Summer in Town

Horizont (not to be confused with a Swedish band of the same name) began in the 70's as a school band in the Russian city of Gorky (now called Nizhny Novogrod). From straight rock, they moved on to baroque classical music and by the late 70's, they were clearly into RIO. After the release of their second album in '89, they simply vanished and no one, not even their record company, knows what became of them.

Their first album, "Summer in Town", is a little gem of 70's symphonic rock with strong classical tinges (Prokofiev comes to mind). It features carpets of keyboards, atmospheric voices (no vocals), harmonic melodies, soft guitars a la Steve Hackett, disquieting passages a la ELP plus mellotrons and flute galore. The more complex "Portrait of a Boy" is an entirely different album, abandoning most of the sympho-prog roots of the first for straight RIO. As opposed to the rather lively "Summer in Town", this one is gloomy, hard edged, full of dissonance and outrageous sounds, very close in style to Univers Zero. The musicianship on both albums is excellent, just as the sound quality which is on par with anything coming out of the UK or US of that era.

Both albums are recommended to all vintage symphonic prog fans although the second will likely appeal more to avant-garde buffs such as fans of Univers Zero and Present.