MUGUR DE FLUIER

this is almost a mastrepiece, but unfortunately is so unknown. Pheonix was a romanian band, and this is the disadvantage".Mugur de fluier" is comparable with the best of italian prog. and it deserve to be in the top of prog folk history. This album is simple and genius.

This is one of the best album of the genre. it's inspired by historical tales about ancient living heroes of romanian people. This five songs "Lasa, lasa" are witty couplets. The song "Mica Tiganiada" is about old lifestyle of gipsy people. "Mugur de fluier" is ispired by Jethro Tull's "A Christmas Song", but the lyrics are very beautiful. "Muzica si muzichia" it's a mery song, short but very funny. Try to find and listen this album, you'll never regrete!

(3.5 stars, really!)

or An Introduction To A Concert About The Ancient Music Of Romanians

My wish is to write a heartfelt review on a very creative and justly admirable work by Phoenix, the second of three pivotal ones, marking a half-point of style, character and wise perfection inside a great (undoubtedly greatest, for many) period of folk rock - or, way better said, ethno-rock. At my age, discovering Phoenix gives me a sorrow feeling of lateness, otherwise I've got a platonic and sensible love for this band's fabulous work just by listening, peacefully, to the music, and by getting into its folkloric essence (one buttered or vibrated into either usual either extremely genuine rock/songdelic atmosphere) or its purely tasteful art. Naturally, it's a thing of passionately loving the work of a classic generation, a much more accomplished feeling going through those who were contemporary with them or were inspired to live a suspenseful moment of joy in an otherwise darkness-craved world - of course, nostalgia breaking at times into such hearts.

Called Mugur De Fluier (with the subtitle, translated and mentioned in the top headline, having its important connotation) - a title of a slightly untranslatable mainstay - this album is Phoenix's deeper step into folklore and (dug-up) ethnical values, surprising not with the abundance of thesauri music in a new concept of rock and folk music as much as with the elegance and genial achievement of original, crossed-over or influenced fantasy, based on le cour naturelle that's the Romanian tradition (and spirit, metaphorically said in a hint or two); the crystallization in terms of folk(ethno) rock and lyrical poetry is made in an amazing subtlety, plus a mentionable quality. In terms of musical thoroughness, Phoenix develops a much more powerful rock instrumentality, musical quality and energy, likewise when, in the previous album, it was astonishing to hear such a good sound, made of innovative resources. A high-performance was also recording the entire album in 24 hours, despite that several songs were already played in a memorable concert, in 1973, in tandem with Sfinx.

Seeking a line of comparison just for the sake of it, Cei Ce Ne-au Dat Nume had much more vitality as an album, Mugur De Fluier having a preferably less raw, more simpler and chiefly song-written essence (needless to say, Cantofabule will top everything that matters in the culture, rock-poetical nerve and artistic flame of Phoenix). Mugur De Fluier's "stylistic research", at least in the line of interest, chooses an eclectic loop from south-Balkan music to the northern rhythms, crayoned fragilely still inspiringly. A more interesting approach are forms of gypsy music, touching a great sensibility of, least to mention, songwriting (from archaic elements to the really joyful/bizarre ways of creating authentic verses out of art rock adds). Two new poets for the band are Şerban Foarţă and Andrei Ujică, me personally recognizing what an immense personality the first one is. The lyrics (folkloric, ethnic or free-put) gain an emphasis, not necessarily making the music lush smaller, but broidering, in a simple but profound way, the concept and the open window into the folk steppes, stories and tapped movements. Basically Mugur De Fluier was composed as a rock opera (an EP early on, Meşterul Manole, reminiscencing the same suggestion) - therefore, visible elements like the Lasă, Lasă prelude and intermezzos are imaginatively conceptual - but only a nucleus was, after all, middled inside the album.

In a final effort to mix a walkthrough with a descriptive writing, the way Mugur De Fluier is composed is absolutely lovely - even masterful. It all sounds like fine (selected) poetry, splendid rock-work and a sensible ballad, once the concept (opera-rock or not) is simply natural, and the music has the characteristics of a balanced rhapsody, contrasts being made from the delicate or strong pieces up to the warm or cold extracts. In the absence of such a detail, the album would actually be too scenic. Lasă, Lasă, a miraculously uncensored chant, starts like a warming-up short prelude, but will melt Mugur De Fluier into several parts, each time rising the rapid dance of drums, taps and guitar beats, followed by a shouted enthusiastic and attractive verse - basically, all five "numbers" would group into one poetry, but given the concept, each fragment is one sip at a time. The way I love and admire the composition is notably different than the way the LP is split into sides: Pavel Chinezu-Strunga-Andrii Popa is the strongest and purest arrangement in the entire album; the first is a strong folk-rock piece, its source being a fairly usual poetry for a medieval prince (cneaz), Strunga is a most beautiful and passion-coved chord of a dramatic ballad, with roots in a folklore of essences, and a notably artistic feeling in mystical lyricism, and Andrii Popa is, well, a very airy, popular tune, nudging acoustic rock with purple young vocals by Baniciu. Mica Ţiganiadă-Ochii negri, Ochi de Ţigan-Muzica şi Muzichia-Mugur De Fluier (without the crossing intermezzos) sound like a second act that forms (most especially for the keen listeners), the first of these pieces developing the curious gypsy ideas, the second being the most "beautiful" folk piece, while the latter two are very strong pieces and songs in a shell of melodic, respectively ethnic accent. Folk-rock elements, even some Jethro Tull-ish takes, are strongly pressed. Finally, Anule, Hanule & Dansul Codrilor are very good compositions, rehashing the joy, liveliness and charisma of etno-rock, respectively creating a very complex musical atmosphere, with both cold and epic material. Mugur De Fluier is impressively light and pleasant, but the concept leads to art, to wonderful lyrics and to the natural folklore being a radiant and endless line that creates a rock spectacular opus.

In the end, I can't precisely know what to recommend to fans from around the world. I myself listen to Czech, Russian, Slovakian etc. (rock) music and realize how hard - if not impossible - is to fully understand the music's soft or hard core, even if reading about the concept, the influences or the natural sound in which it bathes. To give it a shot, Mugur De Fluier is an extremely glowing folk-rock work and one of the many treasures of Romanian classic rock, less progressive than the other major works, but convincing, captivating and echoing all the way. Treated as a wide concept of ethnic songs, poetical song-writing, ornamented art and more subtle rocking, it's valorous and worth its warm enchantment.

Lasa, Lasa part 1,2,... are between the songs, they give quite an original feature for the whole album. Strunga is quite a hit, complex and intriguing. Mica Tiganiada and Ochi negri Ochi de Tigan are 2 songs about Gypsies life and customs. Upbeat and engaging, they shine. Anule, hanule and Dansul Codrilor are two songs of deep athmosphere, maybe the closest prog rock on this album. Andrii Popa is a balad with pop trends and it was very popular in 70's among the youngsters. Mugur de Fluier is a nice song with close Jethro Tull influence. Muzica si Muzichie has an interesting tempo, very hard to follow and execute. I cannot understand why this album took just 3.5 stars so far, but believe me, it is much better than that rating. I will give it 5 stars, as it really has masterpiece moments. This album builds up from Cei ce ne-au dat nume to Cantafabule, being part of the best 3 Phoenix albums, so far. Highly and enthusiasctically recommended !

"Mugur de Fluier" could be translated as "Sprout of Fluier", being Fluier the Romanian six hole pipe, and the name of this PHOENIX album couldn't be more precise, being that the unique melodies created with this exotic instrument by Nicolae Covaci clear expressions of Romanian Ethnic music.

"Mugur de Fluier" is the second release of this amazing Romanian band and even when we can appreciate they still maintain a certain attachment to 60's Psyche, the sound is much more oriented towards folkloric musical expressions of their country, a path they will follow through their extended career, being that after 37 years they are still active.

The album starts with "Lasa, Lasa Nº 1" a short percussion and bass based song that will be a constant along the album as introduction and interlude between the central tracks, with the peculiarity of being played faster in each version so starts relatively slow in Nº 1 and ends incredibly fast in the Nº 5 version.

The second song is "Pavel Chinezu, Leat 1479", an interesting Proto Prog track based mostly in the ability of Covaci's guitar an Kappl's bass, some certain resemblance to GRAND FUNK RAILROAD, but the unique vocals makes it different to every previous to PHOENIX Rock band.

"Strunga" begins with a sweet Romanian flute sound (most surely blockflotte) with all the ethnic flavor of Transylvanian music that leads rapidly to a beautiful acoustic passage in which the vocals make the difference, sadly can't understand Romanian but sounds great and the arrangements are very interesting.

"Andrii Popa" starts with a delightful acoustic introduction supported by the always nice vocals, the song flows fluidly from start to end, again with a strong bass work, as the album advances the band gets closer to an authentic ethnic sound and morph from a psyche album with folk elements to a Prog Folk release.

After "Lasa Lasa Nº 2" already commented we move to the exquisite and nostalgic "Mica Tiganiada" played with the Romanian 12 string guitar called "Double Six", even when the song gets faster as the minutes pass that sad atmosphere proper of most Folk expressions continues covering the listener, but a sudden change occurs, an aggressive violin makes the difference and turns "Mica Tiganiada" into extraordinary song.

"Lasa Lasa Nº 3" works as an interlude for the clearly Romanian Folk oriented sound of "Ochii Negri, Ochi de Tigan" (Black Eyes, Gypsy Eyes), a very sweet and fascinating song, as in the previous track the nostalgia is more than evident, wish I could understand the lyrics.

"Muzica si Muzichia" is another wonderful folk track, this time with more complex arrangements than in the previous songs, being that the blend of occidental and Romanian instruments is done with a very good taste despite the complexity. "Mugiur de Fluier" follows in the vein of the previous tracks but the use of the fluier gives a different sound, something between a Medieval Troubadour and Ian Anderson with a modern transverse flute, if we add "Anule Hanule" it makes the perfect trilogy so by this point I can't be more delighted.

But the band leaves the best for the end, "Dansul Codrilor" is the perfect blend of Folk, Rock and Prog, easier to listen than to be described, so I won't try to do it.

Another solid album by PHOENIX that IMO deserves 4 stars.

Phoenix proposes a music mixture popular traditionel of the lands of Rumania with the progressive rock. The percussions are interesting, the guitar a sound indeed has he. Cerise on the gateau the group sings in Rumanian, tres beautiful language(tongue). The voices(votes) are strong and express, perfect mastery, tres melodious. The flute gets a Folk highly-rated young has their music, an absolutely original folk song. Melodies are beautiful, the particular sound, The consequences(suites) of Lasa Lasa, are interesting, very short and sometimes with defects, but a lot of charm. The group leaves the folk song to get closer sometimes to Heavy with a solo of guitar has to on the last title ' Dansul codrilor '. To note a tres beautiful line of present bass and emphasis, and a torn away enough(extracted enough) sound of guitar but the voices(votes) always very sung and just.

After their raw, but heavy on bluesy electric guitars, with some psychedelic flavour, début second this Romanian band's album is a real folk-prog opera. Sound is transformed to more acoustic , with many epic ballades, Romanian folklore is much more important in whole mix.

I believe to get the full impression of this album you must understand the language, because it looks lyrics are very important component there (as in many epic musical works). Another important component of the album's sound is British folk.

Unhappily, ambitious project doesn't have enough diversity or dynamics to be attractive during all his content. After few first compositions you start feeling as listening one long and often repetitive ballade with many folklore elements (incl. characteristic folklore vocals).

Possibly, for real prog folk fans this sound is more interesting, because it's full of original folklore instruments. For me, the listener who could be attracted by folk as much as it is just a nice spice to real prog rock sound, rock component of this album is really not enough for keeping attention.

Still great bass line and small but pleasant Balkan violin, rare electric guitar soloing and common authentic atmosphere though. My rating - 3+.

Continuing to emphasise their folk side in order to evade the official disapproval of the Communist authorities, Phoenix turn Migur de Fluier into a valiant attempt to subtly rock out whilst performing renditions and interpretations of traditional Eastern European folk music. The various versions of Lasa Lasa that litter the track listing become repetitive after a while - granted, I can see the interest in experimenting with different arrangements or interpretations of a comparatively short track, but these performances of it do not quite differ enough to retain interest, and in general I found the Phoenix sound a bit less engaging here than on the previous album.

Magur De Fluier "is an album more mature and put together since its debut , but at the same time is a continuation of the road designated by him . On the second LP fans have been waiting with bated breath for over a year and when it came out , it turned out that the team fully met the expectations . Music contained therein is a beautiful rock flirt with Romanian folklore. These ornaments in the form of the ubiquitous sounds of cello , flute and celesta themselves are miniature works that complemented rock instrumentation gain even more power , without losing their dignity. " Magur De Fluier " presents a rather gentler face of the merger of these two musical worlds , because the songs calm prevail , in which the foreground is often put forward the folk instruments ( the title track , which can be associated , for example . With the achievements of Jethro Tull ) and the choir shouted vocals , seeming slightly to refer to Baroque music ( " Mica Tyganiada ", " ochiie Negri ", " Ochi De Tigan "). The text layer is also a lot of references to the Romanian folklore , of which tried to two new associates team - poets Andrei Şerban Ujică and foarte . One of the strongest points of this album is more than seven-minute " strung " . Preceded by an introduction of the flute beautiful flowing freely, but restlessly ( the drums and vocals !) . Gradually, the listener almost in a hypnotic trance. It is worth mentioning that, in addition , played a little in the style of Uriah Heep song " Andrii Popa " ( telling the story of the legendary Romanian warlord ) , Strung is also a folk adaptation of the text. The most surprising is in my opinion the tip of the album - " Dansul Codrilol ", composed by Iosfa Kappl - pure hard rock with a strong guitar riff , which echoes as heavy bass.

The album was originally conceived as a rock opera after a series of deletions of censorship has lost a bit of such a character , but the system works as well as the overall consistency makes it easily can identify him as a concept album ( do not forget the words of songs were created in such a way as to form a whole) .