THE PORTRAIT OF A BOY

The second Gorizont/Horizont album is, if anything, even MORE bizarre than the first. If you thought the "Summer In Town" suite was strange, wait till you hear "Portrait Of A Boy"! The band had acquired digital synthesizers in the interim, and clearly have spent many an hour programming them to coax the most harsh, raucous and frightening tones they could dream up. No instantly recognizable DX7 presets here! The lengthy title suite sounds for all the world like a tape recording of a symphony where the tape has been stretched, run over, and generally perverted to the point where it sounds like a grotesque fun-house mirror version of orchestral music.

The rest of the music isn't nearly that outré, but it does carry on the band's vision of "avant-sympho" quite well, with the pieces containing the right amount of dark dread to keep the listener's interest. For sure, everything I said about their first album goes double for this one-don't get it unless you know what you're in for! But if you're up for this, what a ride!