KONVERGENCIE

There is in my view few better, if any, in the art of ELPism than Marian Varga and Collegium Musicum. Hidden behind the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, he and his band released a lot of albums which must have satisfied those who longed for a visit from Keith Emerson and ELP. But Marian Varga and Collegium Musicum is not copycats. Far from it.

This album does undeniable have much of what a good ELP album had. The ELP album that springs to mind is their iconic Welcome To The Show. Partly because parts of Konvergencie is a live album. The long solo runs and the weirdo creations Keith Emerson created, is in abundance on Konvergencie.

The difference between this album and an ELP album is that Collegium Musicum takes the ELP sound a lot further out towards both classical music and avant-garde prog. Soft Machine without the saxophone and brass springs to mind. The other difference is that Collegium Musicum use plenty of guitars. Mostly solo guitars. Some has asked what would had happened if Jimi Hendrix had joined ELP. I think some of the answers is on this album. There are even some Jimi Hendrix sounds and guitar solos on this album.

The end result is an album a fan of Keith Emerson, The Nice and ELP simply need to have in it's record collection. As simple as that. The quality of the music is very high. But I expect nothing less from this band which I rate very highly. This is an album I will listen to again and again. It is simply an excellent album.

4 stars

Share this COLLEGIUM MUSICUM review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to toroddfuglesteg
• Report this review (#236765)
• Buy COLLEGIUM MUSICUM music online with PA partners
• Show all COLLEGIUM MUSICUM MP3/Stream
• Go to COLLEGIUM MUSICUM page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Konvergencie page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for COLLEGIUM MUSICUM related discussions