MELODY

Absolutely obscure German band from the early-80's, started as a trio with two keyboardists, namely Mike Hoffmann and Peter Kunz, along with drummer Thomas Pfeiffer.For their first album they were helped by bassist Gregor Heinrich.''Melody'' was recorded between February and April of 1981 and released the same year for the cult German label Tonstudio Bieber.

The dual keyboard attack of Hoffmann and Kunz managed to produce an incredibly rich, grandiose and dramatic sound, accompanied by a soft but tight rhythm section, which recalls much of the works by SCHICKE, FUHRS & FROHLING.And while the compositions never match the absolute inspiration of the later, they are sure adventurous, highly inventive and bombastic at moments.Most of them follow the familiar Symphonic/Classical Rock vein with some fantastic piano work, nice string and moog synths and a touch of mellotron, containing some great harmonies and creating some fully romantic atmospheres, sometimes close to NOVALIS.The combination of the keyboard-led complex patterns with the piano-centered amazing interludes is simply stunning for the most of the album's length.A couple of jazzy breaks appear on the album as well, for example the middle part of ''7 to 8 melody'' or the entire ''Melody bass'' are nothing more than smooth Jazz with delicate piano lines, not completely conveincing but not bad either.Still the big symphonic mood covering the effort is the definitive highlight of ''Melody''.

Great but extremely rare release.Fans of keyboard-based prog and Symphonic Rock are propably the ones who should invest some more bucks to track down a copy.Romantic, atmospheric and well-executed prog of high level, strongly recommended to say the least.