Horizon's End (July 2002)

Looking To Horizon's End

Horizon's End are one of the few prog bands actually located in Greece, but in this case fewer doesn't necessarily mean lower quality, as their second album can easily attest. In fact Concrete Surreal was such a bright surprise that we wasted no time in contacting these capable musicians, asking them for some more information, as well as future plans.

Igor Italiani: Hi members of Horizon's End. The first thing I would like to know is if you are pleased with the feedback generated by your second album, Concrete Surreal...

Horizon's End: Yes, we are very pleased with it! After two years in the rehearsal studio, eight months of recording, all this work under complicated conditions, it seems that we finally came up with something that people pay attention to, buy, like, and we are very proud of it. To tell you the truth, just before the release, we were very anxious because we knew that, apart from the conditions, we gave our best, and if this was not enough, well, we don't know...

II: Talking about the album, I must confess that I was positively surprised to see such a professional release like this, and I mean it in every respect. So, can you tell me who did the beautiful booklet's artwork? Why did you choose such a dark ambience?

HE: We had the idea of trying to find a photo for each song that could express the whole musical ambience, and, once we found the title of the album, a photo that could perfectly fit as a layout. We thought that black & white photos would create the needed feeling, relevant to the music, so we discussed this idea with a photographer, Athanasios Ouzounis. He brought several pictures from his archives, we collected the proper ones, and the outcome can be easily seen on the booklet.

II: Let's go on to the songs ..."Divine Vanity" is the first and one of the album's highlights. The solo part is very well-thought out and can be easily compared to the great ones of a lot of other prog bands. How developed the idea for this particular song?

HE: Just like all the others! Each song we work on comes from a basic idea, a sequence of melodies, riffs, chords, that one of us presents in the rehearsal studio and we all together try to transform it to a complete song that we all feel good about. There is no particular way that we can present as "the way" we are building our compositions.

II: Speaking of solos, I was impressed with a lot of them ... so can you explain to the audience the career path you followed to attain this enviable music level?

HE: We don't think that any of us is a virtuoso on his instrument! The truth is that we spend much time on studying, trying to develop our skills as instrument players and that we are never pleased enough with our music level. Of course every one of us has his list with the musicians he admires but mostly we try to give personality in our playing.

II: Listening to other tracks, I hear some reference to Fates Warning, who are my favourite prog metal act. Do you sense this comparison? Which bands influenced your journey into the progressive universe?

HE: Fates Warning is one of our influences but not the strongest. More or less we are listening to older prog and metal bands such as Rush, Marillion, UK, Black Sabbath and, of course, Queensryche and Dream Theater.

II: Another aspect I really loved about your album is the great production you managed to obtain throughout the songs. Was it difficult to reach such a high performance sound?

HE: We entered the recording studio on November 2000 with all the compositions ready, and completed the album on June 2001. As you can understand, all this time we were trying to achieve the best sound results. The most difficult part of this work was the mixing, where every sound had to be on the correct level as far the volume and effects were concerned. This was a job far away from our musical skills, but once we had no sound producer, we had to deal with this alone.

II: Concrete Surreal was released some time ago. Are you already working on the follow-up or not? When do you think you'll release it?

HE: Yes, we began working on new material the last couple of months and already completed a couple of new songs. We have plenty of new ideas to work on and that's very encouraging. Now about the release of the new album, with only two songs ready at the time being, we don't think that it is right to say anything. Who knows? Maybe next year we'll be ready to enter the studio.

II: Do you think you'll be able to play some dates to support Concrete Surreal?

HE: We already did some gigs in Thessaloniki/Athens, and as far as we know we will take part in a festival in Athens and then support Dead Soul Tribe on their gig in Greece. We are ready to play live anytime they call us, so we're waiting for the next proposal.

II: Considering that you come from Greece, a land not so famous for prog acts, can you tell me something more about the real condition of the genre in the country?

HE: The Greek scene is full of death and black metal bands. As far as we know, there is only one other prog band in Athens. They are called Fragile Vastness and they are great! We played live together in January and apart from the fact that they are fantastic musicians, they are great guys too!

II: Meanwhile, is there a place (besides Greece) where you would like to live and play?

HE: Anywhere where our music and personality is accepted, but we would prefer the Mediterranean countries, where the summer is great and the winter is not so cold. Can you suggest anything?

II: OK boys, here it comes, a hard question ... "what if" you weren't musicians?

HE: If we weren't musicians .... "we woulda zig zag our way through the boredom and pain, occasionally glancing up thru' the rain, wondering which of the buggers to blame, and watching for pigs on the wing."

II: Recalls something, uh! But do you have other hobbies outside music?

HE: The usual! Seeing friends, surfing on the net, travel. Nothing extreme.

II: Before the end, I would like to know also your point of view regarding the Internet and the future of music. Do you think we are close to a big shake-up (concerning major labels and music distribution) or everything will remain almost the same?

HE: Nothing remains the same. Never! The Internet is a very helpful tool where everyone's voice can be heard, useful things can be reached, everything with almost a touch of a button. We believe that nowadays it's one of the most important promoting forces, together with concerts, and every one who respects his work should consider it as a helping factor.

II: Well, I have no more questions. Final message before goodbye?

HE: A wish! We hope you will keep that strength and continue doing a great job with that tool of yours. May all your ambitions reach the desirable point soon!

II: Oh, that's great ... thank you very much! So I really hope to see your band play here in Italy one day.

HE: We hope that, too. Goodbye!

[Horizon's End are: Sakis Bandis on keyboards, Stergios Kourou on drums, Manolis Pilides on guitar, Kostas Scandalis on bass and Vassilios Topalides on vocals]

Discography:
Sculpture On Ice (1998)
Concrete Surreal (2001)