Oleg Milshteyn ^People

The first concerts of the Orizont band took place between March Ist - 10th, 1977, and were occasioned by the annual music festival Martisor, held in Moldova. The debut program was well received by the public. Shortly after the debut, it be- gan touring outside Moldova, and through its originality and the original character of the interpretation of Orizont, it became a notable phenomenon among Soviet stage groups. The Orizont light music ensemble became the first band inthe USSR to perform funk music. Due to the complexity ofthe syncopic interpretation, demon- strated by the group of wind instruments of the Orizont band, it was compared with the western group Earth, Wind & Fire. In addition to this, as the band Earth, Wind & Fire, the Orizont ensemble was considered the largest ensemble of light music on the Soviet scene.From the first day of its existence, the Orizont ensemble was created as a vocaland instrumental ensemble, having nothing to do with the Moldovan folklore group. Arrangements were created that were not inferior to the music performed by the best Western teams of those years. As a creative team for young people, the Orizont ensemble was subiect to search and wasn o t afraid of creative experiments.Its amazing mix of elements of blues, jazz, rock, funk and soul music is a style in music called fusion in one word.