CHILDHOOD'S END

Sunrise Auranaut is yet another one-man project, this time led by Russian multi-instrumentalist Vitaly Kiselev, who cites Genesis, Yes, E.L.P., Uriah Heep, Eloy and Hawkind as his main influences.Between 2009 and 2012 he produced two demo albums, ''King's way'' and ''Spirit rain'', before being discovered by Musea Records.But while his demos featured a couple of guests on arrangements, Kiselev decided to put an effort of his own on his debut ''Childhood's end?'', dealing with the romance, inner freedom and happiness of any human's early life stages.It was released eventually in early 2013 on Musea Parallele.

While it is rather hard to expect a masterpiece by a single person handling all instruments, the new technology offers so many possibilities, that this effort ended up to be a pleasant and fine listening all the way.Kiselev's influences are evident in a handful of moments in the album, as ''Childhood's end?'' contains plenty of keyboard waves, either in a very flashy and angular way or a more virtuosic, symphonic-oriented mood, albeit performed in a very modern enviroment.Dual and triple synth attacks are all over the place, accompanied by slightly heavy guitars to produce highly energetic and sufficient instrumental pieces with doses of complexity, passionate rhythmic tunes and symphonic interludes.Actually the few organ-based parts recall the music of LE ORME and E.L.P., while another pair of tracks contain mellow acoustic lines along the principles of GENESIS and YES.Other bands that come to mind are IQ or PALLAS in the more synth-drenched offerings, while the album has often a strong spacey/Electronic feeling due to the heavy use of loops and cosmic preludes.More appropriate comparisons would be similar-sounding projects such as NETHERLAND DWARF or BACKYARDS, strongly keyboard-led Progressive Rock, obviously stepping on the traces of old Prog groups but played in a very refreshing way.Most of the compositions are quite great with good guitar riffs, well-played solos and endless, fiery keyboards, split between technique and melody.

Vitaly Kiselev can surely produce some great music, based on his own talent.Although some of the programmed sounds in ''Childhood's end?'' are noone's cup of tea, the overall final feeling is that this is a well-executed and very energetic debut with potential for some better offerings in the near future.Recommended.