Guitarist with the Romanian prog band SFINX. Prog world is poorer...
Guitarist with the Romanian prog band SFINX. Prog world is poorer...
Argh. He was "elderly", though.
Both of those first two Sfinx albums are worth hearing once in a while, Zalmoxe standing out as one of the typically original takes on 'symphonic' rock from the Eastern bloc along with, for instance, Indexi from Yugoslavia and Progres 2 from Czechoslowakia. Zalmoxe has been reprinted by Electrecord several times, AFAIK, and remains obtainable for those interested. Which I assume can't be many given the "prog" climate of today.
Considering how few replies there were to the RIP-threads on Marian Varga and Radim Hladik, I expect there'll be next to none in this one.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
I thought I recognized that name. Alas, I only know them from Zalmoxe, but I find it to be an excellent album. Apparently, the band had a lot of resistance from the hard-line Romanian government at the time (I hear that Zalmoxe was originally conceived as a double-album oratorio, much like Cantofabule from Phoenix, the other leading lights of Romanian prog).
Anyway, R.I.P. to a talented guy.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
He was a great electric player; yet a very competent acoustic one. And something of legendary status in Romanian rock audiences (he defected to Belgium in 1981, during a Sfinx tour).
I think that Zalmoxe is a very good album, myself. And a particular one, meaning that it is a rare example of an "eastern" band trying to do the early Yes formula (instead of the Genesis, Floyd or Camel one) and came up with something rather unique.
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