Sympozion - "Kundabuffer"

(Thousand Records THR 01, 2006, CD)

Israel may have been considered a most unlikely location for resurgence of instrumental progressive rock but Sympozion bucks that perception admirably. The five piece ensemble proficiently display compositional and performance chops beyond their years on eight pieces that reprise Italian style themes but also embrace semi-classical and jazz fusion structures. "Happy War Holiday" summarizes all these disparate but friendly characteristics with many nods to Hatfield and the North (emphasizing light touch keyboards and dual guitar parts). Other pieces have differing influences such as Keith Emerson chord changes on "Six" where keyboardist Arik Hayat shows how well he can navigate the keys. `Grapefruit" and the variations on it are the most carefully constructed pieces with many changes. Guest flautist Ilan Salem also adds a Jimmy Hasting's like air to the piece which works well.

The variations piece which closes out the disc is the most ambitious undertaking by the band. Beginning in a more acoustic setting the many Dave Stewart/Alan Gowen nuances to the songwriting style come to the forefront with sparse organ and a low key jazz tempo giving space to restrained soloing not unlike National Health's first recording. "Zona" is the only vocal track with guitarist Elad Abraham's best harmonic interaction with second guitarist Ori Ben-Zvi. In closing I'd really like to see the quintet on the live stage to see how well they can pull it off. -Jeff Melton

Jeff Melton is a staff writer for Expose for 10 years. Favorite Band = Yes, Favorite solo artist: Peter Hammill. Prog Ears and Gnosis member since 1999