Four Horsemen (Aphrodite's Child, 1972)

A stunning track, this one is! It is taken from the album "666", a concept about the Book of Revelation released in 1972, when the band had actually already disbanded. Its structure is based on the strong contrast between quiet and loud passages and culminates with the final guitar solo (a very good one, IMHO), backed with Demis Roussos's fa-fa-fa vocal harmonies. As usual with this band, the song includes many diffferent - and even disparate - musical elements, but they all fit very well into a clever pattern.

The Four Horsemen as depicted by Viktor Vasnetsov in 1887.

This mix-matching skills probably are the best reason why Aphrodite's Child are so dear to the progfans worldwide. In addition to this, "Four Horsemen" displays a well found melody and a smart although close lyrical adaptation of the sixth chapter of its Biblical reference book. Useless to say, the Revelation will inspire other prog musicians, but this song and this album have a genuine flavour I still like.

Aegian Sea (Aphrodite's Child, 1972)

"666" is a prog legend among albums, likely the best known and most appreciated one by Aphrodite's Child. This highly descriptive track is a perfect depiction of the sea, as it is based on the wave breath and is graced by Vangelis' inspired keyboards. This man, whose real name was Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου, in Greek alphabet) surely is one of the best reasons to the band's celebrity, but I won't forget Demis Roussos' high-pitched voice, something you won't find in this song.

The band split up during the sessions of this album.

By the way, you'll appreciate here one of the most fascinating and ethereal guitar solos by Anargyros Koulouris, aka Silver. The emphatic tone of the album - inspired by the Bible's Revelation book - is less important in this track, featuring an atmospheric mood that actually announces some of Vangelis' future releases.