Sebastian Hardie

As far as Progressive rock is concerned, most of the criticisms heard during the last thirty years insist on the show-off virtuoso side of it, with a lack of emotions, sort of a technical window for musicians with incredible egos. This was actually one of the major arguments of the punk wave during the second half of the Seventies that had set as a goal (If they ever had one…) to get rid of the "Dinosaurs" that YES, GENESIS, EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER and others had become. It would be completely dishonest to deny this superficial and over simplifying reasoning a small hint of truth, but SEBASTIAN HARDIE could be a good example of the contrary…

Sebastian Hardie is the premier example of symphonic rock from Australia - a country where music in this vein is either very rare or unheard of. Hardie's recorded music seemed to be the inevitable consequence of the arrival of the mellotron in Australia and the musical influence of the Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, and the English progressives.

When Sebastian Hardie's debut album was released in 1975, the term "Symphonic Rock" was born in Australia. Featuring lush symphonic keyboard sounds you would expect to hear from an orchestra and the melodic, soulful guitar of Mario Millo, "FOUR MOMENTS" has become one of the all-time classic Progressive albums of the seventies. Re-released on CD some twenty-five years after its original release, this timeless music remains in demand world wide.

After going their separate ways in the late '70's Sebastian Hardie reformed in 1994 and performed a one-off concert in Los Angeles at Progfest '94. The show was recorded featuring tracks from their two classic albums ‘Four Moments’ and ‘Windchase’ and the cd 'Live in LA' was released. In March 2003 Sebastian Hardie again reformed for a performance at The Metro Theatre, Sydney followed by a concert tour of Japan. Returning home to Australia, enthused and inspired, the band decided to record their third studio album. What followed were six new tracks and the album ‘BLUEPRINT’.

Four Moments is the debut studio album by the Australian symphonic rock band Sebastian Hardie and was released in August 1975 by Polydor Records. It was their most commercially successful release and peaked at #13 on the Australian album charts. The single from the album was the instrumental "Rosanna", which peaked at #31 on the National singles chart. The title track takes up side one of the original vinyl LP release and is a suite of four parts. All tracks were written by lead vocalist / lead guitarist Mario Millo either on his own or with fellow band members Tovio Pilt, Alex Plavsic and Peter Plavsic. The distinctive logo, which would feature on future Sebastian Hardie releases, was designed by Larraine Hall (see infobox at right). The album was produced by former band member Jon English.

In 1979, Millo recorded 'Epic III', his first solo album. He and his band toured Australia promoting 'Epic III' as support act to Joan Armatrading … however, as a result of the ongoing success of 'Against The Wind', there was great demand for Mario and co-composer Jon English to headline their own tour to promote 'Against the Wind'.

Windchase was founded by guitarist/vocalist Mario Millo and keyboard player Toivo Pilt, both survivors of the recently dissolved Sebastian Hardie. Symphinity continues along the same symphonic and highly melodic trail that Sebastian Hardie, blazed through the Australian music scene: Millo's Latimer-influenced guitar leads splatter against Pilt's grandiose keyboard walls while the rhythm section keeps things cooking nicely, propelling rather than leading things. Interestingly, Millo and Pilt write separately, both writing four tracks, and both taking a short solo piece, on piano and acoustic guitar, respectively.

Who would have imagined that the son of some Italian immigrants was going to personify the elegance of Anglo-Saxon music ? Still, Mario MILLO has become the creator of a certain kind of sunny steady rock, usually typical of Californian beaches. We have to say that this guitarist-singer is nevertheless an Australian, the same nationality as LITTLE RIVER BAND (A band that sometimes performs a quite similar music)! …

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.