CONTINUUM

This band is an Unidentified Flying Group, that is all too forgotten. This extremely eclectic debut is only partly in the rock realm, but its folk, classical, pre-classical, blues, jazz and avant-garde influences is making it one of the hardest album to classify. This international quartet founded by Hungarian wind and acoustic guitar player Yoel Schwarcz, but based in Netherlands and England, certainly took a rather bold turn in reworking the classics, like Ekseption and Trace and much later Sky would, but here the interpretation are bold, daring, dazzling and inventive, mostly because the group built on the piece (Bach and Handel mostly) instead of adapting and electrifying them. Continuum even takes the risk of re-working Bourée and as you would've guessed, it does not match Tull's, but does stand on its own.

If the first side is somewhat conventional and presents jazz, blues and folk workouts from Bach pieces and as said above is rather excellent, but stays partly conventional, the second side is much more adventurous and the group enters the atonal and dissonant realms, using scales and an advanced use string quintet that are rather unfamiliar to the mainstream crowds.

The side-long suite Legend Of Childe Harold (written by Richard Hartley) where the voyage of Childe Harold and its tribulations and misadventures are described musically. Ranging from a pedestrian blues with jazzy solos ala early-Tull (Release) to the almost medieval and dissonant intro (Revelate) to the almost-dronal semi-medieval and semi- contemporary Judgment Approach, with the finale's frankly dissonant intro, this suite was quite an achievement for the year of recording. I wouldn't be surprised if Art Zoyd and Univers Zero heard this album's finale.

Clearly this album is the resultant of hundreds of influences, but it is safe to bet many progressive musicians also heard and inspired themselves from this album. This album is much more than a curiosity, it is a must hear for classical-loving progheads.