Debut album by this German prog trio of Eduard Schicke, Gerhard Führs, and Heinz Fröhling. This is rather original prog, in a time where with too many other prog bands of the mid to late '70s, it's easy to make comparisons to Yes, Genesis, or in the case of German groups, Eloy, Novalis, Grobschnitt or late '70s Jane (Fire, Water, Earth & Air up to Age of Madness), you really can't make that comparison with SFF. Maybe a bit of The Enid without the Romanticism of that group, with more synths and Mellotron, less piano. This album is packed with Mellotron, Moog, piano, guitar, bass, and drums. "Tao" is a great example what I'm talking about, lots of spacy synths and Mellotron, with nice guitar. "Sundrops" features clavinet and Moog, while "Pictures" is the true highlight of the album. If you're familiar with Änglagård's Hybris, you'll notice some VERY familiar here. Yes, Änglagård used a good portion of "Pictures" as a basis for their "Jordröck". That familiar use of piano and Mellotron, it's all there. Given "Pictures" is considerably lengthier, there's plenty more you won't mistake for "Jordröck", but make no mistake, SFF was one of the big inspirations for Änglagård. Now there are some that will call Symphonic Pictures one of the greatest prog albums to come out of Germany. I wouldn't go that far, but it's still a darn good album you must own. And I find their followup Sunburst also very good (Ticket to Everywhere is also good, but unsurprisingly not as good as the previous two, given that one came out in 1979).