In 2006 the leader and founder of QLS, Roberto Sgorlon, suggested that we celebrate the band's 30^th anniversary with a musical tribute album showcasing QLS' evolution with a special emphasis on the past styles of the band. At first, I wasn’t convinced. The album Abraham represented a dramatic turning point in QLS' style and the thought of revisiting the styles of the past didn't initially appeal to me. In addition, many years had already passed since our last creative effort.

However, the embers of true love always burn at the bottom of the heart, so I accepted the challenge and sat at the piano with Roberto at my side as collaborator, “outer ear”, guide, and as an ideal audience. We worked for two years composing seven new pieces. We started with two songs which we believed should determine the new densely melodic QLS style, first writing Arcano, based on a theme by Roberto, then on to Islemind. But the real fun started when it came to paying tribute to the earliest stylistic stages, the psychedelic and the hard rock periods. It was a question of looking at the past without neglecting our present-day creative abilities and the result of this wedding was the birth of Oblivion and Snake Dream.

After that, it seemed natural for us to draw our inspiration from our glorious rock opera, Abraham, to compose Moses followed by Flighting Thoughts, based on an acoustic guitar riff. Eventually, we decided to give the album a daring and unique overture and wrote Rhapsody and Fugue, exploring the effect of a rock band playing a real four-part fugue in baroque style.

At the end of the creative stage, Roberto regretfully confided in me that he wished to leave the band in order to fully dedicate himself to his spiritual path. It is with a mix of joy and sorrow that I thank him for everything he has done, and heartily dedicate to him Synopsis. Nobody but Roberto could have persuaded me to write music for this extraordinary band, and I couldn’t have accomplished this without his help and support.

Paolo Paroni