VERA O'FLERA

Lotus was a Swedish five piece band with additional musicians on saxophone, piano, bass and drums. In 1974 they released their eponymous debut album, in 1976 followed by this second effort entitled Vera O'Flera, the CD release (Duck Your Music label) contains two bonustracks. During my first listening session I was blown away by Lotus their melodic and jazzrock oriented sound and the skills of the musicans of this unknown band: a swinging and powerful rhythm-section, an excellent guitarist (an often flowing and fiery style) and an outstanding keyboardplayer who reminds me of Jan Hammer and Chick Corea but he's not a copycat. Especially the wonderful soli on the synthesizer and the sparkling work on the piano (from jazzy to classical) are really stunning, what a talent! The 11 songs on this CD (running time around the 40 minutes) sound tasteful and varied, this album should be embraced by the many jazzrock aficionados on this site, a big hand for the unknown Swedish formation Lotus!