MINIMANTRA

And from the very depths of Italian prog rock comes the peculiar and slightly unnerving musical project named Baba Yoga, a project masterminded by someone called Gianfranco Salvatore, with a little help from Danilo Cherni, another musician responsible for the wacky sounds that this Eclectic Prog collective is producing. It is indeed hard to call Baba Yoga a studio project, or to imagine that this would be the main musical outlet of these people; This is more of a soundtrack/soundscape project, focusing on exploring ethnically-inspired, almost worldbeat musical passages, meandering through fields of Eastern music and a Gong-ish leaning.

The very debut album of Baba Yoga is 'Minimantra', a 40-minute musical journey, released in 2006 - now, this record, as I said, is more like a soundtrack to a videogame, rather than an actual album that is supposed to be hears as such. Strongly resembling another musical project that draws upon Eastern influences, the so-called Buddha Bar, the music on 'Minimantra' is essentially beat-driven, with layers of synth sounds, ranging from wacky to obnoxious. Occasional guitars, acoustic or electric, as well as bass guitars are also present. It is a quirky mixture of influences and exploration of various sounds and loops, that unfortunately makes up a confusing bigger picture, leaving the supposed listener simultaneously confused and intrigued. This is not standard prog by any stretch of the imagination; In fact, this hardly classifies as prog, as I think a more suitable tag would be worldbeat or something like that... This is to satisfy the classifiers.

Overall, 'Minimantra' is weird. It is by a band that is virtually unknown, and I would not dare to call this a mandatory listen - some interesting influences and unfamiliar sounds, but it leaves an impression of incoherence, making me think that it could have been compiled of some leftovers of a very unsuccessful Gong session.