MARIÁN VARGA & COLLEGIUM MUSICUM

This is my favourite album by this amazing band. It was recorded live (or at least a major part of it, but there are no "studio versions" of the songs, they only appear on this album. This album is purely instrumental. It "rocks" much more than the other albums by Collegium Musicum and guitar is given significantly more space, as the other albums are mostly hammond based. These are probably the main reasons why this album stands out in their collection. Furthermore, there are almost no improvised prolonged instrumental passages that often ruin some of their songs for me as they get boring after a few listens. On this album, composition is tight and the songs are very exciting most of the time. The highlights of the album are the first two songs, "Mikrokozmos", inspired by Bela Bartok's composition, and the epic "Nech zije clovek" (Long Live Man), which is absolutely excellent. Collegium Musicum is sometimes regarded as an ELP derivative, but I don't agree with this opinion. Apart from the fact, that their music is Hammond-organ driven, which means that their sound is naturally resembling the famous English band, their compositions and the whole atmosphere of the music is completely different.