Although I have written briefly about progressive rock, I shied away thus far from Romanian progressive rock. That's rather odd, considering that the apogee of that genre in Romania is universally considered to be the eponymous Zalmoxe by Sfinx, released (more like “censored”) in 1978.

It’s tough to write about a pioneering album that has meant so much to so many, especially when none or very few of them would be reading this article, and my own emotional connection to this music is hardly as strong as to that of Adrian Enescu, for instance – I was not exposed to it in my formative years. Nonetheless, a while back I added a link to the album on top of the logo in the desktop version (“LP”), so that anyone reading my blog can listen to it as background to their reading.

Progressive rock is meant to be a deeply immersive, often solitary experience – it is, after all, the precursor of psychedelic rock, just like Punk precedes Goth, which precedes Emo. (De gustibus…) Incidentally, Dan Andrei Aldea (DAA) counts among his idols / inspiration Jon Anderson from Yes. Their most popular creation is Owner of a Lonely Heart, recently remixed by Max Graham, but the one that most influenced DAA was, according to himself, Olias of Sunhillow (1976). The video clips are bursting of symbolism, so consider watching them in their entirety.

Originally created as a double LP, it took 2 years for the album to be released by the censors, partly (I’m guessing) because of the non-compromising personality of the main creative force behind the group and the music. Only the following tracks made it:

1. Ursitoarele (“The Faites” – women or witches who had the power to “set” someone’s fate at birth)
2. Blana de urs (“The Bearskin” – used in many Romanian folk traditions; Porphiros explained the origin of the name Zalmoxis from the Tracian word “zalmos” meaning skin, fur which matches an anecdote stating that he had been covered with a bearskin at birth; this caused some authors to consider him a Bärengott)
3. Mierea (“The Honey” – Romania has been a major “apiculture centre” for a long time; honey is also preferred by bears and it becomes a divine potion when Zalmoxe takes it with him to the cave)
4. Pestera (“The Cave” – Zalmoxe and other Romanian mystics would live in a caves for a while, when seeking isolation)
5. Epifania (“The Epiphany” – a necessary step in the Hero’s Journey)
6. Furtuna cu trup de balaur (“The Storm with a Dragon Body” – see the Dacian flag, Draco)
7. Cãlãtorul prin nouri (“The Traveler through the Clouds” – what the Dacians called their priests); the title / theme of this song reminds of Carare peste Timp (i.e., “Pathway over Time” cf. Romanian) by Compact, one of the fav rock songs of my youth. (..And when the sky cries with tears that fall through the clouds, Put wind on your lips, with water wings fly, Alone on the mountain, high up in the blue remnant of the horizon, So that between stratosphere and the stars you be Time’s measure!)
8. Kogaion (the ancient sacred mountain of the Dacians, axis mundi, where Zalmoxis or his great priest lived, cf. Strabon)
9. Epilog (“Epilogue”)

The lyrics, written by Adrian Hoaja signing as Alexandru Basarab, reveal some very thorough research and are available only for the initiated – also provided by veone (ve-lyr). Here’s a taste from Epilogue (translated from Romanian original, via Wikipedia): What was to be said, we said. Who can today say more: who he was, if he was, whether man he was or god, or human form with dragon spirit. (...) If he lived in the air, underground or in the sea, who knows?

The history of the band (bm-biosfinx, cdp-istorie, cir-muz70, ager-hist, buc-sfinx, rgc-rockhist) is less interesting to me than the biography of Dan Andrei Aldea, even though he had not been a founding member and the band went on for a while even after his departure.

What was I to choose: to return, so that I can never leave the country again not even for Bulgaria? Being prey again to everyone who wants to profit from me? To be insulted by nullities such as Magdin? To let every idiot from the Ministry of Culture tell me what to do and what not to do? To look forward at my next home search when gentlemen in military jeeps come and say they seek gold, but in fact, confiscate even the smallest written piece of paper? (You know how they came? ... Like vultures, suddenly at all our houses: at my parents' house, even to grandmother's house, which led ultimately to the death of my parents). To see once again how Maria [wife of musician - n.RL.] losing a so-desired child, while doctors at the hospital leave her for days with the dead child inside, because a committee had to find that it was not an abortion, and they even made fun of her bringing her to tears? (rl-int)

Undoubtedly, he was a victim of a mentally ill regime, perhaps slightly more so than most other Romanians. However, I cannot help feeling that he may be exaggerating some of the issues he encountered. It is a problem many asylum seekers face, after having gone through the process of applying for political asylum.

When I first heard about Dan Andrei Aldea, the main man behind the group, I was surprised to what extent he and Sfinx are interconnected with the Romanian idols of my youth:

• For their best album, they found a common source of inspiration with this blog: Zalmoxis
• The surrealist LP design belongs to Alexandru Andries (andries-zamo) and so do the band members portraits. You can listen to some of his songs in an article dedicated to jazz.
• DAA wrote a song on Marin Sorescu’s lyrics and was censored shortly thereafter. It is a poem of defiance dedicated to caterpillars and their attack on fruit trees, but in 1979 it seemed like a parody to communism-realism, the cultural current du jour (sucu-noinu).
• DAA found asylum in Germany, just like Phoenix, Herta Muller and Stefan Hell, the 2014 Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner before him. In a way, he was a victim of the cultural “squeeze” that took place post-1974 as well as the previously discussed Romanian Germanophilia.

The above are only the most obvious connections, but if you bother to follow DAA’s life and work through the links listed below, you may discover far more (jn-incerc, rl-int).

1. was a musician with classical training, having attended a music-profiled high-school (George Enescu, in Bucharest) as well as the Conservatory (Ciprian Porumbescu – film), though he’d been kicked out, using that time to teach himself guitar; he studied classical and rock music in parallel; one of his earlier, lesser-known bands was Dacicus
2. describes his intense, obsessive approach to music learning and practicing; he played multiple instruments, achieving a level of excellence seldom reached even by those playing a single instrument
3. openly criticized the regime policy of refusing visas to home-grown bands: „As long as bands such as Locomotiv GT or Sirius from Hungary, Ialla from USSR or Ceslaw Niemen from Poland can give concerts in other countries, even if they are not better value wise, we have to find satisfaction in what’s left for us - singing in a restaurant, possibly abroad. It pains me that large bands like Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Johnny Winter had the opportunity to present to the world of pop music processed from our folklore, while we can not do this with our own national music” —interview in „Flacăra” (Flame), 1973
4. he requested political asylum in 1981 in a Belgium tour; later he declared that his decision had been building up for years
5. gave somewhat contradictory interviews: he doesn’t care much about being a frontman, is bitter about Sfinx and the other band members, yet he claims that Romania wasn’t good to him, did not deserve him and that a musician such as himself is only born once 100 years
6. has a recording studio in Germany and collaborations with many musicians, though none nearly as well known there as he was in Romania (daa-studio)

Going back to the Zalmoxe album, in terms of reception, it is worth mentioning that most old time rock aficionados in Romania are still debating whether the apogee of Romanian rock is Cantafabule or Zalmoxe. It is obviously a matter of preference, with Phoenix having a more ancient, raw, loud, “balsy/masculine” sound, while Sfinx a more polished, ecclesiastic and melodic (symphonic rock, almost neo-progressive) one. Some (mpro-capo) express a clear, unequivocal preference for Sfinx, while others simply like Phoenix “Balkanised/Folkloric Hard-Prog” and rate each group and album on strengths and weaknesses (ffr-sfnxv). One major difference is that Sfinx as a group is polarized and dominated by DAA, with a homogenous album, while Phoenix is homogenous as a group but has a far more heterogeneous album. In a way, in terms of cohesive theme and popularity, Cantafabule is to Zalmoxe what Family Guy is to SouthPark (top10) or even the Simpsons.

Rather than translate Romanian reviews in English, I would much rather quote reviews by foreigners, written directly in English.

Perhaps I should try to summarize it, but that’s hard to do without losing the original sense of wonder and enthusiasm among these reviewers.

And this is pretty much my humble contribution to a Romanian rock band that did more for explaining the Zalmoxis story than I could do with my blog.

LE: Krossfire brought to my attention in comments that he's come back to Romania giving his first recital (within Pasarea Colibri’s) with Brad Batran and mostly covers after 33 years, in Oradea.

Sources / More info: andries-zamo, sucu-noinu, discogs-zalmo, pf-sfza, ve-lyr, pa-zalm, bm-biosfinx, cdp-istorie, cir-muz70, ager-hist, buc-sfinx, rgc-rockhist, mpro-capo, ffr-sfnxv, jn-incerc, rl-int, wr-daa, 3x-intda, as-int, as-drept, daa-studio