Sunday 2 March 2014

Mystery (Karfagen, 2010)

One of the few Ukraine prog rock bands, Karfagen (meaning Karthago) are the artistic son of kjeyboardist and composer Antony Kalugin and accordionist Sergei Kovalev. This 22 minutes suite comes from their fourth studio album, "Solitary Sandpiper Journey" and I really like it. It's a melodic track divided into five movements, including some beautiful keyboard progressions, long electric guitar solos, a constant dialogue between those two instruments and also some remarkable choral arrangements. You'll find here a scent of Renaissance and a pinch of neo-prog, but also some electric guitar slightly jazz improvisations and a few poppish tentations (not bad, after all).

This is a very good album, with no fillers inside.

The accordion adds an original mood to the big picture and a pleasant chamber orchestra comes in now and then, including cello, flute, oboe, basson, viola and violin. All is well done, IMHO, and I like all the passages, with a special mention for Marina Zacharova's soprano voice and Roman Gorielov's acoustic guitar (I would have liked more of this...). A scarcely known band that's worth a keen listening. I'll surely explore more of their discography.

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