COLLEGIUM MUSICUM

Strongly influenced by the Nice, Collegium Musicum's debut fits nicely into the genre of proto-prog, with simple Cream-like riffs married with ambitious brass and string arrangements that were such an important part of this prototypical style. But surprisingly Marian Varga & Co. were not a bit behind western bands in that same year, with seminal bands still releasing proto-proggish albums like "Time and a Word" and "Atom Heart Mother" - basically similar to this, in that they combined a classical ensemble with late 60s blues-rock riffs. This is the only CM album to feature English lead vocals by Fedor Freso, their bassist. His voice is pretty strained and he has a slight accent, but it doesn't bother me personally, and his voice is not a big part of the album anyways. It is also notable that this album has a very good and dynamic production considering that studios in Czechoslovakia weren't so well equipped.

There are three songs averaging 13 minutes in length. "If You Want to Fall" has a typical blues rock riff, with an excellent psychedelic middle section, and good solos by all the members. "Strange Theme" comes closer to ELP with a classical chord progression, but also a typical 60s flower power chorus. The song first dissipates into some excellent solo hammond organ by Marian Varga, before going into the same rhythm as "21st Century Schizoid Man" at roughly the same tempo, with some free sax playing as well. Crimson might have been the inspiration here. We get a lengthy solo from guitar player Rasto Vacho, who wasn't nearly as good as his successor, being rather limited to 60s cliches, with weak intonation and control. The last track is an arrangement of Haydn's Concerto in D. It is a very harmless arrangement by modern standards, with a straight forward rock beat under straightforward orchestra under Varga's unusually faithful interpretation. Nevertheless, the album was ambitious for its time and environment, and even 37 years after its release it's still listenable.

A word about Varga's hammond playing: there are not so many similarities between him and Emerson when it comes to playing style, aside from the fact that both have a rather forceful touch. What makes Varga unique is his slavonic sense of timing, also coming in that milisecond early or late, similarly to traditional folk music. We can draw a similar comparison between guitarists Al di Meola and Allan Holdsworth, the former playing constrained phrases, and the other freely weaving from one measure to next with utmost ease. Personally I prefer Varga and Holdsworth.