Utopia For Realists: Hungarian Pictures (2021 Version) Mandoki Soulmates

• 1Sessions in the Village (2021 Version)06:50
• 2Utopia for Realists (2021 Version)02:08
• 3Transylvanian Dances (2021 Version)26:38
• 4You'll Find Me in Your Mirror (2021 Version)02:34
• 5Return to Budapest (2021 Version)15:27
• 6Barbaro (2021 Version)04:31
• 7The Torch (2021 Version)05:50
• Total Runtime01:03:58

Info for Utopia For Realists: Hungarian Pictures (2021 Version)

Mandoki Soulmates, featuring renowned musician, songwriter and producer Leslie Mándoki. On the 24th September, a brand-new expanded version of his ‘Utopia For Realists: Hungarian Pictures’.

Alongside the original remixed and remastered music, a brand new Blu-ray audio-visual album will be released, combining 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“.

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".

“For Bartók, diversity in culture creates enrichment. He believed that it is precisely from these differences that art draws the strength that enables further development. He mixed sounds and traditional melodies from different regions of the Carpathian Plain in order to set an example against the burgeoning threat of National Socialism (Nazism) through the unifying aspects of music. That unifying impulse inspired Jon Lord, Greg Lake, and me.

After completing our Mandoki Soulmates “Wings Of Freedom” tour through Europe, we gave a concert in New York’s Beacon Theater. The Soulmates show was a great success with an enthusiastic New York audience, standing ovations, and positive press reviews.

For me, a former asylum seeker who over four decades ago fled from a communist dictatorship to freedom, this success in the “Land of the Free” is a very special moment.

After the concert, I spent a few days with my children in Van Morrison’s former house in Topanga Canyon, one of the old “hippie” neighborhoods of Los Angeles. I used this free time to reflect on social developments over the past few years.

It became clear to me that we as artists are being challenged to become louder, to be a thorn in the side of society, and to bring progressive jazz rock back to real socio-political relevance. This is how the first ideas for a new album came about. It is the most ambitious and best project we ever worked on.” (Leslie Mandoki)

Mandoki Soulmates

Mandoki Soulmates
In 1991, Ian Anderson, Jack Bruce, and Al Di Meola became founding members of Leslie Mandoki’s band project ManDoki Soulmates, and for almost three decades, Leslie Mandoki has continued to unite a “who is who” of the icons of Anglo-American and European rock and jazzrock in the Mandoki Soulmates band.

The remarkable lineups in the band’s recordings and performances over the years has included singers and players including Ian Anderson, Jack Bruce, David Clayton-Thomas, Chaka Khan, Chris Thompson, Bobby Kimball and Steve Lukather, Nick van Eede, Eric Burdon, Nik Kershaw, Greg Lake, Al di Meola, Randy and Michael Brecker, Cory Henry, Bill Evans, John Helliwell, Till Brönner, Klaus Doldinger, Mike Stern, Richard Bona, Anthony Jackson, Victor Bailey, Pino Palladino, Tony Carey, Mark Hart, Paul Carrack, Peter Frampton, and Jon Lord.

The Soulmates concerts are marked by the musical synergy of all these musical icons united in one supergroup of Grammy award winning legends, where everyone’s egos come second. Original Soulmates compositions and collective improvisations on highest levels are just as much part of the concerts as world-renowned hits of the individual Soulmates members. “One stage – one band!”

With his Soulmates Leslie Mandoki raises Jazz-Rock back to socio-political relevance, to quote him in his own words: “Even in times of Twitter, social media and short news on the smartphone, when mental laziness often blocks the perception, music for us is still like a love letter to our audience – handwritten with ink on paper.”

This band is pure sophisticated JazzRock, or as Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) put it: “One of the best bands you will ever hear!”

This album contains no booklet.