THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE MYSTERY

Compassionizer is one of the many projects involving Ivan Rozmainski and Leonid Perevalov, who have been together also in ROZ VITALIS and RMP. This band may sound like a chamber rock version of Roz Vitalis, but the trademark of the band is the bass clarinet of Perevalov.

This is another fully instrumental album, but it seems to be based on a concept. The Felloship of the Mystery is a paraphrase of the first book of the Tolkien's trilogy, but I don't see other references to the Rings, apart of one track which seems to describe musically a Hobbit village. We'll see later.

"To Abound And To Suffer Need" opens the album with an intro featuring all the instruments but one at a time. The clarinet of Andrey Stefinoff and the bass clarinet of Perevalov work well together but suddenly bass, drums and keys enter dramatically, just to calm down and give room to a pizzicato and a synth as background for the clarinets. The track is subject to many changes but it's constantly based on minor chords and when the percussion are present it gets darker. The good with instrumentals of this kind is that if you are in the right mood, you can build your own story.

"Avenge Not Yourselves" continues on the same path. This track fits perfectly with the definition of chamber rock. It's a sort of classical composition, sometimes resembling the works of great Russian composers like Tschaikovskij and Rimsky-Korsakov, but with the use of modern instruments like synth and guitars. It has an eastern flavor, that makes me think to the Sheherazade. The mood changes abit when harpsichord and clarinet perform a very nice duet that leads to the end of the track.

The transition to "To Direct Your Hearts Into The Love" is seamless. This track features also female vocals by Sabina Vostner. The music is sweet and sad. If we don't consider some darker passages, it has the feeling of some Kitaro works.

"I Feel Shine Of The Day" has a melodic start and features a Rubab, a traditional instrument from Afghanistan ecellently played by the multi-instrumentist Serghei Liubcenco. Thinking that the actual crazy Taliban regime has forbidden every kind of music in that Nation deleting its musical traditions is vary upsetting. Hear the sound of its strings. How can somebody think to forbid a sound? Also this track alternates light and darkness. The start is very melodic and based on major chords. The lightly untuned sound of the Rubab is a great choice. It makes it sound "popular" even though the melody has few to do with Middle Eastern music. It has a medieval feel similar to the early Branduardi. This is also what I consider "the Hobbits track"

Another smooth transition brings "For Them Who Shall Be Heirs of Salvation" to our ears. Not dissimilar from the other tracks, it features a good violin performance by Ksenia Vaganova. I still hear the Rubab, too. If it wasn't for the percussion I could think to a piece by Debussy. There's also the trumpet of Oleg Prilutsky. The trumpet cries over minor chords together with the clarinets and together bring the track to its end.

The track fades into the following "For the Invisible Things" which features the other violinist, Vitaly Borodin. Here percussion come and go, and the trumpet gives a melancholic feeling to the track. The same feeling of the album "City Scripts" of the Serbian band "Wo0" (they have a trumpet, too.

There's no solution of continuity. Without looking at your reader or whatever you are using to listen, the change of track is so smooth that one may think to be still on the previous one. On this track there are a lot of things: synth, harpsychord, guitar...it looks like thay have tried to find a place far each of their instruments, including tapes. Even if I don't here reminders to the previous track, as often happens in prog, this suite sounds like a summary of what we habe listened up to now, but its 21 minutes in length are goos to let ourselves be transported wherever the music is going. I won't spend tons of words describing the passages and the variations, also because it changes continously. I can only suggest t o let us be transoported into the magic realm of the cover sleeve. A magician's lab, maybe, or the room of a priest as the expression of the guy in the picture is so nice and calm that he might also be a sort of teacher. Maybe a scientist, a mathematician or who knows what. Too many things in this suite for a detailed description. Just listen to it.

4 stars are well deserved

Social review comments

Review related links

• Send comments to octopus-4
• Report this review (#3114808)
• Buy COMPASSIONIZER music online with PA partners
• Show all COMPASSIONIZER MP3/Stream
• Go to COMPASSIONIZER page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to The Fellowship of the Mystery page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for COMPASSIONIZER related discussions