BAśNIE

"Basnie" or "Fairytales" was the debut release by COLLAGE, Poland's answer to MARILLION, PENDRAGON and IQ maintaining a strong yet highly interesting and competent neo prog vibe. This beautifully produced album features strong melodies and complex musical themes with excellent instrumentation (guitars and keyboards in particular). All lyrics are sung in native Polish and do so with Tomek Rozycki who unfortunately would leave COLLAGE after this album. Actually what is amazing here is that the long standing line up that we would know as COLLAGE (ie. "Moonshine") is essentially a different band here by membership with drummer and band leader Wojtek Szadkowski and guitarist Mirel Gil maintaining the constant throughout (yet the sound is so close). The rest of the band are Przemek Zawadzki (bass guitar) and Jacek Korzeniowski (keyboards). COLLAGE have a lot more to offer here than the hoards of clones that have given this "Neo Prog" genre a bad name.