The Israeli Prog scene had recieved some attention in recent years, due to exposure on the net and growing interest in bands such as Trespass, Ahvak, Symphozion, Rockfour, Mr. Toad and others whose albums were distributed internationally, some to great acclaim. Even so large part of the Israeli progressive scene remains unknown even in Israel itself. In this article I hope to shed some light and show the development of an obscure scene that deserves some recognition. You are welcome to follow me to the underground lair...

Part I: Sunshine Men in High Windows - The psychedelic era

Up to 1967 Israeli popular music was largely based on styles such as Russian folk songs, French chansons, easy-listening etc. With just few traces of rock or pop. Following the Six Days war in June 1967 many tourists, volunteers and students had arrived, bringing along musical gear, record collections and most important hippie culture and lifestyle. This resulted in a plethora of beat groups who had their first opportunity to perform and gain confidence in small but vivid clubs/discothèques scene. Many of these (The Lions, Uzi & the Styles, Chocolate etc.) started out as cover bands playing songs by amongst others; The Searchers, Procol Harum and of course The Beatles, while others began developing their own sounds;

The pioneer of Israeli pop/rock is talented composer Shmulik Kraus Israeli hippie who spent some time in the USA. Upon his return to Israel he formed The High Windows along with his wife Josie Katz 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 and tight vocal harmonies influenced by the Mamas and Papas, Beach Boys, Peter, Paul and Mary etc... Organist Ziggy Skrabnic created some very interesting arrangements with jazz and ethnic touches (such as the eerie 'Arabic' Farfisa comparable to Rick Wright's solo on See Emily Play), the powerful and complex rhythms were delivered by Shmulik Aroch (later of Sheshet, but already displaying strong jazzy tendencies, strongly influenced by Jack Bruce) and Zohar Levi a very inventive drummer who's playing has some similarities to Michael Giles in King Crimson, two years later. Aaron Kaminski also drummed on few tracks. The album is a milestone, still sounding fresh today and is one of very few Israeli albums to reflect the spirit of the 'Summer of Love' of 67'. The band was very successful, they even got some attention abroad at the time but eventually fell apart. Kraus tried to revive the High Windows in 1973 with Eli Magen replacing Einstein, but it proved to be short-lived as well. The album was reissued on CD in 2007 with 14 bonus tracks.

Kraus had continued this direction with the excellent but short-lived Kef Hatikva Hatova (Good Hope Cape) who recorded some great acid-folk tracks (that surfaced on Kraus' rarities album Seventies Eighties) but a series of jailing and hospitalizations in mental asylums plagued his career and he only found stability and success in the 80's. Back in 1971 while still in Jail, he recorded Criminal Record a garage-psych album with assistance from Shmulik Aroch, Aaron Kaminski and Haim Romano it was only released in 1977 and was reissued on CD in 2004.

High Windows drummer Zohar Levi went on to form his own group Seventh Zohar with whom he recorded some very interesting songs merging beat music with jazz, blues and soul influences. He then wrote music to the provocative theatre show Bathroom Queen that was banned but its soundtrack was released on an ultra rare LP and was recently reissued on CD.

Following this Levi formed the aforementioned Kef Hatikva Hatova and after it fell apart he took Eli Magen from that band and formed Apocalypse, with Yitzhak 'Churchill' Klepter (founder member of the Churchill's and the man who the band was named after), Gabi Shoshan and Miri Aloni. They toured with Arik Einstein and recorded their classic sole album in 1971. It comprised powerful psychedelic hard-rock with blues, jazz and folk overtones and with strong progressive developments which reached its peak in tracks such as Underneath the Eucalyptus and Open up the Door. Led by the mighty fuzz guitar of Klepter and propelled by the complex rhythms of Levi and Magen. It was a crossover album fusing Israeli folk, psych and early prog into new entity. It was critically acclaimed but flopped commercially and the band split as a result of this. Levi's final band in the 70's was the short-lived Fourteen Octaves after this he quit music, except for some sporadic appearances.

Klepter went on to join Kaveret and later Tuned Tone, before embarking on a solo career and collaboration with Arik Einstein. He was one of the first guitar heroes of the Israeli scene and one of the better ones, others included Shlomo Mizrahi (of the Electric Stage), Gary Eckstein (of the Princes and Phoenix) and of course Haim Romano of the Churchill's.

The Churchill's were formed in Tel Aviv in 1965 and featured Haim Romano, Mickey Gabriellov, Ami Triebich, Robb Huxley (ex Tornados) and Stan Solomon,  (Yitzhak Klepter who was a founder member left to join the army). After several years in the clubs circuit they recorded a 45 Too Much in Love to Hear in 1968. And went to Denmark for a while (where they opened for Deep Purple). Exposed to dope and the underground scene their music had gradually become more and more psychedelic. When they returned to Israel they adopted Arabic and Greek motives into their music, and created a couple of soundtracks to Israeli movies; 4 songs taken from one of these were the basis for their revolutionary album, the other songs were recorded especially for the album and feature more experimentation and original ideas. The album as you might suspect contained melodic psychedelic material with strong Balkan and Middle-Eastern sub currents and powerful guitar playing by Romano who also used a lot of mandolin to emphasize the Greek motives, in addition to this Arabic instruments such as canoon and darbouka as well as lot of studio trickery and tapes (of water-bongs!) were used.

In spite of their uniqueness or maybe because of it the album sold in poor quantities and became an expensive collector's item. It was reissued on LP in 1987 and twice on CD: the second CD version is coupled with the Jericho Jones album and lot of great bonus tracks. Their next step was to team with composer/conductor Noam Shariff (who also assisted on their album); he arranged for them a concert with the Israeli Philharmonic orchestra influenced by Deep Purple's similar attempt, on which they played interesting adaptations to two tracks by Bach: Choral for Young Lovers and Concerto X 2. This was released as a 45 Churchill Sebastian Bach. By 1970 new vocalist Danny Shoshan (Gabi's brother and ex Lions) replaced Solomon 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 a transitional album, musically updating their psych roots with hard-rock and prog, but also revealed a softer more melodic side of the band in tracks such as Yellow and Blue. Their final album as Jericho was more complete work, the band had maintained its hard-rock sound but developed more complex songwriting influenced by Led Zeppelin and Santana (on Featherbed), they also toyed with symphonic-rock  on Justin and Nova which featured strings and a jazzy piano and corresponded a bit with their psych roots. 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 Misha Segal had recorded what is considered to be the first Hebrew-languge rock album in 1969. The album Poozi  included excellent psychedelic rock, but also the first ever Israeli Progressive-Rock track Hayo Haya (written by Einstein and Segal in memoriam of the High Windows organist Ziggy Skrabnic who tragically passed away) the song opens up with a jazzy piano solo with tapes (simulating night club atmosphere), before it merges into a Hammond organ passage 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 essential Israeli prog. Other highlights were the lyrically and musically complex Prague, written by Shalom Chanoch and dealt with the 'Spring of Prague' events of 1967. It had a very inventive imagery and an orchestrated backing and it featured phenomenal and powerfull bass playing from Shmulik Aroch. The lovely folksy Eretz Israel, contributed by Kraus and Abraham and Sarah by Segal which sounded like an outtake from Kevin Ayers' Joy of a Toy album with it's lead tuba role and weird passages.  

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 recommended for fans of psychedelic rock. He is still active today with a career lasting nearly 50 years! He became an Israeli icon and mentor to many talented musicians of the era including: Yitzhak 'Churchill' Klepter, Platina, Shem Tov Levi, Yoni Rechter, Avner Kenner, Shlomo Ydov and others.

Talented Misha Segal who contributed heavily to the Poozi album had strong background in jazz and classical music. He formed The Misha Segal Trio with bassist Ethan Gidron (later of Tamouz) and drummer David Shanan (of the Schnitzels and later of Zingale) with whom he recorded a couple of very interesting Psych/Prog tracks Mustard Song and People that I loved that featured good jazzy organ, interesting time signatures and studio experimentation. It wasn't released on vinyl and of course it went nowhere. He reverted back to writing, arranging and producing. He later moved to the USA where he became house producer for Motown records! He also scored music for films and released several jazz-rock albums.

David Shanan was also involved with the Schnitzels; formed in 1969 the band was led by the talented Danny Sanderson and also featured Alon Oleartchick (of Eddie Jobson's Zinc band), Meir Feningstein (who was also briefly involved with Zingale), Ephraim Shamir and Gidi 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. it 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) With the addition of Yitzhak Klepter and Yoni Rechter this band evolved into Israel's most popular rock/pop band of all times; Kaveret (Beehive). Arik Einstein had veered in similar Zappaesque direction with his excellent Ballad of Zumati and Lavati from 1974.

 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 (with some help from Shlomo Mizrahi & the Electric Stage) groundbreaking material with blatant lyrics and experimental dark psych which resulted in the Bullshit 3.1/4 album that included his Hebrew recordings and the English language 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 of 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.) his whole output sounds like a big acid trip, sometimes very spacey and heavy and always bleak. Highly recommended!!! Probably due to its provocative lyrics the Bullshit 3.1/4 album became long forgotten and very rare. I brought it to the attention of MIO records that reissued it on CD. It was also reissued on LP by World in Sound label in Germany.

Danny Ben-Israel

The last two artists to be discussed in this part are Oshik Levi and Mordechai 'Poopik' Arnon, both of them had been in a pop trio called the Twins following its demise they both went solo. Levi recorded an interesting album in 1971, featuring the Churchill's and Mathi Caspi. The album Peace of Mind contained some interesting psychedelic material featuring Moog and Hammond, the title track had a strong Procol Harum influence, Long Distance Runner sounded like Traffic and Katz (written by Robb Huxley) predated the new sound of the Churchill's in their Jericho phase. 'Poopik' 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 as an emerging young artist called Shlomo Gronich who contributed 3 excellent complex songs to this album.

Part II: A bit different – Early prog

Shlomo Gronich who grew up in musical family was a prodigy. He had a wide range of influences from Bach to the Beatles via traditional Jewish music, jazz and Kurt Weill. In 1971 his first album Why Didn't You Tell Me?! Was released, it's considered as the first Israeli prog album and is important for everyone who wants to understand the development of Israeli prog. The album introduced his many influences and many facets of his complex music and personality and had a bleak atmosphere. Particularly memorable was the title track that captured him screaming, crying and freaking out on the piano during a bad acid trip, it resembled the mayhem of Aphrodite's Child 'Endless' track. Other highlights were Don't Go (based on Bach's Prelude no. I) and Roza Marzipan which remains two of his best-known songs, the psychedelic Sitting Alone and Sick of the World and the gentle folksy instrumental Breath Deep which featured his brother's Ilan Gronich sentimental violin playing. The album was printed twice on LP (original pressings in gate-fold sleeve are very rare) and twice on CD. The 2003 CD reissue contained the first (and IMO the best) version of the rock opera Amerika (based on a story by Franz Kafka) which took Gronich over 15 to finalize and stage.

Gronich then collaborated with composer/arranger/producer and multi-instrumentalist Mathi Caspi. The result 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 busy piano and Caspi's slightly funky bass lines (produced on acoustic guitar!). It featured the same influences but Caspi also added folk and Latin rhythms. The music ranged from beautiful to frightening, from accessible songs to sheer avant-garde. Highlights included the jazzy God Shows Mercy, the spine-chilling My Father and the romantic Painting and You. This is another essential Israeli progressive (not rock though) album. After this, Caspi had gone solo and gradually abandoned rock, concentrating on other  mostly rhythm-based styles (such as funky, samba and reggae); however his first solo album still contained rock-based songs 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 it was disappointing.

By 1973 Israel was involved in the terrible Yom Kippur war, this was a traumatic event for the Israeli nation. After the war, many artists tried to express the trauma. Gronich teamed up with Shlomo Ydov and assisted by several session musicians they recorded a brilliant album under the name Nonames/Ktzat Acheret (A Bit Different). 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 a dose of jazz, classical, avant-garde, Middle-Eastern music and Balkan rhythms and a certain sense of humor. it had many highlights including the 3 instrumentals Shemi's Piece and Quinta which sounded like a symphonic version of Italian band Area and 204 that sounded like Gentle Giant on avant-garde pills, Two Chinese, The Little Prince and Pink Skies. This album is an essential masterpiece of Israeli prog. The band split due to Gronich's departure to USA.

1980 saw him return. He went on a tour with amongst others Yitzhak Klepter and his brother Ilan which resulted in an intimate live album, this featured one new song Fresh Love Song and one side of it was dedicated to the ever developing Amerika. 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 Herby 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 Levi. The duo who also became brothers in low, recorded Family Album in 1983. This was to be their last 'Progressive' effort so far. Frustrated Gronich wrote a protest song Simple Songs about the difficulties of playing complex music; absurdly this song became one of his greatest hits ever. The highlights included 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 Levi had embarked on a long and fruitful collaboration with Arik Einstein.  He also released his first excellent solo album In the Mood in 1976; it featured strong guitar work from Haim Romano and Yitzhak Klepter and Jethro-Tullish flute playing by Levi. Maintaining the same influences as in Ktzat Acheret but with stronger emphasis on jazz and Middle-Eastern and Balkan music. This would become his trademark sound in latter years. The album is unique and is highly recommended; unfortunately it is very hard to find in any format.

By 1977 Levi formed a new group Sheshet; the band also featured female singer Judith Ravitz (who became a megastar), Shmulik Aroch (ex High Windows), Iki Levi, Adi Renart and Shmulik Budagov (who was in a post Churchill's band The New Churchill's). 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 eponymous album which is one of the best Israeli prog 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. Levi 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. Sheshet had also recorded a soundtrack to the film The Stretcher March which is now available as a bonus disc on the recent 30 years anniversary CD reissue.

The last member of Ktzat Acheret to record a solo album was guitarist Shlomo Ydov who by 1978 released his debut 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 Trinau and Piece in L Major. After this Ydov and Levi reunited 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 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 as well as an affinity for jazz and blues. They started writing original music based on those influences and with drummer Zohar Levi they toured as Fourteen Octaves with the help of several guests (including Gronich, Yossi Piamenta and Kaveret members) they recorded their eponymous album in 1975. Although not great this album had its moments especially Piece in F Minor an excellent jazzy Gentle Giantish piece with lots of syncopation and changing time signatures. Following this both Rechter and Kenner worked with Arik Einstein. By 1979 Yoni Rechter had also released his first solo album Intentions which included some good progressive stuff and some more popish material he also went on a tour with Judith Ravitz that resulted in the album Once and Forever. 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 released. 

Part III: The Beit Lesin scene and beyond

Zingale perhaps the most well known Israeli prog band emerged by 1974. The band featured Udi Tamir, Adi Weiss, Efraim Barak, David Shanan, English-born Tony Brower, David Rosenthal, Johnny Stern and David Hofesh (Bachar). They named themselves after the Hebrew slang word for a 'reefer' (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, light shows etc.) and headlined the shows that begun to take place at Beit Lesin theatre in Tel Aviv, which had became the home of the "Israeli Progressive rock club". After recording Hebrew single that flopped, they concentrated on English lyrics and mainly 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 records 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, but had its own unique sound. The album was released 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 up 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 Party Inside it featured some tracks made with Meir Feningstein of Kaveret and Ami Lipner of Atmosphera). 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! Live recordings of the band from the 70's exist too. Recently the duo of Efraim 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.

Atmosphera who emerged by 1976 comprised of high school students: Moti Fonseca, Yuval Rivlin, Alon Nadel and Ami Lipner they gigged in Beit Lesin with Piamenta, Zingale and other progressive acts of the day. By 1977 with Efraim 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 and most ambitious 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.

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, strongly 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 and with Aaron Kaminski (of the Platina) the band had recorded an album that combined highly spiritual music with heavy prog, jazz and Arabic elements graced by emotional guitar solos. This was very unique effort, 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.

Sanhedrin was another band to emerge in 1999; they recorded several tracks influenced by Camel and King Crimson, their guitarist Elad Abraham formed Symphozion in 2000 Along with Arik Hayat, Dan Carpman (who was also involved with Eggroll and Susita) and others. 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.

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 (dust) who recorded much acclaimed album for Cuneiform in 2004, and were invited to "Le Triton" 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 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 Levi, Mathi Caspi and Shlomo Gronich they focused on poetic texts 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 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, in 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 (Work of…) 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 bands fronted by Guy Ben Shitrit who tried 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 (the first of which was recorded in July 2007). Another band in a similar style is 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 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 some unique motives such as the use of Arabic/Middle Eastern elements pioneered by Shmulik Kraus in 1967 and still common today (Ahvak and Susita for instance). Starting from Ktzat Acheret in 1974 and up to Symphozion and Gilliam now days a very strong Gentle Giant influence is present in Israeli prog (more than in any other scene I'm aware of). And of course 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. It 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.

I hope this article will help some of you to discover new musical treasures. For further info you are welcome to contact me @ g_keltch@yahoo.com. Special thanks are due to Nadav Lazar for his assistance.