Mandoki Soulmates Sign to InsideOutMusic Announcement to global streaming concert event with special guests

Music is the greatest unifier,

InsideOutMusic are pleased to announce the signing of Mandoki Soulmates, featuring the renowned musician, songwriter, and producer Leslie Mándoki. InsideOut will release the band’s latest album “Utopia for Realists / Hungarian Pictures” later this year as a brand-new visual album edition that includes a blu-ray with the Visual Album.  There’ll be additional music, remixed and remastered. 

Mandoki Soulmates have put together a global online concert performance of this prog-rock suite, featuring an illustrious line-up of musicians that includes Leslie Mandoki alongside Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Nick van Eede (Cutting Crew), Till Brönner, Szakcsi, Jane Xie, John Helliwell (Supertramp), 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 and Julia Mandoki.  

Leslie explains: “The pandemic has made concerts as we know and love them impossible for the time being. Nevertheless, we cannot rest—we must be louder than ever before! The global challenges that humanity is facing—pandemics, financial and economic crises, migration and integration, climate change—will only be met if we overcome divisions across all borders. That is why the Mandoki Soulmates, together with musicians from all parts of the world, are raising their voices for unity and against division across all borders: physical, cultural, and intellectual with this online concert. From our studio at Lake Starnberg, near Munich, we play with Tony Carey and the rest of the Soulmates band who are local. Our Soulmates in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Miami, Nashville, London, Berlin, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Delhi, and Moscow are connected to our digital stage. We all play live, whether it is in a living room on 52nd Street in New York, on the beach in South Carolina, or in a private basement studio of a castle in Northern England. Talk about unification!—this is the technology enabling the spiritual, to bridge the gap around the world.” 

“Hungarian Pictures” is created as a suite, based on compositions and themes by Bela Bartok, supplemented with the band’s original songs. Together with Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Jon Lord of Deep Purple, Leslie had worked on the seed of this idea years ago. Leslie explains: “For Bartók, diversity in culture creates enrichment. He believed that it is precisely from these differences that art draws the power 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 received an invitation from the Grammy Organization to give a concert in New York's Beacon Theater (where Martin Scorsese shot the Rolling Stones concert film ‘Shine a Light’). 

“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. I am very grateful to our audience for the extraordinary chart success of our double album ‘Living In The Gap’ and ‘Hungarian Pictures’ and the enthusiasm resulting in sold-out concerts. A supporting concert series for 2020 was signed, sealed, and all but delivered when the pandemic arrived. This quarantine of musical expression has been a true test of character, but artistic souls cannot be locked in forever: the urge for freedom, responsibility and creativity are too great."

 Look out for more information on the release of the ‘Utopia for Realists/ Hungarian Pictures’ visual album in the coming months!

Mandoki Soulmates - Hungarian Pictures MUSIC IS THE GREATEST UNIFIER!

 

Music can be the best inoculation against the penetration of extremist ideas into the center of society and thus an important protective mechanism for democracy and our community of solidarity.

And Mandoki Soulmates' "Music is the Great Unifier" concert is online on @YouTube.

 

We now have the opportunity to make a constructive update to our socio-political model so that people are the focus again, mindfulness defeats indifference, and humanity reigns over greed.

 

Who, if not we musicians with our direct line to the audience, should re-ignite the light at the end of this pandemic tunnel and rebuild society?

Music is the greatest unifier! Bridging the gap around the world!

 

Soulmates and their location in our online concert

 

Leslie Mandoki –Starnberger See

Ian Anderson – Jethro Tull – Oxford

Nick van Eede – Cutting Crew – London

Till Brönner – Berlin

Szakcsi – Budapest

Jane Xie – Shanghai

John Helliwell – Supertramp – Liverpool

Steve Bailey – Boston

Al Di Meola – New York

Peter Maffay – Starnberger See

Jesse Siebenberg – Supertramp – San Francisco

Cory Henry – Los Angeles

Deobrat Mishra – Delhi

Mike Stern – New York

Margarita – Moskau

Randy Brecker – Log Island / New York

Bill Evans – Nashville

Sirreal – Beijing

Richard Bona – Miami

Moto Fukushima – Tokyo

Tony Carey – Los Angeles

Julia Mandoki – Amsterdam

Mandoki Soulmates’ “Living in the Gap/Hungarian Pictures” The Band of Bandleaders

Number 1 in Hungary & Germany, Building in North America

"Living in the Gap/Hungarian Pictures” is the 11th album by Mandoki Soulmates. It’s finding and building support in North America, because of the music and unity themes. We’re setting up interviews with Leslie Mandoki, the leader of “the band of bandleaders.” 

The release of “Living in the Gap/Hungarian Pictures” (Cleopatra Records) follows the 2018 USA tour of Mandoki Soulmates, including a performance at New York City’s The Beacon Theater. Just passing 350,000 streams of the album, and reaching over 1.3 million people on Facebook.

Mandoki Soulmates is currently planning to tour the USA and Germany late 2021. In the meantime, Leslie’s finding ways to thank and support, “all the frontline workers, doctors, nurses, grocery clerks, supermarket workers--all the people, who kept the world turning and took care of our daily needs and our lives…”

The album “Living in the Gap/Hungarian Pictures” features a Who’s Who of Classic Rock: Ian Anderson, Jack Bruce, David Clayton-Thomas, Bobby Kimball, Tony Carey, Simon Phillips, Chris Thompson, Al DiMeola, Mike Stern, Randy & Ada Brecker, saxophonist Bill Evans, Supertramp´s John Helliwell and Jesse Siebenberg, bassists: Steve Bailey and Richard Bona, former Snarky Puppy keyboardist Cory Henry, and the Cutting Crew’s Nick Van Eede.

Leslie teamed up with his Soulmates Ian Anderson, John Helliwell, Bobby Kimball, Al DiMeola to record the song “WeSayThankYou,” donating all royalties to US charity organizations (The United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund in support of the WHO (World Health Organization) and The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City).

The album topped the Amazon Classic Rock Charts in Germany end of 2019, and is growing throughout the world including “Eccelente supergruppo” writes StoneMusic.it. Mandoki Soulmates is finding support on prog, classic rock, singer-songwriter and fusion playlists, especially with the songs: “The Torch,” “Living in the Gap,” “Wake Up,” and both “Young Rebels” and “Old Rebels.” Thanks to a great campaign from the Planetary Group, over 70 radio stations in North America, alone, are playing Mandoki Soulmates. This includes medium and high rotation on tastemaker and buzz stations KFAI-Minneapolis/St. Paul, KPSU-Portland, WDCE-Richmond, VA, WICR-Ithaca, New HD Radio w/ Zach Martin, KVCU-Boulder, WRHU-Hempstead. 

WUSB-Stony Brook’s Captain Phil Merkel’s been spinning Mandoki Soulmates all summer, “my biggest takeaway from the entire work is the amount of caring and empathy Leslie has for everyone, especially us here in the USA as we struggle to cope with that monster COVID 19.  I am so glad we have Leslie looking out for us.  Give it a listen, you won't be disappointed.”

Making a Scene writes “Leslie Mandoki is making a scene! The band is pure sophisticated jazz rock, or as Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake, & Palmer) put it, ‘One of the best bands you’ll ever see.’”  The late Mr. Lake, also, dubbed Mandoki Soulmates as “the band of the bandleaders”!

Canada’s LetItRock calls “Living in the Gap/Hungarian Pictures”, “A glorious thing.” Classic rock’s Strutterzine gets the message: “The impact now is so much bigger and the result is a journey which should be heard by as many people as possible…”

Why are so many of us pushing for Mandoki Soulmates to be heard?  Leslie says, “Music is the greatest unifier and nothing is more timely than to raise our voice to unify the world and to build bridges over the gap we are living in, to get out of our news bubbles and echo chambers.”

House of Prog Radio writes, “the coming together of such a diverse cast perfectly expresses the album’s lyrical theme of unity, which couldn’t be a more timely message for today’s world.”

Since escaping from the Iron Curtin in the 1970s, first becoming a refugee in Germany, and then creating a life that included running the largest recording studio in Europe, Leslie’s life has been dedicated to unity, and it shows—in part—because of the pleasant and hard things he went through in order to achieve the Great European Dream. Recently Leslie told Germany’s Tekdeeps.com that “rock and roll means revolution and rebellion for a better world.”

 

  

Art Rock Supergroup MANDOKI SOULMATES Release Full-Length Album In Partnership With U.S. Label CLEOPATRA RECORDS!

With over 500,000 streams on streaming media, “Living in the Gap”/”Hungarian Pictures” features many great prog/jazz/classic rockers including: Ian Anderson, Simon Phillips, Supertramp´s John Helliwell and Jesse Siebenberg,Toto's Bobby Kimball, Manfred Mann's Chris Thompson, Cream's late Jack Bruce and Jazz-Rock giants like Al DiMeola, Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, Bill Evans….

Los Angeles-based indie label Cleopatra Records and Hungarian-born songwriter/producer/ musician Leslie Mandoki, the mastermind behind the living, breathing art rock project Mandoki Soulmates, are proud to announce the release of the first full-length album since the two entities joined forces earlier this year. Coming out on Cleopatra’s venerated progressive rock imprint, Purple Pyramid, home to such artists as Nektar, Tangerine Dream, Hawkwind-alumni project Hawkestrel, and Rick Wakeman, the album entitled Living In The Gap + Hungarian Pictures is actually a double album adding the 45 minutes Progressive Rock Suite Hungarian Pictures, following a musical concept by Deep Purple´s Jon Lord and ELP´s Greg Lake to the original Living In The Gap album with brand new songs. Having already topped the Amazon Classic Rock Charts in Germany end of last year, Living In The Gap + Hungarian Pictures is poised to bring a whole new audience in North America, South America, the UK and beyond into the Soulmates’ family of fanatics.

As with his other album projects under the Mandoki Soulmates banner, Leslie Mandoki has brought together a Murderer’s Row of rock icons and musicians from some of the biggest names in prog and classic rock including Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson plus current and former members of Toto, Cream, Supertramp, ELP, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and this list goes on and on! The coming together of such a diverse cast perfectly expresses the album’s lyrical theme of unity, which couldn’t be a more timely message for today’s world. Mandoki explains in the album’s video trailer, “We know that music is the greatest unifier…[These are] songs against division, from the old rebels to the young rebels. This is our time to take a breath for a better world.”

Also be sure to check out Mandoki Soulmates and Ian Anderson’s special tribute to the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic - hospital workers, grocery store clerks, food delivery drivers, and others - on the digital EP We Say Thank You! Proceeds from the EP will be donated to The United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund in support of the WHO (World Health Organization) and The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City. 

  

Songs of Leadership & Fighting this Pandemic

Capitalist Without A Soul  Dan Berggren  folk with banjo, singalong and the hook "Capitalist without a soul." The story of a man that takes advantage of the rich and the poor.  Great rhymes "I've always done what I please, brought the economy to its knees!"

Be A Pain by Alastair Moock  country, upbeat, tempo kindred to New Grass Revival/John Denver tempos. About standing up to what's wrong, Rosa Parks, Harvey Milk, be a pain shout about it and complain, equal pay--Billy Jean King, Parkland, “Don't be polite, raise your voice and do what's right.”  Second Place in the ISC song competition for best children’s song.  

#WeSayThankYou by Leslie Mandoki & Ian Anderson Gentle piano starts this soft rock band (with flute) duet with male voices.  Giving respect to the people—from the hospitals to the grocery store workers that are helping people fighting the Coronavirus. There is also a jab to corrupt speculators that are using this time to make money off of this serious health problem. 

Help! by Kj Denhert voice and guitar thoughtful ballad-style, bringing new life to the lyrics. 

We Know What To Do by Sharon Katz & the Children of Bellas Artes  English and Spanish. Grownup and children’s voices. Unison rapping in Spanish.  It’s about washing your hands.The tempo is similar to the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me.” 

Hamba Kahle Mandela (Go Well Mandela) by Sharon Katz & Nonhlanhla Wanda:  Piano and acoustic and electric guitar, the right amount of harmonious electric instruments give “Go Down Mandela” a comforting blend with two gentle female voices in English and Zulu.  Stirring ballad to say “goodbye” to Nelson Mandela, whose birthday is July 18.  The song is a challenge to carry his lessons forward.  (pronounced HAM-BA-KAH-LE  MANDELA)  (H=soft sound).   

Let There By New Flowering sung by Cornelius Eady   Poem by Lucille Clifton, a respected African-American poet from Western NY.   Dreamy-sounding male and vocal with a guitar, cello.Last line:  “Let Love be at the end”  

Cornelius Eady · Let There Be New Flowering

“We Say Thank You,” by Ian Anderson and Leslie Mandoki, Dedicated to Covid19 Heroes on the Frontline

Ian Anderson and his longtime friend/collaborator Leslie Mandoki have recorded the song “We Say Thank You,” as a dedication to everyone on the frontline, from the doctors to grocery store workers, in the unbelievable Coronavirus battle.  The hashtag to use is “#WeSayThankYou”

Written by the Hungarian-born/German producer/songwriter/bandleader of Soulmates (which has featured Ian through the years), “#WeSayThankYou” was written in the context of Leslie’s own isolation in Germany, where his doctor wife, Eva, is a first contact physician.

Using social distancing as the foundation for their collaboration, Leslie emailed tracks to England for Ian to sing and play flute on between April 7 and 8.  

Ian and Leslie have worked together for over 20 years on various collaborations with his jazz-rock band Soulmates featuring the good and great of classic rock and jazz.  Artists in Soulmates (through the years) have included— David Clayton-Thomas, Bobby Kimball, Tony Carey, Jack Bruce, Chaka Khan, Chris Thompson, Steve Lukather,  Eric Burdon, Nik Kershaw, Greg Lake, Al di Meola, Randy and Michael Brecker, Bill Evans, Mike Stern, Paul Carrack, Peter Frampton, and Jon Lord.

Mandoki’s Soulmates toured North America in 2018.

In addition to the brave, hardworking front-line medics and care workers the lyrics reference the police, grocery clerks, supermarket workers too. Ian adds the dark reference to the speculators making a killing from the current crisis.  Ian says,  “They know who they are.”

Read Leslie’s short essay about “Speculators” who are using this crisis for financial gains here:  https://promo.mandoki-soulmates.com/en/

“To all, we say, thank you,” Says Ian Anderson and Leslie Mandoki.