'Karfagen - Solitary Sandpiper Journey' Reviews 


A review by Hans Ravensbergen, Progwereld (English Translation)

I ended my review of The Key To Perception with the words ‘further more you have to wait for Karfagen chapter 2’. With the musical fairytale Solitary Sandpiper Journey hardly a year later, Antony Kalugin let us not wait too long. For this reason I invite you to browse with me through part two of the Karfagen fairytale.

Besides Sunchild and Hoggwash (the latter together with Welshman Will Mackie) Karfagen is the flagship of the flotilla of this young musician from Ukraine. Do present Sunchild and Hoggwash the neo-progressive sides, with Karfagen captain Kalugin and his crew are sailing the more jazzy and classical oceans. It is not longer a secret that Kalugin, besides using the conventional instruments like keyboards, guitar, bass guitar and drums, is using many young and talented musicians from his own country to let them play many different kinds of classical instruments. He obvious is able to fish in inexhaustible pools, because at this album there are contributing sixteen musicians of whom only two appeared on The Space Between Us.

Can we hear progressive rock with influences of jazz and classical music on Continium and The Space Between Us, on this album the music is headed a bit in the direction of the progressive rock we know from Hoggwash and Sunchild. In the opening track Spirit Of Revelation there is not much to be heard of this slight change of course. We hear a lot of keys under with the sound of I guess sampled Mellotron. There also is a lot of room for nice guitar playing. Especially the acoustic and electric playing of Alexandr Pavlov is striking.

The first Karfagen albums were mainly fully instrumental. On this album Antony introduces vocals on three tracks. Searching for a good singer he came across with Marina Zacharova. This young lady has a nice powerful, somehow celtic and semi classical voice, which you can hear on Magic Moment.

On Solitary Sandpiper King the sound of the guitar is moving into the direction of the playing on Sunchild albums. In the first half of this track we hear a sound which is saturated with keyboards including lots of Hammond sound. In the second part an Alquin-like saxsolo brings in the contrast. More vintage is the approach on Searching For Love starting with nice singing of Kalugin himself. We could hear the use of bayan, an old Ukrane instrument. Besides that, there is a lot of room for wind instruments like oboe, bassoon, flute and saxophone which is varied with solos on keyboards.

On Carpathians the playing of synths and piano is varied with guitar playing and we hear the bayan again. To me the music sounds a bit melancholic and sometimes it reminds me of the music of Hoggwash.

The prove that a simple melody could be very functional is to be heard on the perky and the easy to listen Ode To A New Life. With the poppy sound the track definitely could get airplay on the radio. The varied use of keyboards and guitar reminds me of the Dutch band Life Line Project. The track ends with a soaring Flower Kings-like guitar solo, which might last a bit longer in my opinion.

The last quarter part of the album is reserved for the epic track Mystery, which exists of five parts. Solid Ground starts with a duet of Antony and Marina and has a kind of musical feel. Both the vocals and symbioses of modern and classical instruments do think me again of Life Line Project. Rising Sun has an awesome guitar solo played by Pavlov, after which a funky bass guitar is the go-ahead to raise the tempo a lot. Swirling keyboard solo’s are following after each other and are responsible for a whipping piece of music. Effortless the music cumulates into a piece of real jazz rock with lots of guitar. This piece reminds me of the jazzy music on the former Karfagen albums. Sensitive playing on bayan and oboe embarks a piece with classical and celtic-like music in which both magnificent synth and guitar solos are following each other in this breathtaking last part of the track. This is the best music I heard from Karfagen ever until date.

With the album Solitary Sandpiper Journey Karfagen delivers its third quality product. It is up to Antony to monitor the special character of Karfagen to prevent that the music of his different projects sounds too much like each other. It is also plausible that he must play his music to a rather small group of fans. This is due to the limited resources and budget he still has.

On this album Antony Kalugin not only confirms his incredible composing talents, because he is responsible for the entire productions of the album also. Now it is waiting for many more people who discover this great kind of progressive rock music. It is this that I adjudge Antony the most.

Hans Ravensbergen Progwereld

A review by Ron Fuchs ProgNaut.com.

Karfagen returns with a new release in 2010 called Solitary Sandpiper Journey. Joining Antony Kalugin this time are Alexander Pavlov (guitars) and Marina Zacharova (vocals). Together they create the next chapter of Karfagen‘s musical legacy. The music is familiar to the first two releases but with a slightly more driving presence.

Some highlights are “Magic Moment” which has a Celtic feel to it. It also contains beautiful vocals by Marina. "Searching for Love", is another vocal based song, this time with Antony on lead vocals with Marina on backing vocals. Nothing against Antony but I think future Karfagen would be better with more vocals by Marina.

Next highlight is the almost 14 minute instrumental track “Carpathians”. There’s an ethnic sound throughout the song. It also has a heavier guitar presence from around the 10 minute mark, which brings even more character to the music of Karfagen.

Ending off the album is the epic 22 plus minute “Mystery” which alone is worth the price of admission. It features both Marina and Antony on vocals, in some places they duet. “Mystery” is also another song that features a heavier guitar presence yet not over powering. At times the song reminds me of Snow Goose which is a good enough reason to put Karfagen in the classic sounding symphonic band camp.

Solitary Sandpiper Journey is a highly recommended release and has effortlessly become a part of my top favorites of 2010.

Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on July 23rd, 2010



A review by P R O G M E I S T E R.

First of all i have to thank Alf who regularly supplies me with introductions to new artists. Not least Karfagan. Karfagan is to all intents and purposes Antony Karlugin who also goes under the guises of Sunchild and Hoggwash.


On this latest Karfagan album Antony has brought together many fabulous musicians from The Ukraine. I was first smitten by Karfagan after listening to the album Continium which i would whole heartedly recommend.


The first thing that i noticed about this album when i recieved it through the post is the wonderful presentation. Like all Karfagan albums the artwork is fabulous. When you handle an album like this you can understand why fans of the humble LP prefer them. To imagine the Karfagan albums on a 12"X12" LP cover would be a site to behold. Musically the album has all the complexity of Gentle Giant through the wonderful guitar of Camel to the Elizabethan pomposity of Focus. Indeed on track 3 Silent Anger part 2 i had the overwhelming want to shout a hay nolly nolly and find a Maypole to dance around.


I am surprised at just how English the album sounds considering that the personnel are mostly if not all from Ukraine. It is only when the gorgeous Marina Zakharova begins to sing that the game is up. I didn't find the tracks on which Antony sung quite as appealing. Although the final track Mystery on which he is supported by Marina was a little better. The final track in true prog tradition is a little over 22 minutes long and split into 5 parts. I hear a lot of Snowgoose in this track. All in all the album is 75 minutes long so yo get a lot for your 9 quid. On first listening i didn't think that the recording qualitly was as good as Continium which i still prefer. That's not to say that this album isn't as good. It's all down to personal preference.  I fully intend to obtain all of Antony's albums as i think they have a lot of bang for the buck.


There are so many brilliant elements to this album, not only some great keyboard sounds but guitar, drums ,bass as well as the myriad of other musicians playing flute,bassoon,cello,viola and accordian,oboe,sax, the list goes on. If you like constant musical reprisals and continuing themes Karfagan might not appeal. If you enjoy a more freeform feel about your music you will simply adore this album.


Background music this aint. It demands to be listened to. It may not smack you in the face on first listening but i think it's a cracking piece of work. Buy with confidence.

**** P R O G M E I S T E R !





A review by BRIAN WATSON at DPRP.


Hailing from Ukraine, Antony Kalugin formed Karfagen in 1997 whilst still at school and a year later, whilst at Uni, he began to write the band’s debut album but it wasn’t until 2005, after he had composed and performed on more than 40 albums, that he had sufficient funds to record it. That year saw the band signing to Unicorn Digital.

Continium saw the light of day in 2006 and was reviewed by DPRP here. A year later we reviewed The Space Between Us. Both received praise, deservedly so, and respectable ratings, earning 7/10 and 6/10 respectively.

This latest effort sees Karfagen on the Caerllysi Music label, and both these previous albums have been repackaged by them and a ton of demos and unreleased material have been added. The double CD offering The Key To Perception offers over 150 minutes of music for a bargain price and comes highly recommended in terms of value for money if nothing else. Full Track MP3 Downloads of two tracks can be found here from Caerllysi Music.

Kalugin wrote all the tracks here, as well as playing keyboards, percussion and sharing vocal duties with seventeen supporting musicians, who variously help out on guitars, drums, sax, bass, cello, flute, oboe, bassoon, viola and violin.

Oh, and he co-produced the record, mixed and mastered it and designed the booklet. The overall package is highly professional.

I’m put very much in mind of the solo output of Roine Stolt and Tomas Bodin, both musically and in terms of the singular creative vision at its heart.

The lyrics, which are all in English, tend to take a back seat to the music - symphonic prog with folky, jazzy and improv tinges very much in the mould of the Flower Kings. Check out Ode To A New Life – a marvellous little instrumental straight out of the Stolt songbook. When he does clear his pipes, so to speak, Kalugin’s vocals are in places eerily reminiscent of said Mr Stolt (check out Searching For Love) but Marina Zakharova lends her vocal skills to three tracks.

Opener Spirit Of Revelation sees guitarist Alexandr Pavlov matching Roine Stolt lick for lick, sparring nicely with Kalugin’s keys. Magic Moment showcases Zaskharova’s vocals – she has a fantastic range, from the bombastic to the hauntingly fragile, which complements the music perfectly. She is for my money simply one of the best female singers working in prog today.

Silent Anger [Part 2] is another instrumental, a slightly more subdued affair with some wonderfully fluid soloing from Pavlov. Swirling organ heralds the start of the title track, before a bluesy guitar break gives way to Crimson-esque sax.

Searching For Love would fit in on any Roine Stolt solo or early Flower Kings album with its jazzy mid-section and segue into the first of the album’s ‘epics’ – the nigh on 14 minute long keyboard-driven instrumental Carpathians.

Ode To A New Life is another instrumental piece, this time more upbeat with guitar and keyboard duelling and a massively catchy riff – great stuff.

The 2 minute–ish Kingfisher & Dragonflies [Part 2] is a meandering, acoustic piece that serves as an entrée to the album’s true ‘epic’, the 22 minute five piece suite that is Mystery.

Zakharova makes a welcome return, over plaintive violin, before the song begins to flex its symphonic muscles across twenty jaw-droppingly good minutes. Kalugin takes on vocal duties again before letting loose with the synths. There are improvisational guitar bits, accordion bits, orchestral bits, Celtic bits, Hammond bits, twiddly bits, hard bits, soft bits. A veritable smorgasbord of prog in fact.

This is a fantastic album, by a supremely talented musician who has crafted a sublime piece of symphonic prog inspired particularly by Camel and referencing the Scandinavian school but which puts its own cultural and spatial stamp on the genre.

Conclusion: 8 out of 10

BRIAN WATSON




A review by progpositivity at Progarchives.


Karfagen - Solitary Sandpiper Journey (2010)

Prog fans may certainly be forgiven if they feel like they need a scorecard to keep up with the various projects of ANTONY KALUGIN. Sunchild is the 2008 double CD project in which he recruited various Ukrainian musicians. And Kalugin is an intregal contributor to Will Mackie's band Hoggwash. Despite how important those ongoing projects are to him, KARFAGEN is Kalugin's "flagship" Progressive Rock Band, the one he instituted and has been working with ever since deciding to pursue a music career back in 1994.

For 2010's " SOLITARY SANDPIPER JOURNEY", Kalugin recruited tasteful guitarist ALEXANDR PAVLOV and ethereal vocalist MARINA ZACHAROVA.

This music includes various textures ranging from cello, oboe, bassoon, flute, violin, viola and even accordion. Throughout the project, the aesthetic is smooth and beautiful. Think Pink Floyd's "Division Bell" and Camel's "Snow Goose".

The album begins with "Spirit of Revelation", a very tastefully and tunefully performed guitar oriented catchy, even downright hum-able tune. Musicianship is flawlessly executed. One curiosity, however, is the subtle integration of a certain hand-clap sound that I'm most familiar hearing only within the context of disco songs. Of course, this music has nothing to do with disco - except those oddball little handclaps. At first I was a bit "put off" by them, but now I'm warming up to them if for no other reason than their oddball quirky appearance out of nowhere. Right when I was beginning to think I had "heard it all"?;-)

Magic Moment begins with acoustic piano. We hear our first leave vocal from Marina. Her voice is sweet, strong and Celtic. Silent Anger (part two) is our next extended instrumental piece followed by "Searching for Love", another vocal tune this time with Antony on lead vocals. Marina is an excellent choice for vocalist. Her voice blends and fills the spectrum very well on the passages in which both of them sing in harmony. The addition of accordion is very nice on this song. The saxophone and free dancing bass lines have a very smooth texture. Nothing is rough around the edges on this music. Envelope filters abound! This song ends with a pensive and moody (yet ever so smooth!) solo saxophone.

Carpathians is a keyboard led song that sound like it would be right at home on a Hoggwash album.

Ode to a New Life begins with a very bouncy intro and clean guitar. We are provided a strong melodic statement from electric guitar, reminiscent of the albums opening track. Synthesizer takes the melody for the next round. Bass guitar gets a moment in the spotlight before handing off for the synthesizer to break free from the melody with a bit of improvisation, (yet always remaining very close to the stated melody). Synthesizer and guitar play a harmony lead section together before breaking down in the middle for an excellent acoustic guitar solo section in the middle. Wow - I wish he did more acoustic sections like this on the album. Perhaps on the next KARFAGEN album? Keys take over followed by electric guitar. A symphonic string section enters for the fade out of electric guitar at the end.

Kingfisher and Dragonflies flows into Mysteries to create a 24 minute extended duet. Instrumental passages dominate. During the brief passages in which they sing together, Marina's vocals blend with Antony's very nicely again.

A very solid 3 stars for this high quality album. There are more than enough magic moments to go around indeed!