PAVOL HAMMEL & MARIAN VARGA - Zelena posta - SLO Opus Press - LISTEN

"Meanwhile, back in May, the classic LP Zelená Pošta was recorded, credited, to be sure, to Pavol Hammel & Marián Varga and released by Opus in a nice gatefold sleeve in the autumn of 1972. On a second glance it was the third studio LP by the group Collegium Musicum (in the line-up Varga/Frešo/Hájek + Rastislav Vacho on guitar, present on the debut) with the more than guest participation of the vocalist, who sings on almost all the recordings and is also the composer of three tracks (out of ten - including two together with the keyboard player). On the album, I think on three pieces, the outstanding guitarist Radim Hladik of Blue Effect also played, and I am sure everyone will hear the difference between his cosmic playing and the struggles with the instrument of the just-mentioned Vacho... As one might have guessed, however, it was not the typical, expansive, classic-quoting and fully progressive Collegium Musicum known from Konvergencie, but rather an ambitious and very varied recital by pals making music, consisting of short, though often complicated, but also balladic pieces - who knows whether closer to the records of Hammel and Prúdy than to those of his friends/competitors. Side A opened with the mere one-minute Domáca Úloha - an orchestral piece with short, striking piano entries, written, it is said, ten years earlier by the 15-year-old Varga! By contrast, the mere 3-and-a-half-minute Z Ďatelín was a sentimental, elegant ballad superbly sung by Hammel accompanied by piano, Hammond organ and delicate strings. The third on the record, the strongly driving Tenis was an almost rhythm'n'blues, dynamic piece in the style of the early 60s, garnished with a conservative guitar solo by (probably) Vacho, playing chords. Then came the as much as 5-and-a-half-minute and, in my opinion, excellent Smutná Ranná Električka - a slightly bluesy, rhythmic piece superbly interpreted by the vocalist, who also has acting skills, and adorned with a fast, feisty and quite long solo by (certainly) Hladík! The first part was closed by Krajina Bielych Dievčat, written solely by Hammel, recorded with percussion instruments, rhythmically broken and at the same time strongly swinging - a breathy, quite hypnotic, 7-minute piece characterised by slightly distorted vocals and almost psychedelic organ parts. The second side was opened by another, quite expansive piece, the 6-minute, excellent Páví Ples - composed by both musicians, full of changing moods, sung with class and at moments almost a clone of Emerson, Lake & Palmer of that time. Then came Cesty Bláznov, played largely in 9/8 metre, very weird - a great, truly progressive piece adorned with a very Frippian, twisted solo by the Blue Effect guitarist! The album really picked up here! The under-2-minute Nechtiac was a quasi-symphonic, organ-and-orchestra miniature enriched by a delicate voice, and after it came the excellent, ballad-rock Slnečnice - a distinguished, again somewhat Emerson-like piece based on a slightly broken rhythm, an organ backdrop, occasional punctuating brass fanfares and garnished with an excellent guitar solo. The record was closed by the 7-minute, decidedly progressive Pošta, composed by Varga and Hammel and consisting, as it were, of two parts - in the first half summing up, as it were, the earlier, more ambitious moods, and after a short break returning with a slightly distorted, instrumental, polyphonic main theme from the track Zvonky, Zvoňte which opened Prúdy's debut. One really wanted Hammel to intone those words again..." A REVIEW BY JACEK LEŚNIEWSKI FROM A BOOK ON ROCK IN THE FORMER EASTERN BLOC, BEGUN BUT ABANDONED AFTER HALF A YEAR (2021). 2017 reissue, in a gatefold sleeve, sealed.