After Crying
Overground Music

The search for a masterpiece is a dangerous exercise, one that risks nullifying the efforts of those who, with humility and awareness, channel their energies into a record work that often ends up disappointing the overly demanding listener. When, in 1990, I was told about a new Hungarian band with an English name that skillfully blended symphonic prog with chamber music, I immediately turned up my nose. The formula seemed pretentious and perhaps even pointless to me. However, the first notes of the album, with that cello stretching the strings like demonic fingers tearing at my soul and guts, in a vortex so intense it moved me. Within minutes, I realized I was experiencing (again) sensations that only the great prog masterpieces had been able to give me.

The album is their first official release, although two audio cassettes from 1989 precede it, which are unfortunately very difficult to find.

The influences of the group are among the best, considering that, from the height of their very distinctive personality and that now unmistakable touch, they consider themselves indebted to King Crimson and Frank Zappa, Emerson Lake & Palmer on the rock side and Bach and Bartok for the classical side.

The album revolves around the two founding leaders Vedres Csaba on piano and Pejtsik Péter on cello and double bass, to which flutes, guitars, and winds join in a true perceptual-chemical whirlwind of alembics blending rock, classical, folk, jazz, and baroque singing under a divine direction, eloquent - in this sense - is the triptych "Mandrigal Love": impossible to remain indifferent in the face of compositions of such harmonic stature.

The first track "European Things" carries the subtitle "Hommage à Frank Zappa" and is certainly a dedication "tout court" because neither the themes nor the result can lead to the great Frank; perhaps it is the executive demeanor and the intention. Nonetheless, noteworthy is the strength and melodic intensity of every fragment of every single piece, so I will skip an unnecessary track by track and urge readers to make the effort to find and purchase this album, confident that they will have my eternal gratitude. In one word: Masterpiece.

I point out, out of duty and pleasure, their entire discography, which is rich with diverse works, never monotonous and always of great technical and compositional stature. Together with Isildures Bane, among the highest realities in the world of music.