AMENOPHIS

It was a 'progrock sin' to ignore this wonderful 24-carat symphonic rock album for so many years but when I re-discovered it a few months ago, I've played this eponymous debut album by German prog band Amenophis many times and every time it manages to generate the same huge excitement, "wunderbar"! Their music is very melodic and pure and based upon beautiful interplay between sensitive electric guitar and soaring keyboards (often a wonderful strings sound). The climates fluently change from dreamy to heavy or bombastic with obvious echoes from early Camel, especially when the guest musician on flute is playing. The five bonustracks sound not really interesting, it's quite mellow music, also because the drummer has left his drums at home and plays only synthesizers and acoustic guitar in the studio. At some moments the acoustic guitar work is pleasant with hints from Steve Hackett. But back to the four compositions (between 5 and 12 minutes) on the original album (1983): if you love symphonic prog, check out this wonderful album!