Israeli Psych and Prog – an overview by Gil Keltch Taken with kind permission from http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=115002487 http://www.myspace.com/gil_keltch The Israeli Prog scene got some attention in recent years, due to exposure on the net and growing interest in bands such as Trespass, Ahvak, Symphozion, The Ashqelon Quilt, Parva Chama, Rockfour, Mr. Toad and others who's albums were distributed internationally, some to great acclaim. Even so large part of the Israeli progressive scene remains obscure even in Israel itself. In this article I hope to shed some light and to show the development of a scene that deserves some recognition. Part I: Sunshine Men in High Windows - The psychedelic era 1967-71 Up to 1967 Israeli popular music was largely based on styles such as Russian folk, French Chansons, Tango etc. There was no trace of Rock or Pop whatsoever. Following the Six Days War in June 1967 many tourists, volunteers and students arrived, bringing along musical gear, LP collections and most importantly hippie culture. This resulted in a plethora of beat groups who had their first opportunity to perform and gain confidence in a small but vivid clubs / discothèques scene. Many of these (The Lions, Uzi & the Styles, The Chocolate etc.) started out as cover bands playing songs by The Searchers, Procol Harum and of course The Beatles, while others started developing their own sounds: The pioneer of Israeli pop/rock is talented composer Shmulik Kraus an Israeli hippie who spent some time in the USA where he befriended Jimi Hendrix and was invited to the legendary Woodstock festival by him. Upon his return to Israel he formed The High Windows along with his wife Josie Kraus and Arik Einstein. In sharp contrast to his problematic personality Kraus was a sensitive composer who was able to write beautiful and delicate tunes. With The High Windows he had the opportunity to fuse Israeli folk with Pop and psych influences (note the eerie slightly oriental Farfisa organ sounds) and tight vocal harmonies influenced by the Byrds and the Mamas and Papas. The album is a milestone of Israeli Rock and the band was very successful, they even got some attention abroad at the time but eventually fell apart. Kraus had continued this direction with the excellent but short-lived Kef Hatikva Hatova (Good Hope Cape) who recorded some great acid-folk tracks (which eventually surfaced on Kraus' rarities album 70-80) but a series of jailing and hospitalizations in mental asylums (while still in Jail, he recorded a garage-psych album "The state of Israel vs. Kraus Shmuel") plagued his career and he only found success in the mid 80's. High Windows drummer Zohar Levy went on to form his own beat group 7th Zohar with whom he recorded some very interesting songs merging beat music with jazz, blues and soul influences. After this he wrote music to an outrageous theatre show "Bathroom Queen" this appeared on an ultra rare LP and was recently reissued on CD. Following this Levy formed the aforementioned Kef Hatikva Hatova and after it fell apart he went on to form Apocalypse. Along with Eli Magen (also ex Kef Hatikva Hatova), Yitzhak 'Churchill' Klepter (founder member of the Churchill's and the man who the band was named after), Gabi Shoshan and Miri Aloni who had a superb powerful voice. They recorded their classic sole album in 1971. It comprised powerful Psychedelic Hard-Rock with Blues, Jazz and Folk overtones and with strong progressive developments. Lead by the mighty fuzz guitar of Klepter and propelled by the complex rhythms of Levy and Magen. This was a crossover album fusing Israeli folk, psych and early prog into a new entity. It was critically acclaimed but flopped commercially and the band split as a result of this. Levy's final band in the 70's was the short-lived 14 Octaves after this he quit music, except for some sporadic appearances. Klepter went on to join Kaveret and later Tuned Tone. He was one of the first guitar heroes of the Israeli scene and one of the better ones, others included Shlomo Mizrahi, Gerry Akstein and of course Haim Romano of the Churchill's. The Churchill's were formed in Tel Aviv in 1965 and featured Haim Romano (guitar), Mickey Gavrielov (Bass), Amy Treibatch (Drums) British guitarist Rob Huxley and Canadian vocalist Stan Solomon they recorded three songs and went to Denmark for a while (where they opened up for Deep Purple). Exposed to dope and the underground scene their music had gradually become more and more psychedelic. Upon their return to Israel they started adopting Arabic and Greek motives into their music. They created several soundtracks to Israeli movies, which were the basis for their revolutionary album. In spite of their uniqueness (or maybe because of it) the album sold in poor quantities and became an expensive collector's item. Their next step was to team up with Israeli composer/conductor Noam Shariff, who arranged for them a concert with the Israeli Philharmonic orchestra influenced by Deep Purple's album with the London Symphony. They played two tracks by Bach: "Choral for Young Lovers" and "Concerto X 2", which was released as a single entitled "Churchill Sebastian Bach". New vocalist Danny Shoshan (Gabi's brother and ex Lions) joined them by 1970 and strongly influenced their direction, they went to London by 1971 where they recorded an album under the name Jericho Jones, this album "Junkies, Monkeys and Donkeys" was really a transitional album, musically updating their psych roots with hard-rock and prog. Their final album as Jericho was more complete work, the band had maintained its hard-rock sound but developed more complex songwriting strongly influenced by Led Zeppelin yet quite original. Both albums were reissued on CD by Repertoire. Following this album the band split and most members returned to Israel. Back in 69' they teamed up with Arik Einstein who along with them and with the talented Misha Segal had recorded what is considered to be the first Hebrew Rock album in 1969. this album "Poozi" comprised excellent psychedelic rock, but also included the first ever Israeli Progressive-Rock track "Hayo Haya" (written by Segal in memoriam of the High Windows organist Ziggy who tragically passed away) the song opens up with a jazzy piano solo with tapes of glasses clicking and coughs, before it merges into a Procol Harum Like organ with Einstein singing and moaning, this is being interrupted by a superb Acid guitar solo by Haim Romano and then reverts to the jazzy piano and the organ and ends in a climax where Einstein screams his lungs out. This is an essential Israeli prog. Einstein had kept the Churchill's as backing band for several more albums including the two ground breaking psychedelic albums he recorded with singer-songwriter Shalom Chanoch Shablool and Plastelina both of these albums are essential for fans of psychedelic rock. Talented composer and arranger Misha Segal who contributed heavily to the "Poozi" album had strong background in jazz and classical music. He formed a trio consisting himself, bassist Ethan Gidron (later of Tamouz) and drummer David Shanan (of the Schnitzels and later of Zingale) with whom he recorded some groundbreaking Psych/Prog tracks that were never released officially. Including "Shir Hachardal" and "Haanashim Asher Aahavti" of course these went nowhere and he reverted back to writing, arranging and producing. He ended up as a house producer for Motown records!!! Segal's drummer David Shanan was also involved with the Schnitzels; formed circa 1970 the band was lead by the talented Danny Sanderson and also featured Alon Oleartchick (who much later played on Eddie Jobson's Zinc album), Meir Feningstein (who was also briefly involved with Zingale), Ephraim Shamir and Giddy Gov along with Miri Aloni and several guests they recorded a rock opera "Poogy Tales" that was strongly in debt to early Mothers of Invention sound. This was never officially released; however tapes of this opera and other early psychedelic materiel by them circulate among collectors (and can also be heard online @ http://mistovev.haoneg.com/26) With the addition of Yitzhak Klepter and Yoni Rechter, this band evolved into Israel's most successful rock/pop band of all times; Kaveret. The most controversial and blatant artist to emerge in the sixties is without any doubt Danny Ben Israel, after enjoying a successful career as mainstream artist he adopted hippie philosophy and lifestyle and between 1968-70 had recorded groundbreaking material with blatant lyrics and experimental dark psych, this resulted in the Bullshit 3.15 album which included his Hebrew recordings and the recordings that was released 35 years later as the Katmandu Sessions. The uniqueness of these albums lies also in the (sometimes very trippy) lyrics. The music comprises somber avant-garde psych and is full of fuzzed out and distorted guitars, studio effects, tape loops, tone generators etc. Ben-Israel often doubled his vocals and used them as an instrument (like Tim Buckley or Alan Sorrenti but in a totally twisted manner.) The whole album sounds like a big acid trip, sometimes very spacey and heavy and always bleak. Highly recommended!!! The last two artists to be discussed in this part are Ushik Levy & Mordechai 'Poopik' Arnon, both of them had been in a pop trio called the Twins following its demise they both went solo. Levy recorded a couple of interesting albums, supported by the Churchill's and Mathi Caspi amongst others, these two albums "A Bit Silence" from 1971 and "Ushik Levy" from 1974 contained good quality psychedelic songs and liberal use of Mellotrons, Moog and Hammond. Poopik Arnon had also released an interesting pop-psych album 'Every one' in 1970, this album featured the Churchill's and some of their songs (translated to Hebrew) as well an emerging young artist called Shlomo Gronich who contributed 3 excellent complex songs to this album. Part II: A bit different – Early prog 1971-77 Shlomo Gronich grew up in musical family and was a prodigy. He had a wide range of influences ranging from Bach to the Beatles via Jazz, traditional Jewish music and Kurt Weill. He became professional by 1970 and by 1971 his first album "Why Didn't You Tell me?" was released. It was the first Israeli prog-rock album and revolutionary work. It comprised many facets of his complex music and personality and the aforementioned influences. The title track had captured him screaming, crying and freaking out on the piano and vocals, during a bad acid trip and resembled the mayhem of Aphrodite's Child "8" track. The album had a very desperate atmosphere and is essential for everyone who wants to understand the development of Israeli prog. Gronich then collaborated with composer/arranger/producer and multi instrumentalist Mathi Caspi. The result of this was Behind the Sounds another milestone of Israeli prog. This live album featured Gronich on piano and vocals and Caspi on acoustic guitar and vocals and in spite of the scarce instrumentation and the bare arrangements, they managed to create a full and compelling sound due to the tight harmony vocals, Gronich's Jazzy piano and Caspi's slightly funky bass lines (produced on acoustic guitar!). It was based on the same influences but Caspi also added folk and Latin rhythms. The music ranged from the beautiful to the frightening, from accessible songs to sheer avant-garde. This is another essential Israeli progressive (not rock though) album. After this, Caspi had gone solo and gradually abandoned rock, concentrating on other directions such as bossanova, reggae and so on; however his first solo album still contained rock-based song and displayed interesting use of Mellotron and even some electric guitar (which is indeed very rare for Caspi) and is recommended. The duo reunited for several tours and another album by 1984, but this was disappointing. By 1973 Israel was involved in the terrible Yom Kippur War, a traumatic event for the Israeli nation. After the war, many artists tried to express their trauma. Gronich teamed up with Shem Tov Levy and Shlomo Ydov and assisted by several session musicians they recorded a brilliant album under the name Ktzat Acheret (A Bit Different) or Nonames. This album reflected some of the pain and anguish of the Yom Kippur trauma and was very varied musically. At this stage strong influence of groups such as Gentle Giant and Mahavishnu Orchestra was reflected in their music, but they added their own dose of Jazz, Classical, Avant-garde, Middle Eastern music and Balkan rhythms. This album is masterpiece of Israeli prog and is essential. The band split due to Gronich's departure to USA. 1980 saw him return after several years in USA. He went on a tour which resulted in a live album, this featured new and old material and one side of it was dedicated to the rock opera he wrote "America" that was staged only several years later. His next album "Cotton Candy" found Gronich at his most mature and complex. It contained several excellent tracks including "Nueba" (which was covered by famed jazz flutist Herbie Mann); "I hadn't stopped yet" with great sitar passage, "Nowhere" - a great jazzy piece of prog and what some consider the greatest Israeli prog track ever "Luna Park" a crazy jazzy Gentle Giantish piece. His next venture was a reunion with Shem Tov Levy. The duo who also became brothers in low, recorded "Family Album" in 1983. This was to be their last 'Progressive' effort so far. The frustrated Gronich wrote a protest song "Simple Songs" about the difficulties of playing complex music; absurdly this song became one of his greatest hit ever. The rest of the album included recording of family members playing folksy tunes, a rework of "Autumn nights" from the Sheshet album and several excellent progressive tracks; "Transition", "Dance of the Hobbits" and "The Heart Opens". In overall this album is not great, but still quite enjoyable. Following this Gronich recorded a bunch of commercial albums and gained some success and recognition. After Ktzat Acheret broke up, Shem Tov Levy had embarked on a long and fruitful collaboration with Arik Einstein. He also released his first solo album "In the Mood" by 1976, it featured among others Haim Romano, Yitzhak Klepter and Avner Kenner. It maintained the same influences as in Ktzat Acheret but with stronger emphasis on jazz and Middle Eastern and Balkan music. That would become Levy's trademark sound in latter years. The album was unique and set new standards in Israeli prog. By 1977 Levy formed a new group Sheshet; the band also featured female singer Judith Ravitz (who later became a megastar) and several veteran musicians with Rock and Jazz backgrounds. This band faced much difficulty due to the uncommercial nature of their music. So they soon split but a record company executive had heard them in one of their rare concerts and offered them a record deal. They reunited for the purpose of recording the self titled album which is considered as one of the best Israeli progressive rock albums, it contained elements of prog, jazz, Arabic and Balkan music and considerable influences of Chick Corea and Gentle Giant with strong compositions and playing by all members. Levy continues to record as a solo artist and released several albums of which the album "The Golden Peacock" (a compilation of his instrumental proggy stuff) is recommended. The band had also recorded a soundtrack to a film "The Stretcher March" which is now available as a bonus disc on the recent 30 years anniversary CD reissue. The final member of Ktzat Acheret to record a solo album was guitarist Shlomo Ydov who by 1978 released his first album "The First Time" another solid album of symphonic rock/folk in the vein of Camel, Genesis and of course Gentle Giant. One of the finest Israeli prog albums, it was mostly song based but also contained two excellent instrumental pieces. After this Ydov reunited with Levy in the band Tuned tone which also featured Yitzhak Klepter, this band released one album of melodic rock in 1979. Yoni Rechter, the keyboard player of Israel's most popular band at the time Kaveret (Beehive) was also a student at the music academy in Jerusalem, where he befriended Avner Kenner. In addition to their classical background the two shared a passion for progressive acts such as Yes and Gentle Giant. They started writing original music based on those influences and with drummer Zohar Levy and several guests (including Gronich and Kaveret members) they toured as 14 Octaves and released the eponymous album in 1975. Although not great this album had its moments and it's quite good. By 1979 Yoni Rechter had also released his first solo album Intentions which included some good progressive stuff and some more popish material. Kenner went on to form funky/pop band Premiere, but prior to this he recorded a good Gentle-Giantish track "Bridge" which came in two versions; long and short ones, but was never realeased. Part III: The Beit Lessin scene and beyond - 1975- Zingale perhaps the most well known Israeli prog band emerged by 1974. The band was formed by bassist Udy Tamir, Keyboardist Ady Weiss, vocalist/guitarist Ephraim Barak, Drummer David Shanan, English-born violinist Tony Brower and several others. They named themselves after the Hebrew slang word for Joint (although they claimed the name is taken from the word 'sing'). They were the first Israeli prog group to use theatrical elements in their concerts (masks, lightning etc.) and headlined the shows that begun to take place at Beit Lessin theatre in Tel Aviv, which had became the home of the "Israeli Progressive rock club". After recording several Hebrew singles that flopped, they concentrated on English lyrics and mostly instrumental work, as they were aiming for the international market. At a certain stage British Decca records showed interest in the band but nothing came out of it. They started working on their classic and only album Peace in 1975. Like other Israeli Prog album of that period this album also reflected the Yom Kippur War trauma, but unlike others it had only English lyrics and was by far the most accomplished Israeli prog album ever. This is a great album equally influenced by the complex rock of Gentle Giant and Yes and by the stoned Jazz-rock of the Canterbury scene, however they had their own identity. The album only came out two years after it's recording in a limited quantity and became very rare and sought after album. It was also reissued twice on CD. Between the time of recording sessions to the release of the album they recorded several more Hebrew songs, which got them no attention (by 1996 Band member Johnny Stern had released a CDR with all of their Hebrew recordings under the title " A Party Inside"). As a result of several members growing interest in religion and due to the lack of success, they broke up, leaving us only one album, a masterpiece! Recently the duo of Ephraim Barak and Udi Tamir had announced they are working again under the Zingale moniker and recording an album which is to be titled "The bright side of the moon". Another important group to emerge from the Beit Lessin scene was Piamenta. Named after its founder members, brothers Yossi and Avi Piamenta; Yossi was a virtuoso guitar player, highly influenced by Jimi Hendrix. The band gigged for several years and recorded several singles/demos, until 1977 when legendary Jazz Saxophonist Stan Getz, who toured Israel at the time heard them and was so impressed by them, that he decided to join the band. Together with Getz the band had recorded an album that combined heavy prog, Jazz and Arabic/Oriental elements. This was very unique effort, highly zonked music that was similar to Gong (but without their spacey leanings or their anarchy) unfortunately the album was never released and the band split when Piamenta followed Stan Getz' Invitation to work with him in the USA. Piamenta is still active musically and released several albums throughout the 80's and the 90's. Atmosphera who emerged by 1976 comprised of high school students: Moti Fonseca (Guitar, AKA the Israeli Steve Howe), Keyboardist and main composer Yuval Rivlin, bassist Alon Nadel and drummer Ami Lipner (AKA Me El Ma) they gigged in Beit Lessin with Piamenta, Zingale and other progressive acts of the day. By 1977 together with Ephraim Barak of Zingale, they recorded material for an album; which was finally released on CD (that included extra material and rare footage) almost 25 years later. This shows them as one of the finest Israeli prog bands. With very professional approach they recorded long and complex tracks highly influenced by Yes and Genesis. They also spawned a great offshoot band called Istopy which recorded one track only of complex and theatrical prog called Catharsis in 1981. The Beit Lessin scene launched several other bands as well, including the aforementioned Sheshet, Snowball (who never recorded) the mediocre hard-rock band Gan Eden (who's album did contained one proggy instrumental piece "Paramix") and the interesting space-rock band Cosmic Dream. 5 piece band lead by organ player Adar Avishar and featured two more keyboardists Yossi Mar-Haim (El. Piano) and Danny Webb (synthesizer and mellotron), drummer Gil Ladin and guitarist Berry Sakharof who was 16 years old at the time (and who later found fame as a member of New-wave/Rock band Minimal Compact) together they performed a lengthy piece in two parts which lasted over one hour and entitled "Journey to the Center of the Mind" (their producer was an avid Amboy Dukes fan). The piece consisted of spacey jams influenced by Pink Floyd and the Krautrock scene, but sadly it was never recorded properly, live tapes of this band circulate among collectors but suffer from poor sound quality. Avishar went on to record an album in 1984 backed by non-others than VdGG members, however this remains unreleased, therefore I can't comment on it. Another band that appeared in Beit Lessin was the Platina, formed in 1971 by drummer Aaron Kaminski and Russian-born saxophonist Roman Kunsman and with an ever shifting line-up of some of the best Israeli players including Yitzhak Klepter, Alon Oleartchick, Alona Torell, Haim Karyo and others. They were the first Israeli jazz-rock band. By 1973 they recorded their first album "Live at Barbarim", following this they were invited to the legendary Newport Jazz festival where they played alongside the Mahavishnu Orchestra and others. Upon their return to Israel they recorded a second album "Freedom" which included a long and complex title track. The band final line-up in the 70's had developed some proggy tendencies and recorded great adaptations to two pieces by French impressionist Debussy: "The girl with the flaxen hair" and "The snow is dancing". These recordings were finally released on CD in 2003 alongside other unreleased tracks by them and are an essential slice of complex jazzy prog. Highly recommended! Other very important band to play on Beit Lessin was Tamouz that emerged by 1975 and released their sole album by early 76'. Super group led by two of the most important Israeli rock artists of all times, Shalom Chanoch & Ariel Zilber. A hard rock band essentially. Their album "The Orange Season is over" did contain good progressive track "The deeper, the bluer" with long and complex instrumental passages. The rest of the material was very varied and featured elements of folk, jazz and blues combined with very strong Led Zeppelin Influence. Recently rediscovered is Shimshon Miel who recorded and privately pressed his album "Orchard of the Whispering Embers" in 1977. The album is rumored to contain good psychedelic prog/folk and it was recently reissued on CD. The Jerusalem band Duvdevan (Cherry) was the final band to emerge in the 70's. Comprising vocalist/keyboardist Yves Touati, Electric violin player Danny Tiberin, bassist Arnon Palti, Guitarist Eyal Taubenhouse and drummer Rony Holan they recorded several tracks, only one of these Ben Gurion Airport is available on a compilation CD, The band played progressive/psychedelic jazz-rock and was quite unique. They split and reformed for several times during the eighties and their recording is yet waiting to be issued. However thanks to bassist Arnon Palti you can hear it on-line @ http://www.myspace.com/duvdevan2007 prior to this, whilst still back in France Touati had recorded an album with Magma for the Futura label, which remains unissued. Part IV: Point of view - Modern Israeli Prog 1989-2007 The Eighties were a dark period for Israeli prog scene. Lord Flimnap a retro- prog trio, whose members: Itay Eyal (voice/guitar/bass), Ohad Goldbrat (Voice/Keyboards) and Alon Weissman (drums) were 15-16 years old at the time, recorded a good album "Point of View" in 1989. Their sound resembled early British prog bands such as Rare Bird, Cressida etc. Indeed the CD was issued in Germany by SPM who marketed them as obscure early 70 British Band (!) The label also promised to arrange the band a European tour to promote the album, but it coincided with their marketing plot and the tour was withdrawn. Following this the band broke up. The album was reissued again by 2004 with several bonus tracks. The early 90's saw the emergence of Rockfour (who's got some attention abroad) a retro-psych band who reached its zenith with the excellent "The man who saw everything" album from 1995. This contained high quality songs such as "Hole in the moon", "Every Way" and the title track and is recommended to psych fans. Following this they released several English-language albums and toured Europe and the USA a lot. They are still active today and are working on new album. Another band to adopt 70's sounds and influence were Tom and the true Story who's first two albums are rumored to contain some interesting stuff. In particular: a 28 minutes piece from their 2nd album. By the beginning of the new millennium a modern prog scene had emerged, this was kick started by Hot Fur a Zappa influenced combo who recorded two albums, the first of which was released on Musea label in France in 2005. Ashqelon Quilt comprised of the Hendel brothers Shachar and Ori was Israel's first neo-prog band and the first Israeli prog band to get distribution abroad. Their album The Event was released on The Hi-Note label in the UK in 2000. Their music merged Celtic and Middle Eastern folk with pop and strong influences of Gentle Giant and Genesis. The epic track "The well" was a highlight and it stands as a great example of Israeli prog. Like Ashqelon Quilt above Trespass came from Jerusalem, This trio had released two albums on Musea In Haze of Time and Morning Lights in 2002 and 2006 respectively. They got good reviews, often comparing them to a jazzy version of ELP and were also invited to appear on the well-respected Baja Prog festival in 2003. Sanhedrin was another band to emerge in 1999; they recorded several tracks influenced by Camel and King Crimson, before evolving out into Symphozion in 2000. Lead by Elad Abraham (guitar) and Arik Hayat (keyboards) and also featured bassist Dan Carpman (who was involeved with Eggroll and Susita). Symphozion recorded their album Kundabuffer in 2004 to much acclaim. Their music was influenced by Gentle Giant, King Crimson and Zappa as well as from minimalist composers such as Phillip Glass and Steve Reich. The album got an international distribution via Unicorn label; it was produced by Udi Koomran who was also involved with Ahvak. Starting out as Verdun who recorded 3 interesting tracks in 2001 assisted by Dave Kerman (of 5UU's and Present fame), they evolved into Ahavak who recorded much acclaimed album for Cuneiform in 2004 and are considered as Israel's first R.I.O. band. They were also invited to appear in a lucrative R.I.O. festival in France. Eggroll had taken the Israeli prog crowd by storm during 2001-03. With a series of concerts; on which they covered classic prog songs by bands like Genesis, Yes, Camel, King Crimson etc. By 2003 they started working on new original material which was quite poppy and disappointing. They released their debut album Fairytale in 2006 and also opened up for Jethro Tull on their 2007 Israeli tour. Several members of Eggroll were also involved with Susita, an interesting band whose music corresponded with the Israeli prog tradition of the 70's. Like Shem Tov Levy, Mathi Caspi and Shlomo Gronich they focused on texts by poets and added strong middle-eastern influences into a sympho-based material. They privately released a self-titled album in 2005 to good acclaim and are rumored to be working on a new album. Revach Kaful (Double Space) works in a similar direction to Susita; they have been formed in Jerusalem in 2003 and released their debut album Pitulim (Twists) in 2006. Ambizia and it's current offshoot Coda lead by keyboardist Eyal Amir are also paying homage to Israeli prog of the 70's but with more influences from Gentle Giant and other complex prog bands of the 70's. Ambizia had recorded two tracks which are available on-line. Mr. Toad was lead by classically-trained guitarist Maor Arbitman, strongly influenced by British folk. Their debut Trench Art from 2004 was gentle and beautiful, mostly acoustic-based progressive folk album that reminded of early King Crimson, Celeste and Gryphon and is strongly recommended to fans of acid/progressive folk. Butnik was another prodigy band lead by 16 years old keyboardist Doron Butnik, by 2004 they recorded and privately pressed their album "I don't know what you see when you look at me". It is rumored to contain good quality prog influenced by King Crimson and the R.I.O. movement with some prog-metal overtones. Melechet is another band with prog-metal influences by 2005 they recorded and released a rock opera album called "In-between" which got good reviews. It is rumored to be equally influenced by Pink Floyd and Dream Theatre. Eatliz formed in 2003 and Infectzia are two acts fronted by Guy Ben Shitrit that tries to create a kind of an Israeli answer to Mr. Bungle. Both bands use nearly every imaginable music style to create a style of their own. Infectzia had released an album while Eatliz are supposed to release two albums in 2008. Another band in a similar style is Barwaj which had not recorded yet. Gilliam was formed by Nadav Lazar in 2001, they are about to record an album due to release next year. Their music combines influences of Gentle Giant, Zappa, The Cardiacs and Kaveret and who's music is complex but humorous according to Lazar's testimony, this band also spawned Outer Movement a neo-psych band influenced by sixties psych and by Radiohead who is about to record an album as well. Solstice Coil is another band strongly influenced by Radiohead but also by neo-prog bands such as the Flower Kings, they released one album in 2005 and recently had begun working on a new album. In final Analysis: The Israeli 'Progressive' scene had developed in a parallel line, in similar to other scenes from Psychedelic to Modern prog. Not always in real time but always with strong commitment and high standards. Few reoccurring motives do exist: A) the use of Arabic/Middle Eastern elements pioneered by Shmulik Kraus in 1967 and still common today (Ahvak and Susita for instance). B) Starting from Ktzat Acheret and up to Symphozion and Gilliam a very strong Gentle Giant influence is present in Israeli prog (more than in any other scene I'm aware of). C) Most Israeli prog bands had focused on developing their compositions rather than self-indulgent soloing (although exceptions do exist) D) fine guitar tradition starting with Klepter, Romano and Mizrahi in the 60's via Ydov, Piamenta and Fonseca in the 70's up to Ori Hendel and Maor Arbitman now days. I hope this article will help some of you to discover some new interesting musical treasures. For further info you are welcome to contact me @ g_keltch@yahoo.com. Special thanks is due to Nadav Lazar for his assistance.