THE SPACE BETWEEN US

After Karfagen debuted with ''Continium'', things were much easier for Antony Kalugin and everything started rolling.The next year he returned with another Karfagen album on Unicorn Digital, this time though he is accompanied be several guest musicians (except for the usual suspects Sergei Kovalev, Kostya Shepelenko and Oleg Polyanksiy) on guitars, bass, flutes and choirs, forming a 12-piece team.The new album carried the title ''The Space Between Us''.

While the first album of Karfagen was just an under-40 minutes introduction to its sound, now a more confident and secure Kalugin launched a release containing over an hour of diverse and creative Progressive Rock.Musically the style follows more or less the lines of debut, always led by Kalugin's accomplished keyboard textures and efficient composing, which blends Symphonic Progressive Rock with Jazz and Ethnic Music.Release by release, Karfagen seems the closest comparison to Fabio Zuffanti's project HOSTSONATEN.Kalugin uses the Prog fundamentals of grandiose orchestrations, Classical inspiration and rockin' attitude and mixes them with ethereal synth-drenched soundscapes, ethnic orientations or jazzy interludes, eventually creating a work full of rich instrumental nuances and flavors.Additionally the guest singers use their voices here and there mostly like an additional instrument with simplistic but nicely delivered choirs.The music remains melodic and dreamy all the way with a fair amount of heavier leanings to keep things balanced.Kalugin shines once more with his keyboard work, offering awesome piano preludes, massive organ runs or both bombastic and more relaxed synth waves.

Very talented composer and pretty nice instrumental Progressive Rock, which never forgets to rock a bit among the symphonic/folky arrangements through the use of electric guitars.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.