SOUNDS OF PASSION

Why 5 stars ? First we must look to Progre history . The year is 1985, a time when who was producing progre music could be considered a hero. Let´s put CODA and other out of mainstream progre at their right honored place ! Yeah, if you lived the eighties loving progre, you know what I mean. Commercial and popish music was at it´s peak, progre music was left apart to die. It didn´t exist internet and cd format. We can even find creative progre music in early 80´s : in east europe ; in France ; in Germany : Eloy late 70´s success seems to have pushed Anyone´s Daughter, Choice 1980 "Just a Dream"( no reissue so far ?!), P´cock, Amenophis ; in USA we had the 1981 Netherworld (hey, were them and Saga the creators of neo progre ? Good question) and even Mike Oldfield made "QE2". On the other hand, in Britain, we had the birth of neo progre with Marillion, even if IQ, Pallas and 12º Night were producing better music (hey, there´s a 1985 mainstream neat work : ELPowell, ). But what about that grandioquent, ambitious, complex, symphonic progre, with that 70´s research spirit ? Take it easy, we still could find some "oasis" or "salvation islands" in the vinyl mid 80´s desert. Like Coda "sounds of passion"; Solaris "Marsbeli Kronikak"(1984), East "Huség" (1983), CRAFT, IQ; Japan produced many great records like Black Page, Mugen, Kenso, Ain Soph. There was even the quite original "RIO" Belgium school of Univers Zero and Present. In Brazil we had Sagrado Coração da Terra, Edhels in France and the super 1988 italian record EZRA WINSTON "Myth of Crisavides" that was "dedicated to those who didn´t believe" (no reissue so far ?!), but this deserves a complete review. Definitivelly it was a difficult time to produce progre, it didn´t exist CD nor internet, the reason why you must look to history. I clap my hands to these 80´s, heroes, being CODA one of my favorites for its sophisticated music even if the mood is a bit too dramatic !