, but also as a personal journey into identity, memory, longing, and inner struggle.

Thank you for listening so deeply.

Gil Elkan
Sentimental Mercenaries

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