LOST SYMPHONY

OK, I have to admit that because Anthony Kalugin is the bandleader here, I expected Lost Symphony to sound like Sunchild. And to some degree, some phases of this album certainly could have fit on Messages from Afar: The Division and Illusion of Time, the Sunchild album which was a followup to a Karfagen album titled Messages From Afar: First Contact. (I'm a little confused!)

But Lost Symphony doesn't really sound like Sunchild, and whereas Sunchild is categorized here as "crossover prog," Karfagen is (undoubtedly correctly) considered "symphonic prog." However, just as Sunchild is really AOR with some progressive elements, on Lost Symphony, Karfagen sounds like 2 Cellos or Trans-Siberian Orchestra: they rock hard at times, but there's a commercial sheen throughout. There are also sections of which sound more like world-music-influenced new age, and others which wouldn't sound out of place on smooth-jazz radio.

All of this is done very well, by the way. The longer songs shift seamlessly among these different styles, and the shorter songs segue from one to the other nicely - - kudos to Kalugin's arranging skills.

The performances are superb. My son just observed that Kalugin solos like Jordan Rudess. I thought maybe Rick Wakeman, but I hear Wakeman everywhere. Anyway, Kalugin is obviously a keyboard virtuoso, and he's also an accomplished composer and arranger (he wrote 55 of the 64 minutes here). He and William Mackie produced Lost Symphony, whose sound is excellent.

In addition to Kalugin, the stars here are guitarist Alexandr Pavlov and flautist Vasya Ivanov, who plays on the Canterbury-tinged section of "Journey Through The Looking Glass" (which sounds like Snow Goose-era Camel to me).

So Lost Symphony is played well, and from a technical standpoint, produced and arranged well. From an artistic point of view, though, I don't have the taste for what I perceive as the commercial aspects of the album.