Mandoki Soulmates Wings of Freedom

On December 2, Mandoki’s Soulmates’ Hungarian-language album titled Hungarian Pictures was released. Earlier, in the fall of 2019, the English-language record was released under the title Hungarian Pictures, which won a huge gold record recognition in Germany and Hungary, and took first place on the MAHASZ list. This was followed in 2021 by the wider version released worldwide under the title UTOPIA FOR REALISTS – as a Visual Album.

The cross-generational supergroup of rock and fusion stars on the album includes Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Mike Stern, Al Di Meola, Randy Brecker, John Helliwell (Supertramp), Steve Bailey, Simon Phillips, Leslie Mandoki, Tony Carey (Rainbow), Nick van Eede (Cutting Crew), Jesse Siebenberg (Supertramp) and more.
With a setup that is hard to find in contemporary music production, and with which the band has captured a warmth and vibrancy in their music that is often lost in digital recordings, the Soulmates have created a work of musical diversity that ranges from prog to jazz rock, combining compositional maturity, playful ease, and artful solos with great arcs of tension and profound lyrics with socio-political themes.

Leslie Mandoki plays together with Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), John Helliwell (Supertramp), Nick van Eede (Cutting Crew), Till Brönner, Szakcsi, Jane Xie, Steve Bailey, Al Di Meola, Peter Maffay, Jesse Siebenberg (Supertramp), Cory Henry, Deobrat Mishra, Mike Stern, Margarita, Randy Brecker, Bill Evans, Sirreal, Richard Bona, Moto Fukushima, Tony Carey, Julia Mandoki. Entitled "Utopia for Realists", the BluRay “Hungarian Pictures” combines the recording of the concert film of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with an impressive cinematic realization of the individual musical episodes. It also provides exclusive insights behind the scenes of the Soulmates production live and in the studio, a "making of". The package is completed by an audiophile CD with the original studio recordings of the Prog Rock suite. Available as a Limited CD/Blu-ray Mediabook, Gatefold 2LP + CD + LP-booklet, Standard CD Jewelcase & as Digital Album.

More than three decades after being founded by Leslie Mandoki, Mandoki Soulmates not only set new musical standards with their album "A Memory Of Our Future", but also present a masterpiece of production technology: the entire album was recorded and produced in analog form - from the first note to the finished vinyl.