In the prog world we have a few artists who produce a lot of music. You can think about Neal Morse, The Flower Kings and Steven Wilson for example. But the main prize goes to Antony Kalugin. In the last 19 years he made 20 studio albums with Karfagen, and when we look at the years 2023 and 2024 he just made six albums. Yes, you read it clear, six! With his band Sunchild he made nine albums since the start in 2008 and besides Karfagen and Sunchild he also has his solo albums and there his counter is up to seven albums. So he made 36 albums. And to be honest, I do not know any of his music. The advantage and at the same time the disadvantage is that I cannot compare anything. I think that I decide that it is my advantage because now I can review this album totally blanco. Antony Kalugin plays the keys and does the vocals. There are a lot of contributions by a lot of artists. They are Mariya Panasenko on vocals, Olha Rostovska on vocals, Max Velychko on electric and acoustic guitars, Konstantin Ionenko on bass, Victor Syrotin on drums and percussion, Sergii Kovalov on accordion, Vladislav Karbovskiy on bass and Marek Arnold on soprano saxophone. I will only review tracks of the first album because the second album consists of older songs that are expanded, instrumental versions and live versions from the past. The album cover tells me that the music probably will be like fairytales or be at least sweet. But maybe the music will be categorized otherwise, I will find it out and you can read all about it in the next paragraphs. The first track is the title track, Land Of Chameleons. An easy listening intro, soft but sweet. Slowly guitar parts and a sax solo. It reminds me a bit of the music and atmosphere of Roger Waters. A nice solo of Anthony and relaxing guitar playing. The second track is Agora By Day. This is the first epic on the album and starts with Kalugin on keys. After the intro it is a bit heavier with terrific keyboard playing, you want to increase the volume. The carpets are strung together during the first three minutes. The way Kalugin is singing in this up tempo song is more aggressive than in Land Of Chameleons. The main role in this song is for both of Max Velychko on the guitars as well as Kalugin. I had to get used to it a bit in the way of the dreamy character of the music, as I wrote earlier, I expected a bit of fairytales and this one looks like it. Towards the end of the song the easy listening style returns and the song fades out. I think it could have been more exciting in the last passage, but who am I? The third track is called My Shadow. The first passage touched me because of its sensitive character, so beautiful. After a while it become more up tempo with female singing enters in. After this passage a more mellow part reaches your ears and before you get used to it, the guitar of Max goes wild. All in all this is a song with a lot of faces, some I really like but in total the potpourri of styles is too much for me; in my opinion it is not cohesive. The fourth track is called Dios Pyros (part 2). This one is an instrumental with an important role for the soprano saxophone of Marek led by Anthony his piano sounds. Halfway it becomes a more jazzy song and towards the end it becomes more mellow. And that in only three minutes. The ideas are good, but in the combination of the song, it does not fit for me. Therefore the solo of Marek is too emotional and because of all the styles the importance of the solo disappears, a missed opportunity. The fifth track is called Into The Kaleidoscope and is the longest track and one of the three epics. A nice element in this one is the use of an accordion. Also in this song is a beautiful saxophone solo. Everything in this song is glued by the keyboard parts of Anthony. That Anthony is a real keyboard wizard is an understatement. And just as in other songs there is so much happening in the songs that I do miss the clue, the head, middle and tail is what I mean. Several parts of several songs can be changed with each other without losing the song, and in my opinion music is not meant for that. The number of ideas Anthony has are numerous and I do have respect for that, but I cannot follow them in the songs, sorry. The sixth track is called Journey To A Shrine, the last epic. Another one with great guitar work, nice solo's but too many fragmented parts in the song. However the jamming character in this song fits better than in previous songs. Especially Max is doing a great job with his fantastic guitar playing, a caress for the ear. The seventh and last track is called 2 Minutes Before The Dawn and is the shortest song of the album, namely two minutes before.... It is another improvisation on keys where Marek gives another sax solo that you can feel into your soul, however before it can reach your soul, another improvisation on the keys takes over so Mareks solo disappears. To make a conclusion of this album is a tough one because all the musicians have beautiful contributions, the solo's are outstanding, the ideas are superb but I miss the structure in the whole album. In my humble opinion it is too much loose sand in its entirety. My wish for a next Karfagen album would be that Anthony would like to put fewer ideas into his music so that there is more structure in the songs. *** Michel Stolk (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
