LAND OF CHAMELEONS

Prolific NeoProgger Antony Kalugin's 2024 contribution to Prog World includes myriad buyer's choices in terms of form and song inclusions. The version that I acquired on Bandcamp is not the same as that listed above in the PA database.

Line-up / Musicians: - Antony Kalugin / keyboards, vocals With: - Mariya Panasenko / vocals (1,3) - Olha Rostovska / vocals (5,6) - Max Velychko / electric & acoustic guitars - Konstantin Ionenko / bass - Viktor Syrotin / drums & percussion - Sergii Kovalov / accordion (5) And: - Marek Arnold / soprano saxophone (1,2,4,5)

1. "Land of Chameleons" (4:51) Antony's ROINE STOLT-like talk-sing voice is mirrored by Mariya Panasenko's beautiful, lilting (and sometimes belting) soprano (in multiple tracks) to sing this proggy THE FLOWER KINGS-like song. Professionally constructed and rendered with excellent engineering and production, I just wish the high ends of modern music weren't so muted and/or compressed. P.S. The soprano saxophone play of Marek Arnold is quite good- -definitely a standout element. (8.875/10)

2. "Agora by Day" (10:04) The proggy sound palette sounds so computerized: the drums sound machine-generated, the bass muted and lacking percussiveness like a keyboard, even the rhythm guitars sound button-pushed. The keys and lead guitars are rich and well-presented though also feeling compressed on their high ends. Antony's singing again sounds like a cone-muted ROINE STOLT, but the music's chord and melodic presentations are quite engaging, even enjoyable--especially in the soft passage crossing from the fifth to the sixth minutes. I feel as if the instrumentally-complex bridge inserted at the 6:00 mark exists only to try to prove to me that these are actually human-played drums, bass, and keys. I remain fairly unconvinced. Still, the music is quite good, definitely proggy, and, though somewhat familiar, feeling new enough to satisfy my pleasure principals. The closing motif is quite satisfying-- even emotional. (18/20)

3. "My Shadow" (7:49) I am really troubled by the rather-blatant and unabashed imitation of ROINE STOLT with Antony's vocals. The song is also structured and stylized to sound like some kind of 1980s power ballad--like Alannah Myles' rocked-up version of "Black Velvet"--at least until the end of the third minute when things turn more jazzy-- bordering on Yacht Rock (albeit, very good Yacht Rock). I guess I shouldn't complain since there are not a lot of artists (that I know of) doing this kind of quality Classic Yacht Rock today. The good parts are quite good (the instrumental Yacht Rock passages) and the more familiar, cliched BONNIE TYLER/KIM CARNES-like parts are still pretty darn good. (13.5/15)

4. "Dios Pyros (part 2)"(3:01) a weird little electronic keyboard- and computer-generated piece for Antony's piano to solo within. (8.5/10)

5. "Into the Kaleidoscope" (11:49) a song that sounds as if Antony had been studying GLASS HAMMER's masterpiece epic from 2005's Colossus Magazine-Musea Records commissioned Odyssey: The Greatest Tale. He throws in a little Lion King/Adiemus and some sounds and elements from Anthony Phillips' 1984, and a lot of it is generating/inspiring original music, but he keeps coming back to melodic and chordal themes used in the Glass Hammer piece. The final electric piano-led motif sounds a bit like a reprise of the previous "pyros" piece. (22/25)

6. "Journey to a Shrine" (10:49) opening with some dark chords played rather incongruously with pleasant, light sound choices, the song turns into a New Age song that sounds like it came straight out of one of David Lantz & Paul Speer's albums from the late 1980s and 1990s. At the end of the second minute our perceptions are distracted for a bit by a Middle Eastern palette and melody, but within 30 seconds the music returns to the Lantz-Speer motif--until 3:55 when a piano-supported poorly-recorded wordless vocal chant from Olga Rostovska returns to a Middle Eastern-like setting, though this time feeling far more spacious and epic. The heavy multi-drum hits every 2.5 seconds adds to this slow build epic feel. In the seventh minute they switch to reverb snares and then getting muted from the 7:30 mark on--so that a searing electric guitar solo can be fully heard. There is no denying that the music is pleasant, engaging and beautiful--both the New Age theme and the proggy Middle Eastern theme--but once again I find myself unsettled by its computer manipulation and usurpation of "borrowed" sounds and themes. (18.5/20) 7. "2 Minutes Before the Dawn" (2:37) multiple synths and Fender Rhodes with support of bass and soprano sax and a few electric guitar chord strums. Nice. Maybe Antony should move full time into the creation and publication of New Age soundscapes: he is certainly very good at them. (9.3333/10)

Total Time 45:47

The two main issues I have with this album are the computer-polish and Antony's prepensity to rely on lifting sounds, riffs, chord progressions, even forms and styles from past masters; I know everybody does it to some extent, but Antony's lifts are so blatant that they even conjure up the exact songs that they came from. Is this intentional? Is he creating music like a circus performer: with every intention of arousing the crowd's boisterous cheers every time we recognize a familiar riff.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of NeoProgSymph. Highly recommended for those of you who prefer to bask in the warm and nostalgic sunlight of the past.

Yet another new album by Karfagen was released two days ago, phew! How can anyone be so productive and keep it on such high artistic level? It took me ridiculously long to finally listen to this preceding one released in May. But all the more rewarding it was. Several years (and perhaps a bit too many Karfagen/Kalugin albums) ago, I was deeply charmed by the music of this amazing prog talent from Ukraine. The impression has naturally decreased in time, as it all has become pretty familiar.

But against my own expectations, my initial listening of Land of Chameleons was graced by that magic again. It definitely helped to have a little pause. Yes, it's all exactly what his listeners have learned to expect, but I daresay this one touches perfection as a Karfagen album, and I simply have to give it five stars as I have done multiple times before. I sense a strong inspiration and pure musical bliss on this album.

Since another reviewer here gives a detailed track-by- track analysis, I'll stay on my overall impressions. The band led by composer & keyboardist Antony Kalugin is in a terrific shape, and it's great to hear Marek Arnold's soprano sax guesting on many tracks. There's a suitable amount of both Antony's vocals and the female vocals while the emphasis is on the playing: soaring, melodic, passionate and Neo-flavoured contemporary Symphonic Prog in the vein of The Flower Kings and such. Well, by now Karfagen itself ought to be among the references when speaking of this style. It doesn't get quite so overblown, and a certain mellowness -- comparable to Camel and the quartet era Genesis -- is essential.

The pieces around ten minutes in length are all gorgeous compositions. Instrumental 'Journey to a Shrine' is perhaps the loveliest, so full of emotional melodies. 'My Shadow' uses (once more) a poem of R. L. Stevenson, and the childlike spirit is beautifully captured in Antony's and Mariya's duet vocals.

Two brief instrumentals are ideally placed. 'Dios Pyros' slightly reminds me of Tony Banks' A Curious Feeling album sonically, but enhanced with Arnold's sax. And the closing track '2 Minutes Before the Dawn' is a nocturnal, New Age approaching synth piece. The two CD-only bonus tracks are nice, too. One instrumental and one with vocals.

This album has deservedly earned a lot of high ratings (and I frankly cannot comprehend the few low ones). So, a sincere thank you to Antony. You still move me with your music!