REINCARNATION

"Tompox" is the name of a Symphonic Prog band that was founded from the ashes of "Solaris", both bands from Hungary. Tamas Pocs was the bassist for Solaris for 3 of their albums, and after that band dissolved, Tamas wanted to continue the legacy they started, so he formed the band Tompox, which at first played Solaris' music, but then started to write original songs. Since 2012, Tompox has released 3 albums, their 3rd album was called "Reincarnation" and was released in May of 2019. The band's line-up consists of Matyas Szabolcs on guitar; Endre Balla on keyboards; Sara Dizna Kovacs on flute and vocals; Istvan Elek on saxophone; Tamas Pocs on bass; and Peter Szula on drums. The album consists of 11 tracks with a total run-time of almost 72 minutes.

The album starts off with "Without Illusions" which is a 6+ minute jazz/rock fusion instrumental that is based off of a synth riff which appears in between the improvised soloing sections which highlight different guitar styles, pastoral flute solos and a piano solo. "Rings of Saturn" begins with a slower rhythm and later speeds up during a guitar and synth "call and answer" style improvisation. The tempo shifts back to a slower, pensive rhythm with a guitar and wordless vocal section. When the drums come back in, the sax takes over with a solo. After the bass noodles around a bit, the speed picks up again and guitar riffs and synths build things up and the sax and flute take the melody. Things turn strangely electronic at the tail end of the track.

"Milfyway" (no that is not a typo) features a slightly heavier sound with more guitar and synth soloing against a fast drum beat. Later the sax comes in against a somewhat lame synth effect that is rather annoying. For being a more rock oriented instrumental, this track loses steam as it doesn't seem to be very convincing, the riffs are not very catchy and the sound gets a little tired. "Pompeii" gains back a little more ground with a nice staccato-style riff, probably produced by synths and some layered flute against a thumping guitar background. Later, the flute and guitar trade the spotlight back and forth. The tempo gets more intense and a synth solo comes in later traded by a surprisingly rousing guitar solo. "Speed Limit" plays off of a heavy guitar riff adding a synthesized brass section to give the track more power. Little pieces of flute appear between more powerful guitar flourishes. Later, a jazz guitar plays a solo followed by a heavy guitar.

The instrumental jazz/rock sound continues through the album. There are sections that seem to be going in a free floating direction that suddenly become heavy only to return to a laid back feel. There are some great passages with impressive sound, and other places that are pretty average. Overall, there isn't anything groundbreaking here, or really anything that stands out as far as performance or musicality. It's simply decent jazz-rock fusion, mostly all instrumental, nice for background music more than anything. All instruments get emphasis at several places in the music, but it is pretty much just average sounding. It's good, it's just nothing astounding, and seems to be more fusion style than it does symphonic.

Solaris Fusion

Tompox is the nickname of bass player Tamas Pocs of the band Solaris. Pocs formed his own band under the name of Tompox, and Reincarnation is the third album released under this name. Here we have an album that is more towards Fusion, but still with a spacy Solaris sound to some of the tracks. Flutes and keyboards feature prominently as well as guitars. There is a harder edge here and another comparison point would be Nostradamus - another Solaris offshoot that released an album called Testament in 2008.

Reincarnation is almost completely instrumental, with only the closing track featuring lead vocals by Beata Vincze. This track is very different in character to the rest of the album, not only in virtue of the vocals. With over 70 minutes of music included, they could perhaps have considered shortening the album somewhat. Having that said, I enjoy all of this music very much, and the musicianship is top notch. Fans of the great Solaris might want to check this out, but if you are expecting a new Solaris album you will of course not be fully happy with Reincarnation.