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A review from Ron Fuchs ProgNaut.com. A review from Hans at Progwereld. Karfagen - The Key To Perception (2009) Bird one is the fact that you purchase with this double album the complete Karfagen works including 2009 in one time. Bird two are the numbers of previously unreleased tracks and demo tracks you got and finally bird three is that the complete double album (totally clocking 160 minutes) is remastered and comes with a beautiful and synoptic booklet containing some liner notes from Antony with each track.
With "The Key To Perception" Antony Kalugin closed chapter 1 of the Karfagen book and also the period in which he composed and released "Continium" and "The Space Between Us". Because Antony was not fully satisfied with the sound quality of both the albums he decided to remaster them and release them as a double album. As a matter of fact you can read this in my interview with Antony in 2009.
Camel, Focus, Pat Metheny and UK are the main influences you can hear in the music of Karfagen. The almost complete instrumental music has many influences of jazz and fusion music, while also classical influences can be heard. Especially jazz is a very popular genre in the Ukraine. So it was not hard for Antony to find some good skilled musicians for the Karfagen albums.
Both "Continium" and "The Space Between Us" are reviewed earlier. So it is more interesting to shine a light upon the bonus tracks and tracks that were previously unreleased. It is prominent that A Winter Tale is cut into three pieces, whilest the original track is labelled as one track. On disc 1 you can find three unreleased tracks, like the very short and Focus influenced E2 - E4. This track is more like a short organ tune and sounds like an intro. For The Friend is a smooth and cheerful sounding piece of music. This track has a catchy melody with some dominating keys and guitar. The Key To Perception sounds very classical and consists of nice piano playing by Antony. He composed this track in 1998 when he was 15 years old.
The other disc displays besides the demo-version of Labyrinth two previously unreleased tracks. Night Flight Jam dates from 1997 and is a smooth track mainly consisting of nice organ playing and striking drums. Some nice violin and guitar solo's gives this track the necessary interruptions. You can hear obviously that Antony was still a beginning guitar player. It was one of the first tracks he composed by the way. Sun Valleys continues in the same atmosphere as his predecessor but has some nice folky sounding pieces.
This album is mainly interesting for the ones
who lack Karfagen music until date. If you got both ones "The Key To
Perception" is a very welcome supplement due to the improved sound
quality, demo tracks and previously unreleased tracks.
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