HUNGARIAN ECLECTIC

Tompox is not only the name of this Hungarian band, but also the pseudonym of Tamas Pocs, the long-time bassist of Hungarian legends Solaris.As Solaris were temporarily putting an end to their live performances in 2006, Pocs decided to move further and establish an act, that originally worked as a Solaris cover band.Tompox, with Endre Balla on keyboards, Gabor Berdar on guitar, Peter Szula on drums and Adam Tas on flute, started working on original compositions at some point and Pocs decided to leave Solaris for good in 2011.The following year the band debuted with the album ''Hungarian eclectic'' on Periferic Records.

The love for creating intense and adventurous progressive music becomes apparent from the very first track, ''Monumentum valley'', just a bit under 18 minutes long, and sounding more or less like SOLARIS circa-''Marsbeli kronikak''.With dashes of CAMEL and JETHRO TULL and an updated sound, featuring the heavy use of synthesizers, Tompox offer a well-composed and memorable epic piece, built around Tasi's melodic flutes and the spacey sound of layered synthesizers (ELOY come also to mind), while there are occasional sharp guitar leads and the symphonic underlines are more than evident.As SOLARIS did back in 1984, the rest of the album is a bit more diverse with rockier and even some Fusion moments, always led by the excellent use of flute and the emphatic keyboard textures, but the symphonic elements wait in every corner, either via some nice flute/guitar/keyboard interplays or the flexible and melodic orchestrations.Some piano acoustics and the presence of flashy keyboards tie the bonds between old-school Prog and more modern Neo Prog stylings.Notice also the inclusion of a great cover song in the album, ''Epitaph'' by King Crimson, sung by guest Zoltan Kiss, which is performed by the band in an awesome way, keeping much of its psychedelic and symphonic atmosphere.

Solaris reincarnated by Pocs and company.Beautiful and modern flute-driven Symphonic Rock with spacey keyboards and nice interplays.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.