Saturday 23 July 2016

The Portrait of A Boy / портрет мальчика (Horizont / горизонт, 1989)

Back to one of the best Russian acts ever, this suite in three movements fills the A-side of the original LP released in 1989 and bearing the same title. It's an interesting, uncompromising piece of music including contemporary classical elements, avant-garde electronic passages, tricky improvisations and, of course, a symphonic rock structure. The King Crimson inspiration is expecially strong during the first movement, but these musicians have their own musical point of view, based on fluid keyboards, stingy guitars and a highly creative rythm section.

"The Portrait of A Boy" was the second and final album by Horizont.

Even if they follow a rather experimental path, they never neglect the melodic side of their work and this suite features a good deal of well found themes and beautiful riffs during the first movement. The most stunning moments here are provided by Igor Pokrovsky's guitar interplays with Sergey Kornilov's and Andrey Krivilev's keyboards, but some of you (the most adventurous listeners, I daresay) will love the fully experimental second movement and its mysterious, spacey effects or the devilish improvised-like final section. I do think the entire track is still daring and original today as it was in the late'80s.

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