AN AMBASSADOR IN BONDS

Since Roz Vitalis mainman and keyboard player Ivan Rozmainsky and I first started corresponding some years ago we have become friends (in the modern and digital manner) and I have followed his musical career with great interest. Named after the 2007 Ros Vitalis album, Compassionizer are seen as an offshoot which allows him to move in slightly different musical directions and on their second album he is again joined by Serghei Liubcenco (electric & acoustic guitars, bass, rubab, doira, other percussion & drums) and Leonid Perevalov (clarinets). Also credited as members are Bayun The Cat (synth bass, tbilat, cowbell) and AndRey Stefinoff (clarinets) while Oleg Prilutsky again guests on trumpet.

Any album which starts with harpsichord (the real thing as opposed to synth, one can hear the slight percussive noise from the instrument as well as the notes) is going to gain my attention from the off, and yet again Ivan has created something which is very special indeed. In some ways this feels like chamber music from a different age, but then we get transported into something which feels far more like strange krautrock with ethnic percussion, or firmly into RIO, or music where the keyboards are very much taking a backseat to bass clarinet or driving percussion. It is an incredibly varied and quite unusual album, which has far more in keeping with modern classical music than it does with rock and is fascinating as one never knows where it is going to go next.

Rozmainsky is an exciting composer who keeps pushing the boundaries of what is expected from him, and yet again here we have an album which is full of depth and power which is worthy for those who want to undertake a voyage of discovery.