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Symphinity
Windchase
Symphinity
Genres: Pop, Rock
 
  •  Track Listings (8) - Disc #1

After the success of "Four Moments" in 1975, Australian band SEBASTIAN HARDIE issued "Windchase" the following year. After the band split-up, its leader, guitar player, and singer Mario MILLO recorded "Symphinity" (1977), ...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Windchase
Title: Symphinity
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Musea Records France
Release Date: 6/1/2006
Album Type: Import
Genres: Pop, Rock
Style:
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1

Synopsis

Album Description
After the success of "Four Moments" in 1975, Australian band SEBASTIAN HARDIE issued "Windchase" the following year. After the band split-up, its leader, guitar player, and singer Mario MILLO recorded "Symphinity" (1977), adopting for his new line-up the name of this last album. Far from being a copy, this magnificent album is slightly different from the quartet?s releases, due to the fact that they added to their typically lyrical and romantic music, a certain GENESIS-like influence that is most welcome. There is also the integration, as natural as it may seem, of a guitar and of percussions that sound as if they had directly come from a album by SANTANA. The musicians even go further by getting close to a relatively dark (!) jazz-rock fusion on the track "Lamb?s Fry". However technique and a little show-off as well as sounding as an heir to COLOSSEUM II, this composition that lasts about ten minutes manages to remain accessible and in the same category as the previous albums.

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CD Reviews

What if Santana went prog?
BENJAMIN MILER | Veneta, Oregon | 07/17/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Windchase was basically an offshoot of Sebastian Hardie, one of the rare examples of Australian prog rock. Sebastian Hardie fell apart after their second and final album, leaving two members to continue on with a new band. Windchase consisted of two ex-Sebastian Hardie members, guitarist/vocalist Mario Millo and keyboardist Toivo Pilt. Naturally the band was named after Sebastian Hardie's second, and final album, called Windchase (1976). Apparently Mario Millo and Toivo Pilt couldn't use the SH name because neither were original members, only bassist Peter Plavsic was there from their 1960s formation right down to the two albums they recorded in 1975-76, and he had nothing to do with this 1977 version.



1977's Symphinity, was released on the Festival label, and wasn't really a continuation of the Sebastian Hardie sound, so if you're expecting another Four Moments, you won't find it here. But what happened if Santana was a full-on prog rock band? This is that album! Toivo Pilt whips out the Hammond organ, Santana style, and Mario Millo's guitar playing is much closer to Carlos Santana's, but thanks to their experience with Sebastian Hardie, the music is naturally going to be much more progressive. This album really emphasizes Mario's guitar playing even more. The occasional Mellotron does surface, but as demonstrated on Sebastian Hardie's Windchase, Toivo preferred to use the string synths more here as well, meaning Four Moments is the best place to hear the Mellotron used the most. Symphinity was the only album Windchase had done, it's not too surprising, given this was 1977, smack in the middle of punk and disco. Mario Millo then went solo, released an album in 1979 called Epic III, before entering the world of film and television to score music. I found Symphinity a bit underrated in comparisons to Four Moments, but it's a great album, and one of the greats of Aussie prog, as far as I'm concerned."