Dialogue - "I am a Man" {Russia} [1982] (hard symph)

Dialogue were one of the first recognized professional art-rock formations in the USSR. The band's roots go back to 1974, when Kim Breitburg, a singer and a keyboard player, gathered his first band with more or less constant line up in Mykolaiv, Southern Ukraine. The four-piece band roamed about the country for a couple of years, until in 1978 it settled in Donetsk and became an official unit of the local philarmonic society. By that time, Dialogue almost completely abandoned performing covers of Western rock hits, and concentrated on Breitburg's own compositions which became the core of the band's repertoire. "I am a Man" is one of the earliest recorded efforts of the band. It features a 41 minutes long concept rock suite based on lyrics by Justinas Marcinkevičius, a contemporary Lithuanian poet. Somewhat evocative of art-rock epics by Yes or Genesis, the album has a distinctly symphonic feeling, but at the same time shows Breitburg's strong interest in hard-rock, space rock and new wave music. Surprisingly, although the marriage of symphonic art-rock with hard/new wave is what probably gave birth to neo-prog, "I am a Man" sounds nowhere like a typical neo-prog album.

To the best of my knowledge, this album hasn't been in circulation on anything other than tape until a couple of years ago the full anthology of Dialogue was released on CDs in Russia. The original cover (if it ever existed) is not available, the photo depicts the band's leader Kim Breitburg.

The link is to be found in the comments.