Verdict: folk tinged melodic progressive rock
More Info: www.unicorndigital.com
This could be a first for Mood Swings - a review of a Ukrainian band! The band emerged in 1998 when Antony Kalugin formed the band whilst he was still at school. Work on a first album was started in 1998, but the band wasn't really a viable proposition until 2005 when Antony had the money from working on a number of other projects to fund the recording of the first album.
The music on this album mainly keyboard based and the music is of the melodic progressive nature as played by for example Camel and Eloy. The distinguishing feature of Karfagen's music is the blending in of elements of folk which might sound a bit horrendous, but which works quite well. There are few vocal parts, but the music is mainly instrumental. I hesitate to use the work relaxing as this can have negative connotations, but the sweeping keyboards and folk tinged melodies evoke visions of vast peaceful landscapes. I enjoyed the Eloy style opening numbers A Winter's Tale (Pt 1 & 2) and the 8 min Amused Fair which has some good jazz fusion elements and see the band stretch themselves.
Some of Unicorn's instrumental releases can a bit of challenge to really get into, but with Karfagen I had a positive reaction right from the first listen.
