ALEATORICA

Karfagen is a Ukrainian symphonic rock band which mostly seems to perform instrumental music. It is made up by the composer Antony Kalugin and one this record from 2013 a lot of other musicians too. Together they play a wonderful world of songs and melodies, played on a lot of symphonic instrument with not so little inspiration from folk music.

When this record was released last year I noticed it got good ratings but noone reviewed it and the music was hard to find. This summer I went to Ukraine, I came home today and I found the music a week before I went away to the east. I loved Ukraine, its culture and a romantic undestroyed touch in the society. This music perhaps takes inspiration from all of that, and of course the whole world of progressive rock.

The record is a unit of well composed musical material which is performed on various instruments and shows different aspects of life. A few songs have lyrics and they are good, but not what's making the album special. My favourite tracks are the first: "Aleatorica"(10/10) which gives a little of everything, "D'Ale" where I guess I hear bag pipes in a mediaval harmony(10/10) and "Whirlabout" which is amongst the album's most glamorous and symphonic(10/10). Almost as good are "Gnome in a bathroom"(9/10) and "Solar cydes"(9/10), also medieval. I wouldn't say that any song here lacks interest and they become as their best if you listen to them together.

I look forward to hear more from Karfagen, they seem to have made an album even this year 2014. I also like the cover of "Aleatorica" with a lot of pictures, which aren't very symphonic but quite pretty. Aleatorica is a fine 4/5 record which I recommend!