MEGALÁZOTTAK ÉS MEGSZOMORÍTOTTAK

By 1991 After Crying would start to retake shape as a normal band.Balazs Winkler enters the picture on keyboards and trumpet and immediately he was given responsibilities as part of the composing team.Same goes for Laszlo Gacs, who took his place behind the drum kit in order to add to the band a more rockin' dimension.Gabor Egervari remained a strong contributor as a composer on After Crying's ''Megalazottak es megszomorítottak'', which for some reason the band had to release on the Quint label, who had become a part of EMI in Hungary.Several guests appear on choirs and wind instruments in this album released in 1992.

Of course the absolute centerpiece of the album is the 22-min. long ''A gadarai megszallott'', a true epitome on Chamber/Symphonic Rock with orchestral variations and some jazzy elements in the horn moves.This is dark, ambiental music with sound effects and lots of space for piano and cello themes, featuring an upgraded sound on the vocals, which now had a sensitive but expressive GREG LAKE echo, sung in the Hungarian language.For the most of its part this flows in a melancholic and atmospheric orchestral sound with vocals in evidence, rising a bit after the middle with a richer and more complex sound, based on cello, keyboards, piano and clarinet, eventually creating a unique atmosphere of jazzy horns, academic piano lines and monster symphonic grandieur, fading into a soft trumpet/piano execution with bass and drums supporting.The other piece to really remember is the 12-min. title-track and its obscure, very 70's-like KING CRIMSON atmosphere with the drums becoming a focal point in After Crying's music next to the piano, keyboard and cello solos.This might sound even better than the opening opus with everchanging moods, ranging from complex string-based Chamber Rock to retro-influenced keyboard Prog Rock to Lounge Music.Nice stuff.Three shorter tracks, not longer than 3 minutes each, complete this work, all of them sound like a mixture of Chamber Music, Experimental Rock and Orchestral Music in soft and ethereal arrangements.

Classical Music meets Jazz meets smooth Rock in a unique, very Avant-Garde-like way.Strongly recommended, despite its certain music experiments, likely to please both fans of Prog Rock and pure Classical Music...3.5 stars.