THE PORTRAIT OF A BOY

And the alien organism, a mix of metal and bruised flesh, sent its tendrils into the surrounding forest, sampling this world for the last time in an orgiastic feast. In a strand of silent trees, one tendril comes back with a report of natural dignity ("Prelude Fis Moll"). Another tendril, wafting in the black waters of an ancient tarn, detects a new world of colors in the black inkiness of its depths ("The Final of the Ballet 'Fahrenheit 451'"). A third encounters an inhospitiable and hungry creature in the barren sands ("Guy's Solo"). Welcome to the world of Horizont. Their second (and final) disc picks up where the side-long "Summer In Town" left off, making good on the promise of modern (i.e., "digital") classical music implicit in Zappa works like Orchestral Favorites and Jazz From Hell. Though billed as a "chamber instrumental ensemble," Horizont clearly has more in common with progressive rock composers like Zappa, Steve Hackett (okay, maybe you never thought of him as a composer) and Keith Emerson. The title suite, for example, would clearly be comfortable in Hackett's extreme climates (though Ozric Tentacles and Univers Zero are the reference points given in the disc's liner notes), while the closing "Vocalise" will remind many of Yes at their more ethereal (e.g., "Soon"). What this organism is doing in Russia I'll never understand, but it clearly struggled for nourishment. Horizont would have found plenty to sustain it in England, Brazil or Italy, but by the time I'd even heard of them (2004), Horizont had long disappeared from the horizon. This and their first disc are not only worth rediscovering but worth championing as neo-prog necromancy. If you enjoy Zappa, Steve Hackett or (what the heck) Ozric Tentacles, this Portrait belongs in your collection.