TAI BLIZKO DO SAMIA NEBOSVOD (Тъй близко до самия небосвод)

So Close to a Masterpiece

Velislav's sophomore effort maintains the dark and melancholic sound of his debut, as well as keeping a concept, notable because of the flawless flow from one song to the other, all connect wonderfully. This time however, Velislav does not repeat themes like in his first album. Anyway, once again Velislav plays all the instruments, with the exception of the guitar in track 5, which is played by Tuomas Renvall(aka The Passionist here in the forum), who had really planned to play guitar on all the tracks, but due to a problem in Tuomas' hard-drive, he couldn't send all the guitar parts unfortunately, this would have made a great duo work! As for the album:

The album features the already mentioned solid dark mood which is noticed through all the songs, in which they're experienced perfectly and smooth through a well-done production. Most of the songs develop a Van Der Graaf Generator(Godbluff era)/King Crimson(Islands era) style, mainly because of the somber ambience which is created by abundant mellotron, as well as some tenebrous synth notes and poetic vocal expressions. But Velislav unifies these roots with the classic Neo-Prog style, making all this melancholy be playful and enjoyable, as well as accessible, with nice guitar tones and synths, but never quite sounding like any of the Neo-Prog bands.

Overall, So Close to the Sky Itself is an excellent album and definitely an improvement over the more simple-headed, Under Dark Skies. By the way, if you listen to this album, make sure to listen to it with the lights turned off, it makes the album's atmosphere suit much better, and I think you can really perceive such tenebrous and melodic music with the lights turned off, or with no light of the day for that matter. In a rainy day might fit too.

4 stars.

As Bulgarian I'm proud to review the first bulgarian artist here in ProgArchives. That is Velislav Ivanov with his second effort - Тъй близко до самия небосвод. I was waiting too long to see bulgarian musicians in the site. And now my dreams come true...

Velislav Ivanov is young self-taught musician from Sofia, Bulgaria, who use some poems from famous Bulgarian poets like Dimcho Debelyanov and Atanas Dalchev for lyrics of his songs. Тъй близко до самия небосвод is really interesting album with strong use of mellotron. Velislav Ivanov plays all the instruments on the album, except guitars on the fifth song - Дяволско, which is played by our forum member - Finnish Tuomas Renvall (nickname at PA: Passionist)! I think this young compatriot shows big promise and I shall follow his career from here onward.

Тъй близко до самия небосвод is very melancholic album, mostly because of good old mellotron. I would like to notice the pleasant bass works, too. The songs are pretty well constructed for self-taught 20 years old amateur musician. My favourite song from the album is Сарабанд (the fourth song). All other songs are pretty good without any weak song. The album is very calm and recommended for relax! I'm nicely surprised with the vocal. I like very much singers with similar voices like Velislav Ivanov. The recording of the voice is little amateur and it's not constructed well enough over the musical parts. The vocals are made in the traditions of bulgarian popular music (estrada)! I believe this talented young musician has a bright future ahead.

I think Bulgaria is already on the progressive map with this pioneer work for our country. But yet I can't give it more than 3 stars, because it lacks of something varied as well as something special in terms of musicianship or songwriting! Recommended for neo-fans and relax!

A young talent sharing his music!

This is Velislav Ivanov, a man from Bulgaria whose passion for music has led him to compose and release three albums so far. His debut saw the light back in 2006 when he was an 18-year old guy; two years later he released the album I am reviewing, which by the way anyone can listen for free, through his website. The title of this album (in English) is "So Close to the Sky Itself), though the original title is in Bulgarian. It features five compositions which make a total time of 32 minutes.

The opener track is "I srceto nai-setne umira" (don't ask the meaning of the songs) which is a mellow track with a calm atmosphere. The guitar work may be repetitive, but it is accompanied by keyboards and together make a good sound. His voice is not really outstanding, I honestly prefer the instrumental passages, there are a couple of hypnotic minutes here, which I adored.

"Vals za dnite na vino I rozi" starts again with a calm atmosphere, the voice can be heard but as background, it does not really takes your attention. Then a pure, even relaxing sound appears due to his sensibility on keyboards, he knows how to put different colors and textures with his keyboards. "Mulchaine" follows up the previous song, I mean, you may believe it is the same song, but no, listen carefully and you will notice a change. Here the keyboards play again the lead role, but also nice guitars can be heard here. Before the second minute vocals appear along with some heavier noises, though the track is still soft and calm. Minutes later the guitars take now the leadership with some nice notes, while keyboards remain as background.

"Sarabande" starts with a darker mood, but it shines seconds later and becomes gentler, but wait, this is only for some seconds because later it shares again some dark and tense atmosphere which sounds interesting. However, after two minutes it suddenly stops, vocals appear and the rhythm changes. That short passage is not really my favorite, but what I like is that he returns to that dark mood later, with nice keyboards and drums. After four minutes, an excellent instrumental passage begins, with acoustic guitar and wonderful keyboards (as usual). It is important to mention that Ivanov is a multi-instrumentalist, or a one-man-band, whatever you want to call him.

Finally, the album closes with "Diavolsko" which is also the longest composition. Its first seconds sound weak, though the music is gradually progressing and little by little turn more interesting, though I have to admit, that this is not my favorite track, and actually left me with some frustrated expectations, I mean, when I saw it was the last and longest song, I truly though on a killer composition, and it may be, but so far I have not enjoyed as much as I would like to, in spite of its complexity and Ivanov's evident talent.

It is always great to know new music from new and talented artists, he is a man-to-follow, I am sure he will have a lot to offer in the future. People, take advantage of the internet facility and download his music. My final grade will be three stars.

Enjoy it!