Euro-disco producer Alec R. Costandinos made his American debut on Casablanca Records as Sphinx in 1977 after garnering considerable success with his group Love & Kisses. He only released one self-titled album as Sphinx, The album wasn't a huge hit, but it was impressive with its ambitious scope.
Foreshadowing the concept albums he would go on to release under his own name on Casablanca such as the soon-to-follow Romeo and Juliet, the album's two epic side-spanning songs — "Judas Iscariot" and "Simon Peter" — center loosely on an Egyptian theme (Costandinos was born in Cairo). The album features many of the same musicians from Love & Kisses: The Birds Of Paris, Alan Hawkshaw and Don Ray. The album also featured The Ambrosian Singers directed by John McCarthy who would later go on to record several Holiday albums as well as appear on albums by such diverse artists as Grace Jones, Neil Diamond, Julie Andrews, and Shirley Caesar.
As with his previous release there were no 12" singles issued, perhaps due to the unusal album length of the cuts? With the lack of a bona-fide hit the album was quickly cut-out and has since become somewhat of a collector's item. |
