In 1992, László “Leslie” Mándoki, a Hungarian drummer and producer, started his Soulmates project. The original line-up was: Ian Anderson (flute, vocals), Jack Bruce (bass, vocals), Al Di Meola (guitar) and Leslie Mandoki himself (drums, vocals). That’s plenty to justify a post in these pages. But there’s more.

In 2005, the Mandoki Soulmates band released an album of classic rock songs. It was unimaginatively called Legends of Rock, with a list of featured players that reads like a condensed who’s who of the rock music scene in the late 60s and early 70s: Eric Burdon (The Animals), Gary Brooker (Procol Harum), Jon Lord (Deep Purple), Peter Frampton (the Herd, Humble Pie). Guests on later releases add equally impressive names: Simon Phillips (drums), Randy Brecker (trumpet, flügelhorn), Bill Evans (saxophones), John Helliwell (sax, clarinet).

And yet, the Mandoki name was unheard of in these walls until just last week, when a taster for a new album appeared in the media feeds. Blood In The Water is from the Soulmates forthcoming album, A Memory of Our Future, due for release on 10th May.

The Legends of Rock album is a bit of an outlier in that it focuses solely on classic pop/rock songs: House of the Rising Sun, A Whiter Shade of Pale, Imagine, Living In The Past, for example. The rest of the Soulmates output sits much closer to the soul-tinged pop of Steely Dan and Stevie Wonder. But it can’t be dismissed as merely ‘derivative’. Embedded in their original songs, we find borrowings from classical music and jazz fusion. There’s even a little Latin influence in places. The Soulmates have their own distinctive blend of styles.

The new album will, I imagine, offer more of the same. But, who knows? All I have to go on is this quote from the band’s website:

“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.”

Leslie Mandoki