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Review by
apps79
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
Ukraine-based band KARFAGEN is a somewhat personal best of young composer/keyboardist
Antony Kalugin,who founded this project in 1997 (at the age of 16!),being himself a student at
school.Before the turn of the millenium he started writing material for the first KARFAGEN
album and actually the band played a few gigs as well,before they were put on ice with Kalugin
following a personal career,mostly composing and participating on new-age albums.By mid-
00's Antony had been a self-employed musician,so he gave birth to his former band and
recorded the long-awaited KARFAGEN debut in 2005 on the Canadian Unicorn Records.His work can be easily compared to these of MIKE OLDFIELD,GANDALF and CAMEL if you add some more passion and energy to the compositions.Having next to him his fellow keyboardist Sergei Kovalev,Kalugin explores and unites the paths of Symphonic Rock,New Age and Electronic in a very adventuruous and highly attractive package.Lots of spacey floating electronics dominate the album along with pianos and some great organ parts,which give the album a grandiose symphonic taste,while the succesful addition of limited parts with cellos,harmonica,flutes and bagpipes give the album a folkier and almost oriental touch in parts.Among those sometimes bombastic themes weird effects (water,birds etc.) are added in order to calm a bit down the dynamics.Electric guitars are much carefully used with a main aim to rise up the energy and nerve of the music between the keyboard-based parts,sometimes also in a jazzy mood.I could say that most of the tracks contain from even a bit to a higher range of Kalugin's classical training,especially on the piano parts...and one more thing:Do not expect the music to be overall sweet and atmospheric.In ''Continium'' KARFAGEN offer a fair amount of complex ELP-ish breaks to make it even more attractive and challenging.
The final taste is more than positive.Intricate,balanced,adventuruous and marvelously arranged,''Continium'' was worth waiting and Kalugin made no mistake on insisting on this band's future.An excellent addition to your collection,especially if you are a fan both of Symphonic and keyboard-driven Progressive Rock.
Greek synthesist Bakis Sirros who records under the name of Parallel Worlds has become a familiar name to followers of the DiN label. His debut release was “Obsessive Surrealism” (DiN26) back in 2007 and since then he has released a further solo album, “Shade” (DiN32), as well as several collaborative albums with different artists including DiN label boss Ian Boddy & Node guru Dave Bessell.
“Plector” (DiN76) is his third solo outing on the DiN imprint and continues the deep dive into organic, analogue modular excursions that this talented musician is so adept at. Throbbing, deep bass lines are accompanied by sparse drum patterns and beguiling melodic synth lines. The album has a beautifully cohesive, dark and brooding atmosphere. Hints of a John Carpenter like synth soundtrack lurk around every corner but the sound world that Sirros creates is very much his own. At times the raw beauty of his synth patches grab you whilst at other moments the delicate, glitch like sound design details hover just out of sight. The album is built upon two groups of three rhythmic tracks interspersed with the dark drone of “Atmoform” and the beautiful, almost Enoesque final track, “Harmonic Pathways”.
Lovers of Electronica, Dark Techno, Downtempo & IDM will find much to admire in “Plector” and this new album once again showcases the unique talent of this highly individual musician.
credits
Our thanks for DiN Label Head Ian Boddy for providing us with a copy of this release.
All tracks composed, arranged and produced by Bakis Sirros during 2022.
Mastered by Ian Boddy July 2022.
Thanks to: friends and family, John Sirros, Ian Boddy, Mamonu, Ingo Zobel & Dimitris Pavlidis.
Machines used:
Buchla modular
Eurorack modular
Korg opsix
Software
credits
Our thanks to Raffaele Pezzella for providing us with a copy of this release.
Published by ©Unexplained Sounds Group
Curated and mastered by Raffaele Pezzella
© 2022. All rights reserved
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