The two albums by Pythagoras sound totally different and a bit simple but very tasteful: the first is cosmic oriented synthesizer music and their second is a wonderful blend of some spacey synthesizer - and classical music with bombastic symphonic rock featuring Arjen Lucassen (who later got fame with his Ayreon project) delivering a Gilmourian guitar solo and Michel Van Wassem (who recently plays in the new Plackband line-up) with some majestic Mellotron eruptions.
Pythagoras is the name of a Dutch Progressive rock band, founded in the year 1979 in Den Haag, centered around young keyboardist Rene De Haan and experienced drummer Bob De Jong. Helped by various guests, our two fellows created, almost on their own, two opuses now regarded as electronic Progressive rock milestones: "Journey To The Vast Unknown" (1980) and "After The Silence" (1981). About a quarter of a Century after Pythagoras' demise, Musea publishes "The Correlated ABC", a double-album including unreleased tracks from the 1983-1985 period, as well as a live performance captured in Delft in May 1983.
The title piece on this CD is for four electronic wind instruments and contains sections that are lighthearted, even goofy in their sense of humor ("Akousmata - ear whisperings," "Xenomelophilia - love of strange melodies") one movement of elegant transparency ("Chromopneuma - breath colours"), and a tiny pedantic march ("Gymnosophia - naked philosophies or nude philosophers"). My favorite work is "The Arrival Of Sir John Franklin In Paradise" (1988) for a wonderful variety of synthesized sounds surrounding and supporting Bartlett's chanting and sometimes electronically-modified voice on texts from Dante. A composer with a definitely original manner.