http://inrock.ru/reviews/eternal_wanderers_2020
Московские прог-рокеры Eternal Wanderers записали свой лучший альбом. На данный момент – точно лучший. Яркие мелодии. Многочисленные аранжировочные изыски. Прекрасная работа ритм-секции. Лёгкость восприятия и двойное дно в каждой композиции. В «Homeless Soul» вошли песни, написанные в разное время. Например, прекрасная прог-баллада «Eternal Wanderer» – одна из старейших песен сестер Каневских. Фактически именно с нее началась история группы. И вот, наконец, композиция обрела свое студийное воплощение. Обратите внимание, как изящно и уверенно Лена Каневская демонстрирует свой вокальный диапазон в две с половиной октавы. Браво!
Часть вещей объединяет сюжет о гибели далекой планеты. «Homeless Soul» – это монолог одной из душ, мечущейся среди астероидов без надежды обрести убежище после того как родную планету разорвало на части. «I Wanna Give My Life for You» повествует о нескольких секундах, предшествующих гибели планеты. Героиня песни пребывает в смятении и депрессии, но за секунды до гибели вдруг ощущает неодолимую тягу к жизни. А уже в процессе создания альбома выяснилось, что и остальные композиции вполне дополняют историю гибели далекого мира. Например, «Transformations» повествует о непрекращающихся процессах рождения и гибели миров и галактик, а «The Cradle of a Hurricane» – о всеразрушающей стихии океана. Несколько особняком с точки зрения концепции стоит песня «Chaos of Reason», навеянная жизнью в большом городе. Чтобы передать ощущение цикличности ритма мегаполиса, музыканты отправились на железную дорогу и записали звуки проходящих мимо поездов.
Интересных музыкальных решений хватает и в других песнях. Знатоки отметят характерное звучание бас-гитары Rickenbacker и интересный эффект реверберации в «Transformations». Песню «Meteor» украсила партия скрипки, а в середине композиции ритм-секция (Дмитрий Штатнов и Сергей Рогуля) неожиданно, но очень уместно пускается в «джазовый пляс». Здесь же можно услышать электросмычок (e-bow), с которым умело обращается Татьяна Каневская. «Invested With Mystery» – песня о вечности, красоте и любви – поражает неожиданным звучанием электроситара. А с «In Search of the Antiworld» музыканты сделали «финт ушами» — записали ударные в ускоренном темпе, а потом их замедлили, так что они звучат словно из-под воды, и кажется, будто время вот-вот остановится.
В общем, нюансов на «Homeless Soul» огромное количество. Слушать – не переслушать. А вот ощущения загромождённости, «перепродюсированности» не возникает. Песни остаются песнями: напевными, с ясными мелодическими линиями, с зачином, развитием и кульминацией. Ясность и стройность материала вкупе с прекрасной исполнительской и продюсерской работой не даёт иного выбора, кроме как поставить альбому высший балл.
Владимир Михайлов
‘Eternal Wanderers’ est une formation Russe formée par deux sœurs, Elena et Tatyana Kanevskaya et qui a déjà plus de 20 ans de carrière avec plusieurs albums à son actif et une première période avec un style électro-acoustique et des influences ‘Floydienne’ période ‘Ummaguma’, et une deuxième période en évoluant vers du rock progressif avec 3 enregistrements studio, ‘The Door To A Parallel World’ en 2008, ’SoFar and So Near’ en 2011 et ’The Mystery Of The Cosmic Sorrow’ en 2016. ‘Homeless Soul’ (voir leur page sur ce nouvel opus ici) est donc leur 4ème album de rock progressif et après une première écoute, le premier sentiment qui en ressort est qu’ils mélangent deux types de progressif : tout d’abord, un rock progressif assez classique hérité des années 70 avec la chanteuse ‘Elena Kanevskaya’ qui livre de remarquable prestations vocales et dans ces parties, le style me fait penser aux Britanniques de ‘Renaissance’ (voir leur dernier album ici); ensuite, ils nous offrent également des sections (voir même des titres entiers) uniquement instrumentales qui sont dans un style progressif moderne et recherché qui ramène à certains moments aux Anglais de ‘ELP’.
C’est avec une magnifique prestation vocale à capella d‘Elena Kanevskaya’ qu‘Eternal Wanderers’ nous convie pour débuter l’opus, puis ‘Eternal Wanderer’ déroule une très belle mélodie et c’est dans ce genre de titre que le parallèle avec ‘Renaissance’ est assez flagrant. Dans le même registre on peut citer le psychédélique ‘Meteor’ avec de belles sections instrumentales ou la belle ballade ‘I Wanna Give My Life for You’. En parallèle de ces titres, les Russes proposent des compositions qui alternent des parties chantées et d’autres instrumentales plus élaborées qui nécessitent plusieurs écoutes pour en intégrer tous les coins et recoins : ‘Transformations’ est le premier exemple avec une première partie instrumentale assez longue, puis une courte partie chantée et enfin, un final reprenant le thème de départ, puis, ‘The Cradle of a Hurricane’ est entièrement instrumental en 6 parties, tantôt sereines, tantôt intenses, décrivant les phénomènes naturels que sont les ouragans qui je cite « sont l’un de ces phénomènes qui ont le mysticisme et le pouvoir, un cycle de vie, né dans les eaux calmes illusoires de l’océan ». La suite de l’album fait défiler la ballade ‘Chaos of Reason’ qui intègre de très beaux passages contemporains dans une ambiance psychédélique et de belles vocalises d’Elena dans la deuxième partie (encore ce parallèle avec ‘Renaissance’), le deuxième instrumental ‘In Search Of The Antiworld’, alternant des lignes mélodiques mélancoliques avec des ambiances inquiétantes, puis le titre éponyme de l’album avec des bruitages sonores et une narration tourmentée entrecoupées par des sections chantées, l’opus se terminant de manière originale dans une atmosphère orientale avec ‘Invested with Mystery’, titre assez décalé du reste et avec une dernière belle prestation vocale d’Elena Kanevskaya’ accompagnée par la sitar de ‘Dmitry Shtatnov’.
En résumé, les Russes d‘Eternal Wanderers’ sortent un album d’une remarquable originalité qui mélange différents styles, s’apprivoisant, petit à petit, au fil des écoutes et, pour cette raison, ‘Homeless Soul’ sera certainement limité à un public averti qui aime mélanger un progressif inventif et recherché avec des ambiances symphoniques et mélodiques agrémentées d’une très belle voix…
https://theprogressiveaspect.net/blog/2020/05/31/eternal-wanderers-homeless-soul/
Eternal Wanderers – Homeless Soul
Samsara. A word in Sanskrit that means ‘wandering’. The aimless wandering through successive states of mundane existence. The endless cycle of birth, growth, decay and death. Eternal wandering of a homeless soul. It seems obvious, but I have to admit it didn’t occur to me at all before listening to the music. I made no connection from the band name to the album title, or from either to the idea of Samsara. The album artwork appeared to imply a more science fiction inspired tale – and, indeed that tale is told – but the opening track of this fourth album from Russian band Eternal Wanderers almost immediately opened my mind. A quick look through the lyrics (something I almost never do, and even less often before having listened to the music), and although the cosmic story was there, it seemed to me to be an allegorical tale. Samsara.
Homeless Soul is bookended by Invested With Mystery, the abbreviated version of which opens the album, suffixed as a prologue. It sounded reminiscent of Indian music, even though there was no noticeable Indian instrumentation. Even that alone would likely not have made me make the mental leaps required to join the dots, had I not listened to several albums already this year that play upon the theme of Samsara. Kala by Mobius, Metempsychosis by hubris. and The Return by Deep Energy Orchestra all recreate the idea of Samsara musically. Golden Caves use Samsara as a reverse allegory in their song of the same name, further describing the theme of their album, Dysergy – addressing the idea of dysergy in oneself, of not feeling complete, of being disconnected or in discord with oneself or the world. Eternal wandering of a homeless soul.
If it were not clear to begin with, when the album ends with the full version of Invested With Mystery, all that seemed missing from the prologue is included, in all its glory. Although the theme is instantly recognisable from the prologue, it is completed by the inclusion of the sitar. It’s fuller and brighter, and the additional verses provide final recognition that this may be an end, but it’s not the end, and the cycle continues. But I’m getting ahead of myself, as an awful lot goes on in between these two parts of Invested With Mystery – and what a trip it is!
I’ll admit that the track Eternal Wanderer doesn’t do a lot for me, and I find it the least interesting, musically. I won’t go so far as to say I find it boring, but it does come close, and if I weren’t reviewing the album, I might not have ventured past it. For that reason alone, I’m glad that reviewing made me persist, as the album becomes very good very quickly from this point on. Transformations is an amazing piece, largely instrumental, and some very classy symphonic space prog, showing the prowess of all four members of the band. The second instrumental part, after the brief vocals, is easily one of my favourite passages on the album.
Meteor, which follows, is beautiful. After the intensity of Transformations, it provides a change of pace, while maintaining the spacey feel. The bridge after three minutes is simply gorgeous, and guest musician Andy Didorenko’s violin is sublime. But all that has come before is pretty much now blown away by album centrepiece, and longest track, The Cradle of a Hurricane, an instrumental suite comprising six parts. It’s marvellous. It reminds me a little of Progenie Terrestre Pura – though without the blast beats and black metal.
And as Meteor provided the comedown after Transformations, so does I Wanna Give My Life For You – at least, to begin with. It’s a twisted mix of Abba balladry and psychedelic spaciness that really ought not to work as well as it does. It builds and builds, and has some wonderful almost ambient soundscapes breaking the intensity briefly, before a triumphant return. This track really does allow the Kanevskaya sisters, who write the music and lyrics for Eternal Wanderers, to truly shine – with both their vocals and their playing. I Wanna Give My Life For You surprised me by quickly becoming one of my favourites on the album, as it’s definitely not in my normal comfort zone. There was so much potential for this song to be cringeworthy, but it’s simply brilliant.
Chaos of Reason is a little anti-climactic afterwards, but, as with the preceding song, this is deceiving. It’s length proves to be its advantage, as although it may not feel so exciting to begin with, it’s hard not to be swept away, especially when the song kicks up a gear after around two and a half minutes. At this point, the song becomes almost entirely instrumental, including a very nifty jazzy passage, before some quite beautiful wordless vocalisations, which I find more enjoyable than Pink Floyd’s similarly spacey Great Gig in the Sky. One final verse, and then it’s back to another enjoyable instrumental – In Search of the Antiworld. Again, the band excel.
And it’s back to the beginning. The album began with Invested With Mystery and Eternal Wanderer, and ends with Homeless Soul and Invested With Mystery. Two title tracks of a sort, bookended by a track which is the end of the beginning of the end… Homeless Soul is infinitely more interesting for me than Eternal Wanderer, though. I absolutely love the twisted and distorted spoken word. I wouldn’t want to hear a whole album of this style, but it sure provides an impact after the beautiful vocals of the Elena and Tatyana Kanevskaya. The music, too, is twisted and tortured. Until finally, Invested With Mystery provides, if not resolution, resignation. The cycle of life and death is eternal. Samsara. Eternal wandering of a homeless soul.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulplm7f0CBI
https://progcritique.com/eternal-wanderers-homeless-soul/
Homeless Soul » est mon premier contact avec la musique d’Eternal Wanderers, le groupe russe dirigé par les sœurs Elena (chant, claviers) et Tatyana Kanevskaya (guitares, chœurs). C’est d’ailleurs aussi ma première expérience de prog russe. La Russie ayant de tous temps enfanté des compositeurs géniaux – mes favoris étant Scriabine, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev et Stravinsky -, ainsi que des instrumentistes hors pair (dont une flopée de pianistes hors normes), je ne suis pas particulièrement inquiet quant à la capacité des Russes de briller dans d’autres styles, comme le rock progressif qui nous occupe ici !
D’après le site du groupe, cet album présente le résultat de 3 ans de travail, pour nous offrir un rock progressif tantôt dynamique et puissant, tantôt lyrique et romantique, mélangeant heavy prog et new age, musique électro et psychédélique, entre autres. Bref, de quoi satisfaire les oreilles les plus exigeantes !
On démarre par une courte intro quasi a capella qui permet de faire connaissance avec la superbe voix d’Elena, sorte de prélude au titre final et son style franchement ethnique comme on dit. Nous y reviendrons. « Eternal Wanderer », « Meteor » et « I Wanna Give My Soul For You » sont de petits bijoux de romantisme : il suffit de se laisser porter par la voix et la musique ! « Transformations » et « The Cradle Of A Huricane », respectivement quasi et totalement instrumental, déroulent leurs sonorités plus incisives, et franchement new age pour le deuxième. « Chaos of Reason » est une très belle ballade psychédélique qui se prolonge sur le deuxième instrumental de l’album, le sombre « In Search Of The Anti-world ».
Vient l’étonnant titre éponyme, « Homeless Soul », qui raconte en musique un cataclysme qui a conduit à la destruction de la planète, avec des milliers d’âmes sans abri jetées dans un espace froid et silencieux sans espoir de trouver un abri et la paix (sic). Musique sombre et assez déstructurée avec beaucoup de voix parlée, entrecoupée de quelques passages chantés qui éclaircissent un peu l’atmosphère.
« Invested with Mystery » aborde un style totalement différent et égrène une étonnante et magnifique mélopée vocale (que je qualifierais d’orientale, aussi imprécis que ce terme puisse être, un rien celtique ?) sur accompagnement de sitar. Morceau conçu en 1997, illustrant une montagne restée silencieuse pendant des millions d’années, plongée dans ses propres pensées et contemplant une vie humaine éphémère. La voix d’Elena porte avec talent cet hymne à la nature, à la beauté et à l’éternité.
Voilà ce que je peux dire sur le 4eme album de cet excellent groupe, et je retrouve bien chez eux ce qui me plait dans la musique russe que je citais en intro : puissance des rythmes et lyrisme musical, mélange symphonique / contemplatif du plus bel effet. Bref, je ne sais pas encore si je suis devenu fan de la musique progressive russe en général, mais de ces très talentueux Vagabonds Eternels je le suis à coup sûr !
Album “The Mystery Of The Cosmic Sorrow” (2016)
http://www.dprp.net/reviews/2017-018#eternalwanderers
Eternal Wanderers were formed in Moscow in 1997 by the Kanevskaya sisters, Elena (lead vocals, keyboards) and Tatyana Kanevskaya (guitars, backing vocals), along with Dmitry Shtatnov (bass, backing vocals, analog synths and effects) and Sergey Rogulya (drums, percussion). The Mystery of the Cosmic Sorrow is their third album, following up on 2008’s The Door to a Parallel World and 2011’s So Far and So Near.
This new album is a double CD release and is full of progressive goodness. It mixes IQ-like neo-prog with space rock, electronics and psychedelic touches. The album opens slowly with an ambient, atmospheric overture before starting properly with the title track. Commencing with its feet firmly in the neo-prog camp, it then develops a Kraftwerk-like groove of synth bleeps and swooshes. It’s the soundtrack to a race through the cityscape of Blade Runner. This had me sitting up and paying attention.
The songs that follow, feature Elena’s strong, lightly-accented vocals. Methane Rain pits menacing organ and wah-wah guitar, against the pulsing synths and driving rhythm section, and it is not afraid of adding heaviness in the central section. On the instrumental Gamma Waves there is a bass-driven section that channels Lemmy from his Hawkwind days, but Eternal Wanderers are not averse to mixing this up with psychedelic jazz runs.
The first disc ploughs a rewarding furrow. Building layers of keyboards interlaced with fine guitar, whilst being more than willing to go exploring in the instrumental sections of these ambitious songs. A case in point is the first disc’s closing song Valley of Oblivion. This is what you would imagine Tangerine Dream might sound like, doing a power ballad. Here, Elena’s voice finds a deeper, honeyed register, and there is an elegant dual between guitar and synth. It is a good way to finish the first disc and it points the way to the extraordinary second disc.
Disc two has just three tracks on it, and it could almost be by a different band, if Eternal Wanderers hadn’t sown clues to its sound-world throughout the first disc. Opening with Following a Neutrino’s Flight, you are thrown straight into a melange of sequenced synths and floating guitar, which mid-way turns into a short song, before returning to the electronics. For me this echoes Tangerine Dream around the time of Force Majeure (just to be clear: that’s a good thing).
Eternal Wanderers then produce The End of the Satellite Age, an outstanding blend of symphonic prog and electronics, wrapped-up in a five-part instrumental. This track has such an orchestral density to it that I ended up scouring the liner notes to see who the orchestra were. But it appears it is done by keyboards and samplers. Amongst the pulsing keys and bass there are hints of Phillip Glass in the harmonies. It moves from electronics and sound washes, through full-on orchestral sections and back to synths and a wonderful guitar, that is a feature on the cracking concluding section. Its 23 minutes fly by, and this could well turn out to be my track of the year.
After this epic (and it truly deserves that epithet) the closing track Space seems a little out of place, although Alisher Zvid’s excellent saxophone does a good job at saving it. This might have been better if placed on the first disc and replaced by one of the instrumentals. But this is a small negative point.
Overall then, The Mystery of the Cosmic Sorrow by Eternal Wanderers is a double album that is devoid of tedious passages, and adventurously pushes the neo-prog envelope way out into the galaxy. So come you adventurously-eared space cadets, jump on board for a great listen.
Conclusions:
Песни сестер Елены и Татьяны Каневских всегда были немного не от мира сего. Хаос душ человеческих и манящие бескрайние просторы космоса как главная тема. Самобытное смешение спэйс-рока, психоделии и гитарно-клавишного прог-рока с налётом симфонизма как её музыкальное оформление. Всё вместе это раз от разу давало интересный результат. Третий альбом Eternal Wanderers – несомненная творческая удача и впечатляющее артистическое заявление. На «The Mystery Of The Cosmic Sorrow» романтика и тайна микро- и макрокосмоса, который так притягивает и одновременно страшит человека, выражена столь ярко и образно, что не просто взывает симпатию и интерес, но заставляет сопереживать.
Eternal Wanderers – это не только Елена Каневская (вокал, клавишные) и Татьяна Каневская (гитара, бэк-вокал), но и бас-гитарист и бэк-вокалист Дмитрий Штатнов (группа Quorum), а также ударник Сергей Рогуля. В активе группы – лишённый слащавости и чрезмерного «рокового» напора интеллигентный голос, умение выстраивать завораживающие пейзажи из сочетания интересных синтезаторных звуков, красивых гитарных росчерков и мощных, почти что прог-металических запилов, а также деликатная и точная игра ритм-секции. И при этом ни капли искусственности, ненужного и утомительного гитарно-клавишно-басово-барабанного геройства!
Альбом – двойной CD общей продолжительностью 90 минут – вышел на российском лейбле MALS в начале этого года и демонстрирует крепкую сыгранную группу, которой есть что предложить вдумчивому слушателю. Нашлось место и путешествию на ту сторону бытия, где скрыты тайны космической печали («The Mystery Of The Cosmic Sorrow»), и прогулке в потаенные места обитания высшей расы («Valley Of Oblivion»). Завораживающие картины метановых морей и страшных гроз, что бушуют на спутнике Сатурна Титане («Methane Rain») сменяют не менее красочные картины микрокосма («Following A Neutrino’s Flight»).
Завершают работу 23-минутный эпик с говорящим названием «The End Of The Satellite Age» авторства Дмитрия Штатнова и прекрасная баллада «Space», повествующая о гармонии и покое, что дарит исстрадавшемуся герою бесконечность. «The Mystery Of The Cosmic Sorrow» звучит торжественно, неспешно, немного отстранённо и холодновато, как и подобает настоящей космической музыке. Итак… «Добро пожаловать в мир, где реальность и фантазия сливаются воедино…»
Рейтинг InRock
Общее впечатлениеprogressive 10/10
Here is another excellent find, this time from the Moscow band Eternal Wanderers. Russia has been producing some very good music the last few years and The Mystery Of The Cosmic Sorrow is no exception.
The band formed in 1997 by sisters Elena Kanevskaya (vocals, keyboards, samplers) and Tatyana Kanevskaya (guitars, charango, backing vocals, samplers) and are joined by Dmitry Shtatnov (bass, backing vocals, analog synths and effects) and Sergey Rogulya (drums, percussion). The music mixes heavier prog with symphonic, electronic, psychedelic and space driven themes. The sound can be very intense as in the heavy guitar exploits in “Silent World” or very spacey and pastoral as exhibited by the intriguing “Methane Rain”. The band does a great job blending light and heavy with cool sound effects and keyboards drifting through the soundscape like a spaceship on cruise control. The theme of space and our cosmic origins runs through the set and the music can be both mysterious and moody, at times even a tad melancholic. The many moods and atmospheres keep everything fresh and exciting warranting repeated listens. The soaring vocals and tasty guitar solo on the free flowing “Valley Of Oblivion” is another solid blending of pastoral symph and spacey meanderings. Elena’s voice is excellent throughout so no problems in that department. The second disc begins with the spacey electronic soundscapes of “Following A Neutrino’s Flight” recalling the Floyd classic “On The Run” at times. The obligatory epic track can also be found on the second disc with the twenty-three minute multi-part instrumental “The End Of The Satellite Age”. The slow symphonic build traverses exploratory electronic soundscapes and more spacey constructs. Definitely one for the headphones. Eternal Wanderers has produced a finely crafted album, further proof of the abundance of excellent progressive rock at our fingertips. Highly recommended.
ETERNAL WANDERERS est une formation russe fondée en 1997 par les sœurs KANEVSKAYA. Jusqu’à maintenant le groupe a à son actif trois albums, le dernier datant de 2011. EW fait dans le néo, ses influences sont proches de groupe comme Mostly Autumn, Magenta ou Karnataka, toutefois on peut penser aussi à Pendragon. Le chant est féminin et en anglais et il est assuré par Elena qui a une très belle voix en passant. Dans la grande tradition des projets ambitieux typique des années soixante-dix, il nous propose ici un long voyage de quatre-vingt- dix minutes, avec un sujet quasi idéal pour ce type d’exercice: les sinuosités du cosmos. Vous serez confronté à plusieurs styles qui s’entremêlent pour votre plus grand plaisir auditif.
Un projet de cet envergure demande de grandes qualités artistiques aux protagonistes, ils ont dû faire face à plusieurs défis et les relevés, ce qui a donné une œuvre réussie. Chacune des dix compositions, autant instrumentales que chantées sont riches et solidement interprété. Il faut pourtant avouer que l’ensemble est complexe et qu’il vous faudra peut-être plusieurs écoutes pour apprécier l’intégralité du thème. Les changements de rythmes et de styles sont fréquents, parfois délicats, parfois extrêmes. Les atmosphères suivent les mêmes schémas. Aux claviers, Elena sert de pivot et de chef d’orchestre, pas de longs solos de claviers ou de déchainement. Elle se concentre surtout sur les climats et les textures. Au chant, elle montre dela confiance, un excellent potentiel et de la retenue. Aux guitares, Tatyana est tout le contraire. Elle démontre autant de finesse et de délicatesse que de violence, de langueur que de folles envolées. Il faut aussi ajouter le superbe travail du bassiste et l’efficacité du batteur. Avant de terminer je citerai quelques titres qui m’ont impressionné, tout d’abord « Born to Suffer », un véritable chef-d’œuvre, « Silent World » ou « Gamma Waves » qui sont tout aussi bon. D’ailleurs il est à noter que le premier CD est plus varié tandis que le second est plus space et totalement instrumental.
La création d’une œuvre de ce type demande beaucoup de courage et de confiance, ce qui m’amène à dire que nous avons là un groupe qui a beaucoup muri. ETERNAL WANDERERS est devenu après trois albums une force majeure de la musique progressive. L’amateur aura un certain travail à faire car un album double n’est jamais facile à digérer et la complexité des compositions donnera l’occasion à l’auditeur de se retremper dans la musique d’ETERNAL WANDERERS et d’en apprécier chaque instant.
Richard Hawey
9.0
Groupe russe emmené par les sœurs Elena et Tatyana Kanevskaya, Eternal Wanderers nous avait séduits avec leur précédent album, présentant une variété de styles bluffante pour de si jeunes protagonistes. Le quatuor nous revient en 2016 avec un double album dont le propos est clairement porté vers les étoiles.
Après une entame de sons cosmiques divers et variés judicieusement intitulée ‘Message from Space’, la plage-titre va dérouler tous les atours du groupe. Un chorus symphonique pour commencer, suivi d’une superbe mélodie à la guitare sobrement soutenue par des synthés répétitifs tendance Berlin School, avant que tout cela ne s’emballe progressivement vers un space-prog du meilleur effet, pour finir ensuite par une quasi guitare classique. ‘Methane Rain’ va quant à lui présenter un aspect clairement néo-progressif, la voix enchanteresse d’Elena Kanevskaya portée par ses claviers proposant une mélodie superbe, traversée par les saillies de guitare de sa sœur, avec un break instrumental central où la section rythmique va montrer l’étendue de ses capacités, ce que l’instrumental débridé ‘Gamma Waves’ viendra confirmer juste après.
Mais c’est clairement sur les deux plages suivantes que le groupe va le plus varier son propos, passant de parties intimistes à des passages typés metal, superposant également les couches sonores de manière dissonante, ajoutant un peu de guitare classique ou faisant en passant un gros clin d’œil aux guitares de Steve Rothery (‘Silent World’). La conclusion de ce premier CD, tout comme le deuxième d’ailleurs, se fait avec une ballade néo-progressive sympathique, idéale pour se remettre des émotions qui ont précédé.
Le deuxième CD va quant à lui résolument orienter la musique du groupe vers du space prog symphonique, de celui où les claviers se taillent la part du lion. ‘Following a Neutrino’s Flight’ rappellera ‘On the Run’ des Pink Floyd (sur l’album “Dark Side of the Moon”), tandis que les 23 minutes de ‘The End of the Satellite Age’ seront quasiment exclusivement dédiées aux claviers, passant du prog symphonique imitation orchestre aux échos répétitifs façon Tangerine Dream, sublimés par moments de guitare oldfieldienne, le tout rappelant le magnum opus de Light (‘Dreams’). Seule entorse au programme, une petite incursion plus expérimentale à la mode King Crimson, insérée aux alentours de la 12ème minute, histoire de rappeler qu’Eternal Wanderers reste un groupe surprenant à bien des égards, y compris dans l’utilisation parfois déplacée de sonorités de claviers kitsch un peu trop typées 80’s pour ne pas paraître en décalage avec la musique du groupe.
Cela n’empêchera toutefois pas cette double galette de solliciter la touche replay des différents lecteurs, tant le propos délivré tout du long de ces 90 minutes s’avère varié, étonnant, empli de trouvailles et délivré par des musiciens à la technique éprouvée. A découvrir d’urgence.
4/5
28.04.2016
http://www.musicinbelgium.net/pl/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=7866
Entre 1997 et 2006, les sœurs Kanevskaya travaillaient surtout en duo. Ensuite, la volonté de donner plus de consistance à leur musique les poussa à monter un groupe. Ce fut Eternal Wanderers.
Après dix années d’existence, l’entreprise s’est révélée plus productive en qualité qu’en quantité. Avant ce nouvel opus, seuls deux albums avaient vu le jour : « The Door To A Parallel World » (2008), qui impressionna votre serviteur, et « So Far and So Near » (2011), qui lui échappa mais fut aussi bien coté. Après cinq années d’attente, le groupe Moscovite nous rappelle à son bon souvenir avec un copieux double CD, « The Mystery of the Cosmic Sorrow ».
Dans la grande tradition d’un Progressif ambitieux, typique des années septante, il nous propose ici un long voyage de nonante minutes, avec un sujet idéal : les méandres du cosmos. Profitant des cinquante ans du genre, il se permet adroitement d’en mêler différents courants, du Space Rock au Prog-Metal, du Krautrock au Rock Symphonique, … C’est ainsi que dans ce fantastique melting pot, les différentes parentés se croisent avec art : Tangerine Dream, Mike Oldfield,Porcupine Tree, Camel, Mostly Autumn, Dream Theater, Asia, Yes, …
Pour défendre tout cela, il fallait des artistes de gabarit, capables de relever les nombreux défis liés aux ambitions affirmées. Globalement, c’est réussi. Les compositions sont de qualité, solides, riches, superbement interprétées. Il faut pourtant avouer que leur complexité impose parfois plusieurs écoutes pour bien en apprécier toute la substance. Les changements de rythmes et de styles sont fréquents, parfois délicats, parfois extrêmes. Les atmosphères suivent les mêmes schémas. Aux claviers, Elena sert de pivot, d’organisatrice et de chef d’orchestre. Elle s’emballe peu, se concentre sur les atmosphères, les couleurs, les émotions, les thèmes. Au chant, elle montre de l’assurance, du potentiel, beaucoup de justesse et … évite d’en faire trop. Aux guitares, Tatyana n’a pas cette retenue. Elle se révèle autant adepte de finesse et de délicatesse que de violence extrême, de langueur que de folles cavalcades pyromanes. En cela, elle se trouve fantastiquement appuyée par un bassiste exceptionnel, à la technique et aux accents volontiers Fusion Jazz-Rock. Quant au batteur, il tient son rang avec efficacité, mais sans extravagance particulière.
Il faut aussi préciser que le premier CD est plus varié et plus nerveux que le second, plus spatial et instrumental. Il faut aussi noter que parmi tous ses titres haut de gamme, « Born to Suffer » est un réel petit chef-d’œuvre. « Gamma Waves », « Silent World » et « Valley of Oblivion » ne sont pas loin de l’égaler.
Au final, un grand groupe présente une œuvre majeure pour un public d’amateurs avertis de Rock Progressif.
This Russia band founded by two sisters (Kaneveskaya) is back with an ambitious 2 CD album on the story of the universe. This album begins with some space effect before going in the symphonic mode with some delicate guitars and a radical techno break that will become a trademark throughout this 90 minutes journey. The female of Elena Kaneyveskaya made their first appearance on “Methane Rain”. We are treated with a big bass sound and a couple of guitar solos. “Gamma Waves has an addictive techno intro before going in many styles of music from the symphonic of Steve Hackett to the Jazz. “Silent World” has an impressive resurgence of the guitars in the middle after some quiet moments. “Valley Oblivion” is a more straightforward song in the style of Mostly Autumn. The second CD is more space and atmospheric. “Following a Neutrino’s Flight” is electronic music Tangerine Dream style. As for the epic of 23 minutes “The End of the Satellite Age”, it starts with some samples of classic music before getting back to some space and electronic music. There’s a clear influence of Mick Oldfield guitar sound on this song. The first CD is more satisfying for me because it covers more ground in music styles, and there is enough good music to give to this more spins. 3.7 stars A journey through space, neo, and even electronica telling the history of the universe, the new Eternal Wanderers record aims high, and ends up a cut above so many other spacey Bandcamp artists. Track after track showcases their stylistic mix that soothes and pushes onward, with beautiful vocals and strong bass. Electronics stick out brilliantly on the title track and “Gamma Waves”, before forming the centre of the dizzying mash-up of rock, electronica, and orchestral that is “The End of The Satellite Age”, this long album’s defining epic. Using simple, oft tried ingredients to form something special, “The Mystery of The Cosmic Sorrow” is a calming and enjoyable piece of beauty. This is the third album from this Russian group. Led by the sisters Elena and Tatyana Kanevskaya, the former doing lead vocals and keyboards and the latter guitars and backing vocals. The vocals are in English but this is a mostly instrumental album. Basically you could describe the music as being ‘Neo-Prog’ but there is so much more going on, specifically the large amount of electronica. This is a double album and is jam packed with diverse music. Disc One opens with “Message From Space” which is a spacey, electronic piece with some spoken word. The title track starts out more typical Neo with the soaring guitar and orchestral drumming. Settles into an easy going midpaced tempo with guitar and keyboards complimenting each other. Then it goes into an electronic beat with some nice guitar that goes well with it. In the middle is lots of traffic sounds as the music builds in intensity. Goes back to the beginning parts again.”Methane Rain” has another spacey opening. This is the third track but is the first with actual singing. A midpaced symph rocker with some shred-like guitar soloing at one point. After a spacey/electronic interlude goes into faster paced symph rock territory. More soaring guitar and symphonic keys brings us back to the vocal section. Some saxophone soloing by a guest at the end. “Gamma Waves” features some aggressive sounding bass work which is in contrast to the lovely part that follows it. Really nice jazz guitar at one point. An almost Chinese sounding melody briefly. One of the more diverse and interesting tracks on the album. “Born To Suffer” is another vocal track. Almost noisy and avant-garde beginning. Then a more modern sounding Neo style. The longest track on Disc One. Over halfway gets jazzy with a funky synth solo, followed by a soaring symph rock style guitar solo.
Some news reports (in English) play as the guitar does some more shred-like soloing. Very prog metal ending. “Silent World” is a Neo/Symph track for the most part. I really like the instrumental section in the middle. Lots going on there. Now we move on to Disc Two, which features just three tracks but one of them is an epic over 23 minutes long. “Following A Neutrino’s Flight” opens Disc Two with some moody and suspenseful electronica. Later a kind of slow paced groove with some spacey synth soloing. In the middle it switches to sequencers and vocals with a reverb/echo type of effect. “The End Of The Satellite Age” is the epic of the album, divided into five parts. Everything starts off very electronic with sequencers and string-synth. Gets very orchestral and symphonic but without an orchestra; all keyboards and guitars.
Stays symphonic but gets more electronic sounding. Later gets more traditionally orchestral sounding with some military style snare drum rolls. Halfway gets electronic with a funky yet menacing atmosphere. Continues in a orchestra-meets-techno kind of way with the music getting more uplifting and melodic. Lots to absorb on this album and it deserves repeated listens. The sound and production is superb. The only real complaint I would have is that the last track on both discs are also the two weakest tracks overall. Great prog for 2016 and this comes highly recommended to those who enjoy the more melodic side of modern prog, or Neo and Prog Metal fans who are not against electronica. I will give this 4 stars.
This album leaves me bewildered and baffled. That may com off as negative but it is, actually, meant in the most positive way. Rarely have I listened to an album with such width and content and found myself in awe afterwards. This is true, I should point out, in regards to the music they are playing. Now, there are quite a few genres here, ranging from metal and psychedelica to electronica and artistic soundscapes which leaves me sitting there, watching a sci-fi movie being played in my head. That, my fellow proggers, is amazing.For the most part I can find myself a bit intimidated by the prospect of listening through double albums, such as this one. Will I actually be intrigued or will there be a lot of fillers in there? It would not be surprising if an album spanning two discs was filled with both brilliance and fillers. In this case it is not so. The double-disc whammy delivers in spades.
I started out listening to disc 2 and fell in love with “Following a neutrino’s flight” right away. Spacey, elegant, foreboding and simply beutiful. The second track, “The end of the satellite age”, is also the longest and filled with Amazing melodies on a computer game like keyboard, which is brilliant. It’s like revisiting the golden age of computer games, circa 1985. This is the track that portrays images which are then transferred straight into my brain, allowing me to watch a sci-fi movie. This track never looses it’s grip on me. It keeps on fascinating. “Space” concludes the album and couldn’t have done so in any other fashion more apt.
Disc 1 holds seven tracks and they are great. Especially beautiful is “Valley of oblivion”, which really has become somewhat of my favorite track. “Silent World” holds a great metal section with a blistering guitar solo and “Born to suffer” is somewhat Stone The Crows meets Hawkwind.
I feel that Eternal Wanderers have taken the best from Hawkwind and Tangerine Dream, transformed it and put forth a musical delight that is both Contemporary and timeless. I am in awe. I tell you. This is a slice of brilliance and I think that a lot of people really would enjoy this. Top notch stuff and I am eager to listen to their other albums after this one. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to hear this amazing album and now I’m out of super lative words.
“The Mystery Of The Cosmic Sorrow”, the third album from Russian crossover prog band Eternal Wanderers in a few minutes returned me back to the time when I was much younger (and yes – the grass was greener). Bombastic tuneful songs with female vocals full of analog synths, long compositions combined of some very contrast parts without even try to connect them properly, ambitious double-CD format (for studio album)… It smells like eighties (not seventies though – lot of new age like arrangements and more-modern heavy guitars sound transfer the listener back to the time of later Camel and Caravan recordings).It is not really easy to pin a genre tag to “The Mystery’s…” music – eclectic mix of psychedelic rock, symphonic prog, electro-pop ( sometimes with note-by-note citation from extremely popular in 80s Latvian pop-electronics band Zodiaks), spacey new age effects, Pink Floydish guitar hordes, analog electronic effects (kind of popular on early stage of electronic music oscillators and generators) all in one used not at once, but in a form of sound miniatures,changing each other every few minutes.
On paper it probably looks like dangerous mix, but there are no even traces of chaos in band’s music – somehow all this collection of (sometimes contrast) components are placed in order and sometimes balancing on the edge still sounds attractive.
That’s true, no-one these days can be wondered by nice but obviously over-exploited tricks borrowed from rock golden funds but Eternal Wanderers doesn’t sound as a cliche. Probably kind of aliens on modern days scene, they radiate idealistic positive optimism, they don’t copy or pretend of “being prog-rockers”. It looks they believe in what they are doing, and – what important as well – it looks they really enjoy playing their music.
Not the music for prog purists or those interested in innovations, this album is really enjoying listening for believers that time machine exists and bands like Caravan can make their grass look greener transferred right to nowadays.
Nikols, the enfant terrible of the russian prog scene, asked me to write a review about this very interesting band from Moscow, led by sisters Elena (keyboards, vocals) and Tatyana (guitars) Kanevskaya. Lately I was a bit too busy in my office to write often, but I decided to give it a shot since all the acts Nikols asked me to review were very good ones. And Eternal Wanderers is no exception. This ambition concept double album about the story of the universe is indeed a tripping album. Why this is labeled as “neo prog” here on PA, however, is beyond my comprehension: at least on this CD there´s absolutely nothing even close to what is commonly called neo prog as far as I am concerned. Eclectic prog or crossover prog would be a much more fitting category and would not mislead some people to what should be expected of their music.For eclectic they are! The sound this band produces here is mostly is space rock/electronic/psychedelic prog with just about everything else thrown in: jazz, classical music, avant guard, movie soundtracks. krautrock, pop melodies, concrete music, sound effects, symphonic rock, blues, acoustic/heavy guitars, you name it! The ending results are really good, individually excellent, although this band does not seem to gel all the elements into building a unique and cohesive product overall. They come quite close, though. One thing that they do have to unite some of the tracks are Elena´s vocals: although this is mostly an instrumental album, she proves to have a strong, bluesy voice that is quite original and powerful, capable of holding any style and doing that quite well. On the other hand the band is absolutely great instrumentally: the group members handle all the swirling cornucopia of styles with apparent ease and the album never gets too chaotic or pointless like so many experimental bands do. Even at their most bold (like the 23 plus instrumental epic The End of The Satellite Age is a good example) Eternal Wonderers´s music has a discernible structure and never gets too far out, which is really good. And they know how to write great tunes.
Every time I head this CD I found some new textures and subtleties I had missed before: definitely this is a grower. The production is excellent. Vocals are in english. Tatyana´s guitar playing is a highlight, very tasteful. Do not get down by the long (3:50ms) boring intro Message From Space. The rest is pure gold.
In the end I must say I was mesmerized by The Mystery OI The Cosmic Sorrow: every track is a quite good on itself and although this album is not a very unified piece of work I cannot close my eyes (and ears) to their strong songwriting, the powerful performances and the sheer energy of Elena´s voice. If you want something refreshing and varied, this is for you!
Rating: 4 strong stars. A band to watch for!
Pleasant synth-founded prog with a spacey sci-fi kind of feel and message to it. I find myself reminded of PINK FLOYD and TANGERINE DREAM at it’s spaciest as well as ALAN PARSONS PROJECT and LISA GERRARD and MARTHA AND THE MUFFINS/M + M (because of the similarities of voice of Elena Kanevskaya to M + M singer Martha JOHNSON and Ms. GERRARD [though not quite as strong]). But, then, I also hear 80s techno pop/disco (e.g., the “Funky Town” themes in 2. the title song) and too many Neo Prog cliches in many of the sounds and riffs used.The music is competently crafted and performed yet something is seriously lacking in the sound engineering department as mixes, levels, effects, and the blending of the instruments and voices are very inconsistent and variable–even within individual songs. Plus, this being a concept album, the musical styles and instrumental sounds should, I think, have more continuity from song to song. The drums are very, very well performed and recorded, whereas some of the computer keyboards and synths feel outdated or not of top quality (or not filtered/treated adequately in the engineering department). At the same time I love the ambition, dreams and drive these musicians have and only look forward to the growth and improvements that they will doubtlessly show in the future. I do believe that the band’s affinity for leading edge science and science fiction is serving them well and that deriving their inspiration from such should be continued. At 90 minutes in length, this is an amazingly ambitious project (which is one of the reasons it has taken me so long to review despite my having the music in my possession for over four months now.) With no offense directed at any single member of the band, I have to admit that I find that Disc 2 presents quite an improved and more seemlessly engineered set of songs/music.
CD1
1. “Message From Space” (3:50) opens the album with a lot of promise. (8.5/10)
2. “The Mystery Of The Cosmic Sorrow” (8:30) (7.5/10)
3. “Methane Rain” (8:18) (8.5/10)
4. “Gamma Waves” (5:30) (8.5/10)
5. “Born To Suffer” (10:09) full of cliches and poor sound choices. (7/10)
6. “Silent World” (8:50) (8/10)
7. “Valley Of Oblivion” (6:03) (8.5/10)
CD2
1. “Following A Neutrino’s Flight” (9:29) a modern classic of Berlin School electronica. (10/10)
2. “The End Of The Satellite Age” (23:26) a masterfully conceived and rendered soundtrack score! The computer- produced ‘orchestration’ is realized to perfection! Amazing! Kudos, Dmitry! (and Tatyana). Even the wild and quirky middle section is fitting and interesting. I am glad, however, for the return to more of a MIKE OLDFIELD territory for the final five minutes. Brilliant song! (10/10) I. “Hard Times II. “The Great Dance III. “It Went The Wrong Way IV. “Brand New Program V. “Falling Down
3. “Space” (6:02) a fairly nice bluesy, Kate Bush-like tune with some great melodies, bass and sax play. (9/10)
An excellent addition to any prog lover’s music collection–especially the second disc.
Album”So Far And So Near” (2011)
http://www.angelfire.com/ma/strutteraor/HOTNEWREVIEWS177.htm
The Russian band ETERNAL WANDERERS is very interesting as they are a Symphonic Progressive Rockband formed by the Kanevsky sisters (Elena Kanevskaya – vocals, keyboards and Tatyana Kanevskaya – guitar, back vocals) way back in 1997. It took them almost 10 years, but in 2006 they released as a band, together with a male bassist and a male drummer, their first full-length album titled ‘The Door To A Parallel World’. Now 5 years later a new CD has been released and without a doubt, we have something special here. Instrumental this band is of an exceptionally high level and also vocally, the two sisters are making this a very enjoyable album. It is clear that they are influenced by the big progbands of all times, such as YES, PINK FLOYD, ELP, etc. etc. but the female vocals gave it a slightly different approach, making it sound a bit like RENAISSANCE, MOSTLY AUTUMN, KARNATAKA, yet leaving a lot of room open for instrumental complexity by the two girls. 8 tracks are included and from the very first few seconds of opener “And the world will be” until the very end with “And I will follow”, this is a sensational and quite unique Progressive Rockalbum that needs to be in the collection of every progfan all over the world. The Russians have a winner here and they are called ETERNAL WANDERERS, more info at: http://www.facebook.com/eternalwanderers
(Points: 8.7 out of 10)
http://www.progressive-area.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2166&Itemid=2
| Ecrit par CHFAB | |
| 21-11-2011 |
« Les Ames-S?ur »
Tout d’abord happe par le visuel splendide de la pochette (me rappelant deux albums d’ANEKDOTEN), fantomatique et sombre, je n’eus de cesse de jeter une oreille sur ce disque. Et je dois dire que, bien qu’on soit a des annees lumieres de ce a quoi je m’attendais, j’ai ete diablement seduit des le premier morceau… ! J’ai voulu en savoir plus et me susi precipite sur le net, ou je decouvris bien vite une flopee de videos live. Et la, que vois-je ? Qui fait montre de tant de creativite symphonique aux claviers ? Qui joue si diablement bien ces plans techniques, ces litanies au son si hackettien (bon, par contre, cote jeu de scene, c’est euh…comment dire…un peu naze, gageons que ces prises soient anciennes) ? Une fille ? Et une autre fille ? Et elles sont s?urs !?!?…
Ben merde alors ! Non que je me penche sur leur aspect physique, sur CD on s’en fout pas mal de la plastique de la meuf (en tout as moi), mais l’idee qu’un groupe de prog soit initie et tenu aux leads par deux filles m’est apparu comme une super chouette nouvelle ! D’autant que leur musique est diablement inspiree, riche, et formidablement arrangee ! Vous aimez THE ENID, VANGELIS, Steve HACKETT, MINIMUM VITAL, ELP, les sons vintage hyper psyche et planant ? “So Far And So Near” est pour vous !
ETERNAL WANDERERS c’est donc un quintette russe emmene depuis 1997 par les s?urs KANEVSKAYA, claviers-voix et guitare, donc, puis une solide paire basse (excellente) et batterie, enfin une flute classique, epaules cette fois-ci (c’est leur deuxieme album) par un violoniste, et une section de cuivres (a moins qu’il ne s’agisse de samples !).
Ce disque est tout bonnement superbe ; il nous convie a un veritable festival, un feu d’artifice de mille couleurs chatoyantes, souvent lumineuses (a l’oppose finalement de la pochette), aux arrangements extremement soignes, a l’inspiration eminemment symphonique et classique (les sons utilises sont incroyablement realistes, les nappes sont splendides, en plus des fabuleux plans vintage), donc tres melodieuse, harmonieuse au possible, aux compositions tres bien construites, menees par la voix solennelle et sonante d’Elena (egalement aux claviers), et la guitare incroyablement volubile (quelle aisance, quelle technique !) de Tatyana, on jurerait (je l’ai dit plus haut) du Steve HACKETT (plans, sons, compos, jeu a l’electrique ou la classique) couple aux prouesses d’un john PETRUCCI pour les acrobaties (vous verrez !)… Messieurs, prenez-en de la graine ! Ces filles-la n’en finissent pas de me couper le sifflet. A n’en pas douter, elles ont etudie la musique avec une exigence digne des grands conservatoires, et leur interpretation est de tout premier ordre.
En plus de la richesse etonnante de leur repertoire, varie et contraste, entre classique donc, jazz rock, romantique, experimental et new wave (!!), pourtant finalement assez peu demonstratif (le dernier morceau peut etre), les parties de chant (tres reussies, se bonifiant, parfois accrocheuses) et les ch?urs superbes, la mise en son est tout bonnement extraordinaire. Le mixage a ete effectue a Moscou, le mastering final a New York, c’est dire… Elles ne doivent pas trop avoir de problemes financiers, visiblement (leur materiel semble aussi etre plutot couteux). On ne va pas le leur reprocher, tant leurs deniers ont ete depenses a bon escient.
A part quelques facilites de compo par ci-par la (assez rares au fond), “So Far So Near” est une excellente surprise, en cette fin d’annee 2011. Meme les allergiques au symphonique devraient se pencher sur ce berceau-la, ils vont aimer sans hesiter ! En tout cas moi, si leur premier album est de la meme trempe, j’achete !!!
Excellent !
Par CHFAB
Un petit tour du cote de notre grande et belle Europe pour decouvrir ou redecouvrir pour certains la musique proposee par le quintet moscovite ETERNAL WANDERERS, emmene de main de maitresse par les soeurs KANEVSKAYA. Tatyana a la guitare et aux claviers additionnels et Elena au chant et aux claviers. J’ai dit “redecouvrir” car il s’agit de leur second album apres “The Door To A Parallel World” en 2008 que je n’ai pas eu l’occasion d’ecouter.
Des le titre d’ouverture “And The World Will Be” le ton est donne nous allons voyager a travers une branche du rock progressif symphonique ; les influences sont evidentes THE ENID pour le cote musique classique tres martial & RENAISSANCE pour la voix feminine grave d’Elena KANEVSKAYA, le tout saupoudre d’un passage festif grobschnittien au milieu du morceau, et quelques ambiances floydiennes inevitables (bruits de la nature), un tout superbe.
“So Far And So Near” le titre eponyme est instrumental et ce sera mon prefere sur l’ensemble de l’oeuvre (pur hasard…) encore plus musique classique que le premier titre, mais cette fois-ci avec en plus une guitare incisive tout au long du morceau. Et surtout une intervention lumineuse de flute de Dmitry DROGUNOV et de theremin de Dmitry SHTATNOV sur le final (normal pour un groupe russe, cet instrument ayant ete invente il y a presque un siecle en 1919 par Leon THEREMIN).
Quelques rires accompagnent les claviers imperiaux qui introduisent “Mounds”, par ailleurs le titre que le groupe a choisi pour promouvoir sa musique sur les sites videos mondiaux. Un morceau avec beaucoup de cordes (violon,violoncelle) et un beau passage de flute comme sur le titre precedent, plus scande que chante.
“Energy Of Light” est quant a lui bourre de cuivres (trombone, trompette, clarinette) en introduction et dans le final mais aussi d’une cascade pianistique du meilleur effet qui donne tout son charme a ce morceau. Un solide riff de basse dans sa partie centrale permettant aux soeurs KANEVSKAYA de s’amuser avec leurs instruments de predilection. Un morceau un brin bizarre tout de meme qui a tendance a se “barrer” dans tous les sens.
“As You Wish I Care Note” est, selon votre serviteur, l’autre temps fort de l’oeuvre (instrumental encore desole), avec moult cordes en intro. Les divers claviers joues a la maniere de RJ GODFREY (donc avec une ecriture tres classique), une guitare soliste caline qui se balade en toute legerete pendant neuf minutes. Un titre qui rappelle aussi et pour rester en Russie la musique de Modeste MOUSSORGSKY (guitare mise a part bien sur). SUPERBE !!
Le titre suivant est plus conventionnel, plus mainstream, tres RENAISSANCE pour le chant (encore), moins passionnant aussi (enfin c’est mon avis). La rythmique sur ce “A New Day Will Come” me fait penser a Kim WILDE (…). Probablement la faute de gout sur l’ensemble du disque.
“Thread Of Love” a du mal aussi a retrouver la verve de la premiere partie de l’oeuvre meme si les claviers redeviennent les maitres en cette occasion, encore neanmoins un titre tres ecrit, tres musique classique mais plus contemporaine, presque stravinskyienne.
“And I Will Follow” le dernier titre, commence par un solo de flute sur un tapis de synthetiseurs avec la voix on ne peut plus caressante d’Elena KANEVSKAYA (qui a crie MAGENTA dans la salle ?). La guitare acoustique puis electrique ne faisant son apparition qu’apres, tres beau final reposant, ideal comme conclusion.
ETERNAL WANDERERS nous a concocte une oeuvre originale, un peu bancale mais agreable. Je dirais simplement “peut mieux faire”.
Par Mick Rogers
http://www.dprp.net/reviews/201150.php#eternal
Eternal Wanderers is a Russian group who describe themselves an art rock and psychedelic band. Formed in 1997, their founding members are the Kanevskaya sisters, Elena the vocalist and keyboards player and guitarist Tatyana, who have been working over the years to develop the band’ distinctive sound. They performed their first concert in 1998 and soon after that won first prize at the Talent Rocks festival held in a suburb of Moscow. More accolades soon followed while their recording output was confined to compositions for compilation CDs.
It was in 2006 that they added a bass player and drummer, with the end result being their first full length CD, The Door To A Parallel World , which took them over a year to complete. With the departure of original drummer Sergey Alyamkin after its issue, Sergey Rogulya joined them and bass player Dmitry Shtatnov. For this album, they are also joined by flautist Dmitry Drogunov.
The musical style of So Near And So Far is very much electronically centred with a particular dreamy quality but also contains other prog elements such as jazz and metal. In essence makes it sound like an amalgamation of early Pink Floyd and Clannad – no bad thing at all.
The whole philosophy behind it is to create music evoking life in parallel worlds and on different planets and the lyrics sung in English reflect this.
From the shimmery spacey synths which kick off And The World Will Be , there is much to admire in the contents including very strong resurgent medieval musical motifs that conjure images of portcullises and men in suits of armour riding through them. This is very much in context with the other worldiness it evokes and gives it a distinct Celtic edge. There is also no getting away from the fact Elena does sound very much like Maire Brennan . This is a terrific start to the album with a flute in the mix of a song which builds well into a huge climax.
So Far And So Near delivers more of the same in terms of massive swirls of synthesisers this time alongside fuzzy guitars and still with that wonderful medieval motif cropping up from time to time.
The wind, a bell and laughter start off the proceedings on the interestingly named Mounds again full of medieval musicality and Elena’s sweet strong voice breaking in over the lush instrumentation.
Then Energy Of Light heads off in another direction with several instruments, including violin and recorder sounds, coming in over the pacey rhythm which shifts several times as different passages of instrumental play can be heard finishing off with the briefest of vocal performances.
As You Wish, I Care Not is probably the stand-out track as it positivity crackles with keyboard energy, a Moogy passage giving way to a snazzy, jazzy piano piece full of colourful flourishes and vitality, a big bassline packing a punch which almost sounded reminiscent of Chris Squire at one point.
A New Day Will Come returns to the spacey synthesisers and again, this composition grows with grandeur with guitar and violin along with a huge vocal passage. Thread Of Love includes an acoustic guitar and synth sound before it morphs into a chunky, chaotic, avant-garde section.
And I Will Follow brings the album to a gentle, sublime conclusion with Elena’s voice combining elegantly with the flute over a beautiful melody line.
This is another of those albums which really fires the imagination and delivers an awful lot of what it promises. It is also fantastic to see a band led by two sisters who have followed the courage of their convictions in creating an original brand of music – and from a land not usually associated with prog.
Conclusion: 8 out of 10
http://www.inrock.ru/reviews/eternal_wanderers2011
Группа Eternal Wanderers началась как дуэт сестер Елены и Татьяны Каневских (клавишные/вокал и гитара соответственно) еще в 1997 году. В 2006-м они нашли ритм-секцию, и годом спустя свет увидел первый (не считая записанных дуэтом еще в конце 90-х электронно-инструментальных работ) альбом группы “The Door To A Parallel World”. Прошло целых четыре года перед тем, как вышло его продолжение, и можно быть уверенным – время это музыканты не потратили даром. Стабилизировался состав, был получен столь нужный концертный опыт, наконец, барышни обзавелись дружескими контактами среди московских прог-музыкантов. И кропотливо готовили к выходу новый диск, тщательно продумывая аранжировки, записывая и перезаписывая (чуть ли не до сдачи диска в печать!) свои партии. Результат – огромный шаг вперед, или даже прыжок выше головы. И хотя часть вещей с альбома уже звучала на концертах, только в студийных версиях они раскрылись по-настоящему. Одна из причин тому – кропотливая работа со звуком. Создание масштабных, глубоко проработанных клавишных “звуковых пейзажей” – одна из отличительных черт Eternal Wanderers. Кроме того, в записи участвовала целая ватага “гостей” – духовиков, струнников (включая скрипача Дмитрия Шишкина из Ascorbic Acid); отлично себя проявил и штатный флейтист команды Дмитрий Дрогунов. Словом, там, где Wanderers играют симфо-рок, это настоящий, полноценно оркестрованный симфо-рок, без имитаций и компромиссов! И получается у них это превосходно. Послушайте, скажем, “Energy Of Light”: лихо закрученную, с приятными ушам фортепианными диссонансами, пышными распевками и аранжировкой в духе классических Kansas. Другая сторона творчества Wanderers, если так можно выразиться, “космически-менестрельская”. С одной стороны, романтика науки, бесконечный космос; с другой – философская мудрость сочинений Толкиена и очарование волшебной сказки.
Открывает диск эпически-масштабная “And The World Will Be”. Торжественный поступательный ритм, очень уместное использованием духовых, полное отсутствие типичной для современного прог-рока суетливости и стремления создать некий искусственный драйв. Словно картина рождающейся вселенной возникает у вас на глазах. Финал альбома – “And I Will Follow”, спетая неожиданно лирично и нежно, как от лица прекрасной дамы, ожидающей своего рыцаря.
Недостатком группы по-прежнему остается вокал – и хотя голос Елены Каневской изрядно окреп и стал точнее, не хватает четкости в артикуляции на английском языке. Но без ее необычного тембра и несколько “закрытой” манеры пения звучание Eternal Wanderers не было бы таким узнаваемым. И, кстати, на упомянутой “And I Will Follow” Елена поет в несколько иной, богатой оттенками манере, в более высоком и, видимо, более удобном для себя регистре.
Интересно, в каком направлении пойдет группа дальше. Живьем “Вечные странники” звучат гораздо жестче, на грани прог-метала, при этом теряют толику своей индивидуальности. Перещеголять классиков жанра уже вряд ли кому-то удастся, а вот развивать дальше то интересное сочетание “космизма” и “менестрельства”, холода и страсти, электронного и живого звучания – путь, на котором можно сделать немало открытий…
Автор: Владимир Импалер
http://www.progressiverockbr.com/monthoctobereternalwanderers2011.html
THE BAND AND RECORD OF THE MONTH
I consider that, in the last two decades the progressive rock music from Eastern and Central European, including some Baltic countries, is becoming a reality on the progressive rock world scene, while maintaining a freshness and musical vitality that is unmistakable. Of course, among many countries, from these regions, we can mention Estonia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and mainly the Russia. Though the Russian progressive rock scene had existed since the ’70s. But, it was in 2000s when it started to appear to the public from Russian and also to around world rock fans, as a example the band like ” Little Tragedies ” one of its most obvious representatives. In the past, about 40 years ago, the monopoly for the music publishing in the Russia belonged to ” Melodiya “, the only Soviet record label, and Melodiya had a strict policy against publishing “protest rock”, but this fact contributed with a number of small but important releases, highlighting some bands that were only known from the 70/80 years, as an example ” Autograph “, ” Pesnyary ” and ” Dawn Dialogue “. Around these last ten years, especially 2011 is the year of the big surprises that arise those more remote regions of this planet, for a pure delight fans of the progressive rock, I must introduce to everybody, another one amazing Russian band called Eternal Wanderers , formed by young musicians, with an exceptional musical ability, playing an instrumental style with trends from Eastern Europe, with subtle passages in the Classical and Folk music styles, that have always been part of the musical culture of those people. Though, highly influenced by styles such as art-rock, prog-metal, Symphonic Progressive Rock, Hard Rock, Folk, including some psychedelic and electronic overtones. Fronted by two sisters, Elena and Tatyana Kanevskaya, Eternal Wanderers has an unique sound, sometimes melodic, sometimes symphonic, adding epic structure in some parts of the arrangements, the musicians work with complex musical structures, reproducing a wide variety of the wonderful instrumetal compositions, driven by atmospheric keyboards, with spacey ” Floydian ” guitar solos, adorned by amazing female vocals, adding few backing male vocals, the bass has an amazing perform into the arrangements and the drums is always present, some times a soft flute complements the arrangements. All musicians on this incredible band, have an ability to travel through by several musical’s borders, combining atmospheric textures with beautiful symphonic arrangements, hard musical elements and so on, everything well combined, a pleasant and emotionally sonic journey, into a new world of music, that increasingly is attracting all audiences from the progressive rock world scenario. ” So Far And So Near ” features eight tracks that have enough of musical variation, of course this album is totally fantastic, but I recommend some tracks that are a real thinking of the musicians such as ” And The World Will Be ” and ” So Far And So Near ” where this second song is the best on the album, ” Energy Of Light ” another fantastic song, ” As You Wish, I Care Not ” has a little bit of ” King Crimson “, ” Gentle Giant “, ” Jethro Tull “, ” Yes “, ” Camel ” influences. Following with the seventh track ” Thread Of Love “, it’s divided in many different musical parts, composed in many styles, melodic, hard, epic and symphonic, everything like a soundtrack. Closing the album with ” And I Will Follow “, a symphonic masterpiece with a beautiful female vocals. If you like ” Pink Floyd “, ” Yes “, ” Jethro Tull “, ” Camel “, ” Can “, ” King Crinson “, ” Steeleye Span “, ” Gentle Giant “, ” Emerson, Lake & Palmer “, ” Frost* “, ” Steve Morse Band “, ” Roger Waters “, ” Autograph “, ” Quorum “, ” Obiymy Doschu “, ” Solaris “, “ Landberk ”, ” Decadence “, ” Azazello “, ” Adventure “, ” Maze of Time ” you must add Eternal Wanderers to your Prog Rock albums and band collection. Brilliant, fantastic, and an amazing album and band, highly recommendable…
http://www.progressor.net/review/eternal_wanderers_2011.html
Prolusion. The Russian band ETERNAL WANDERERS was formed by Elena and Tatyana Kanevskaya in 1997. The two of them were the only permanent members for many years, but in 2006 the addition of a bassist and a drummer made it a true-bred band. In 2008 they released their debut album “The Door to a Parallel World”, and “So Far and So Near” is their second full-length effort. This latest production was issued by MALS Records in the summer of 2011.
Analysis. One look at the line-up and instrumentation credits for this production should make most people realize that we’re dealing with an album a bit out of the ordinary on this occasion. It’s not unusual to get a token few acoustic instrumentalists to add color to your recordings, especially not in the progressive rock universe, but including what basically appears to be a small-scale symphonic orchestra-worth of guest musicians isn’t something one encounters too often these days. Especially not when the band in question has instrumentalists of their own that could cater for most (if not all) of these aspects themselves. The most surprising part is still that this CD isn’t at all firmly based within the centre of the symphonic parts of the art rock universe. And while diversity is something of a key word for this creation, it’s not of the kind that might be described as challenging either, at least not within the context of being demanding from a listener’s point of view. Personally I’d describe this disc as one with a foundation in some sort of cinematic symphonic art rock. Added to acoustic instrument arrangements aplenty, keyboards and organ are near ever-present elements, be it as subtly refined subservient motifs or majestic, dominant theme providers. Both old-school symphonic progressive rock fans as well as those with a soft spot for more atmospheric neo-progressive rock will find themes and passages to their liking of the darker, mournful-sounding variety as well as the lighter-toned, dream-laden one. The occasional longing guitar solo, evoking Camel’s Andrew Latimer in style, is just as common as massive, majestic guitar riff and orchestration combinations, the latter closing in on progressive metal in the most intense moments. But as intriguing as these dual and contrasting expressions are, there are many additional details to enjoy: traces of free-flowing jazz rock by way of nifty guitar passages for instance, true to life cinematic sequences with sampled sounds and voices taking the lead; joyful, relatively simplistic escapades where the acoustic guitar and flute invite the listener to a joyful folk-inspired flirtation, nicely accompanied by appropriate percussion details. The odd acoustic classical insertion fits in quite nicely too, and it feels both natural and logical when Eternal Wanderers opt to include a few avant-garde moments in these passages. And in the odd-one-out department, there’s A New Day Will Come, which in a natural and logical manner manages to go from swirling, Depeche Mode-style synth pop in the verse parts to joyful art pop at the onset of the chorus, further evolving into a spirited progressive folk-oriented finale that flows gleefully back to repeat the process. Not the best composition at hand, but most certainly amongst the more intriguing. Another strong candidate for the latter is the following Thread of Love, where the use of different arrangements for the main, recurring theme is a joyful trip into an innovative and (dare I say it?) original approach to the art of composing. The instrumentals impress one just as much as the songs featuring lead vocals do, some of them greatly. Not quite an instant classic in my opinion, but a production that has the potential to be regarded as one in hindsight. Time will have to tell how that one turns out.
Conclusion. “So Far and So Near” is an album that comes across as a clear highlight of productions issued in 2011 as far as I’m concerned. The cinematic, symphonic foundation obviously makes the symphonic art rock crowd something of a key audience, but with a width in scope and innovative touch that should intrigue a majority of art rock fans. Not a band that will be to the taste of all and sundry however, at least not initially, but one that merits a check by those who tend to enjoy high-quality music in general. A warm recommendation from me, with hopes of artistic and commercial success to follow for this fine Russian ensemble.
OMB=Olav M Bjornsen: October 4, 2011
http://www.proggnosis.com/PGRelease.asp?RID=34946
Published on: 4 Oct 2011
This is one of those misleading albums when it starts. If the first impression that surfaces when the first track begins is that this sophomore album by Eternal Wanderers is that this band is the Russian response to Polish (early) Quidam or UK’s Magenta , this argument subtly and then obviously starts to be debated as the other tracks keep flowing in the CD tray. And flowing is the correct word to be used here, as the music has that smooth running aspect that, combined with many other characteristics that I will be mentioning in the next lines, make the album a continuous listening experience, perfectly entwining each track in an overall constant vibe and feel.
When compared to their debut, this album does keep some neo-prog generalities and some gothic venues, but it mostly lost its prog-metal touch, substituting it by other tendencies, namely some folk or some court music, or even some marching military anthems. And then there is the huge add of psychedelic elements here and there, that completely turn the music into other paths for some moments.
If, as mentioned, the first track misleads the listener into thinking that this will be a calm and straight-non-inventive release, rest assured that the remaining tracks of the album will take you to many different places, strangely transported within calm but personalized musical tapestries.
Sisters Kanevskaya are really building something cool and different here, as the band naturally matures in its search for a place in the sun of the progressive rock scene. And if Russia has been lately hugely growing as a major prog suplier, with some of the best contemporary bands hailing from that country (Sympho: Little Tragedies , The Gourishankar , Apple Pie ; Fusion/Instrumental: InFront , Agarta ; Prog-Metal: Rakoth , The Butterfly Temple , Mechanical Poet ; Psychedelic: The Sunrise Sunset Project ), the truth is that Eternal Wanderers may well be mentioned along these other names as another fine example that the musical imaginary of progressive rock is not only alive but breathing health in that country.
The band masters the capacity of turning slow-tempo symphonic tapestries into epic anthems at will, shaking the numb listener out of his complacency for some moments until he is hypnotized again back to his comfort shell. This is the great discovery of the album: the listener is kept being confronted with different kinds of bliss moments: either calm symphonic or anthemic. And this ends up being the added value of the album: it’s capacity to surprise and change while keeping things on a very linear path.
I’ve been growingly enjoying this album for what it is: an exercise of musical architecture that is different from that of other symphonic bands. Especially the way Eternal Wanderers introduce psychedelic and well composed Court music into its mix its not only of good taste, but of good result. Some exaggerations are found here and there, but not at all in a way that can hurt the overall quality of the music. A very nice surprise that needs various listens to be well understood, and another Russian band that deserves to be recommended.
http://www.progwereld.org/cms/recensies/album/eternal-wanderers-so-far-and-so-near/
Eternal Wanders is een band uit Rusland, opgebouwd rond de zusjes Kanevskaya. “So Far And So Near” is de tweede langspeler van de band en het is een tamelijk indrukwekkende onderneming.
Wie de lijst met medewerkers ziet, begrijpt dat we op zijn minst te maken hebben met symfonische muziek, maar de Wanderers hebben nog veel meer in hun mars. Bij eerste beluistering was mijn eerste gedachte: ‘dit kan echt alleen maar Russische muziek zijn.’ Groots opgezette, epische composities, in schaal bijna met opera vergelijkbaar, gothic zodra er gezongen wordt maar in de grond toch vooral prog door de tempowisselingen en avontuurlijke uitstapjes. De band koppelt gekkigheid en jazz uit de school van Gentle Giant aan Mostly Autumn -drama en het resultaat is een prachtige, tamelijk unieke stijl.
Er valt heel veel te genieten op deze plaat. Het is een machtig geluid als al die strijkers en toeters op de achtergrond invallen, maar ook als de band alleen speelt is er een hoop aan de hand. Ster is voor mij toetseniste Elena, die met haar moderne instrumenten net de lekkere, ouderwetse riedels weet in te vullen. Ze doen me denken aan hardrockplaten uit de jaren ’70, zoals “Rising” van Rainbow , die altijd zo’n synthesizerintro hadden. Die sfeer, heerlijk. Niet dat de rest van de muziek veel met hardrock te maken heeft hoor, daarvoor is dit veel te slim, chique en volwassen.
De composities zijn heel knap, verraden een conservatoriumachtergrond. Bijna modern-klassieke arrangementen (denk aan Kansas ), folk invloeden en typisch Russische koren versieren de verzorgde psychologische progrock. Daarbij heb ik een lichte voorkeur voor de instrumentale stukken, waarbij het titelstuk er absoluut bovenuit springt. De andere stukken zijn ook niet mis, maar in de zang tonen de eeuwige zwervers zich minder onder controle. Elena Kanevskaya heeft een mooie donkere stem, maar in de hoogte komt ze er niet ver mee. Een toch al wat wonderlijk stuk als Mounds , volgens mij bedoelt als de soundtrack voor een horrorfilm, wordt er beduidend zwakker door.
Nou ja, bij zovele moois moet er iets te wensen over blijven, toch? Veel ruimte voor verbetering is er verder niet, of het moest zijn dat de band met deze 65 minuten muziek wat te veel van het goede biedt. Met twee stukken minder was ik ook al tevreden geweest. Maar voor het overige niets dan lof, de plaat klinkt briljant, vooral in het hoog, de muzikale capaciteiten zijn voorbeeldig, men schuwt het avontuur niet, maar houdt de rode draad in de gaten. En als dikke klodder slagroom op het gebak zijn er die zalige symfonische momenten als het orkest aanzet. Vashe zdorovie!
Erik Groeneweg
http://musicinbelgium.net/pl/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=5149
Jeune groupe russe, Eternal Wanderers nous propose en ce mois de septembre son second album studio. Groupe forme a partir de 1997 par Elena et Tatayana Kanevskaya, celui-ci a evolue vers une formule a cinq musiciens, et ce depuis 2006. Apres une premiere demo en 1998, le groupe participa a plusieurs compilations, puis ce fut la premiere participation a un concert en decembre 2006. Apres la parution d’un premier album en 2008, “So Far And So Near” nous arrive donc avec 8 compositions dont la plupart s’egrenent sur pres de 7 a 8 minutes. Au niveau des musiciens, Elena s’occupe du chant et des claviers, quant a Tatyana, celle-ci prend en charge la guitare et les samplers. Viennent les seconder, Dmitry Shtatnov a la basse, Sergey Rogulya a la batterie et aux percussions, et enfin Dmitry Drogunov a la flute. D’autres nombreux musiciens viendront aussi les epauler pour certaines compositions, ce qui nous permettra d’apprecier le son des violons, du trombone ou de la trompette. Ceci n’etant pas surprenant puisque nos deux demoiselles ont eu une formation classique. On le ressentira d’ailleurs dans les plages de cet album.
Une ambiance envoutante engage un magnifique chant feminin qui nous rappellera la grande epoque de Mike Oldfield. Vient ensuite un theme digne des grandes epopees romaines ?! Voila donc le decor plante pour ce premier titre. “And The World Will Be” nous permettra d’apprecier, au depart, un beau chant pose ainsi qu’une guitare aerienne. Le morceau s’etablira sur une alternance de passages proches d’un folk progressif et des passages plus epiques, qui pourraient facilement s’apparenter a des films de grosses productions Made in Hollywood . On pourra percevoir dans cette premiere composition des rapprochements avec Paatos, Mostly Autumn ou Iona. La plage titulaire debutera aussi a partir de nappes envoutantes. Les synthes et la batterie donneront ensuite du rythme avec une belle guitare en arriere-plan. On lorgnera plutot vers un Spock’s Beard ou un Flower Kings. Mais finalement, ce sera Arena qui servira de fil conducteur avec surtout une guitare proche d’un John Mitchell. Au final, le groupe nous offrira un bel epique instrumental de pres de 10 minutes.
“Mounds” sera lance par de nombreux bruitages sur fond de musique medievale. Le chant s’accompagnera de la flute pour une composition a nouveau proche d’un Mostly Autumn. “Energy Of Light” sera quant a lui plus complexe, plus experimental. Oscillant entre un rock progressif FM et un jazz-rock, le piano sera mis en avant et la guitare se fera a nouveau aerienne. Les claviers nous rappelleront un certain Tomas Bodin au plus fort de son imagination. Je fais en fait reference ici aux albums solos du clavieriste des Flower Kings. “As You Wish, I Care Not” , au depart calme avec un gros travail a la guitare, evoluera vers un morceau patchwork ou s’entremeleront les claviers vintage, les synthes et la flute. “A New Day Will Come” sera pour moi plus commercial, avec un morceau pop-rock lorgnant vers la New Wave des 80’s. Une composition un peu decalee du reste peut-etre ?! “Thread Of Love” nous offrira une belle chanson ou l’on pourra apprecier a la fois le chant, la flute et la guitare. Viendra enfin “And I Will Follow” , magnifique composition au depart acoustique, ou le chant sera d’une grande qualite et d’une grande ampleur. Tout cela prendra par la suite de la hauteur pour arriver a un final flamboyant!
Si certains passages lorgnent vers le commercial, voire meme vers ce qui se fait a l’Eurovision, il n’empeche que l’ensemble de cet opus nous aura presente un contenu attrayant. On peut facilement excuser des petites maladresses a de jeunes musiciens. De plus, il me semble opportun de feliciter l’excellent travail de composition et d’instrumentation de nos deux demoiselles. Pour un debut de carriere, Eternal Wanderers a d’ores et deja parcouru un chemin non negligeable. Souhaitons bonne route a ces jeunes artistes russes. Quel beau chant!
http://www.movimentiprog.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Recensioni&file=view&id=3462
Recensito da Donato Zoppo Secondo lavoro per la band delle sorelle Kanevskaya (Vers. stampabile)
Dopo un disco d’esordio e la partecipazione a numerose compilation tornano gli Eternal Wanderers. La compagine moscovita, attiva dal 1998, e tra le piu apprezzate dell’underground russo: lo hanno dimostrato i concerti ma anche la personalita della band, al crocevia tra diverse influenze, specialmente quella piu marcatamente new progressive.
Fondato nel 1998 dalle sorelle Elena (voce e tastiere) e Tatyana Kanevskaya (chitarre), il quintetto trova nei Pink Floyd della seconda meta degli anni ’70 il punto di riferimento piu magnetico, collegato pero all’arrangiamento sofisticato e aristocratico che il neo-progressive puo offrire. L’opener “And the world will be”, invece di aprire il disco con impeto e solennita, mette subito in mostra un approccio classicheggiante, anche nel canto di Elena e nella presenza del flauto traverso. Nonostante la struttura multipartita dei pezzi, il legame con cellule melodiche che restano ben visibili rende il disco accessibile e memorizzabile.
La presenza femminile potrebbe facilmente far planare il sound verso i vari Mostly Autumn o Nightwish ma il pericolo e scampato (fatta eccezione per alcuni aspetti di “And I will follow”) ma il problema del disco e che la voglia di espandere le idee nella lunga durata e nei numerosi brani crea una prolissita notevole. Tra abbellimenti, arabeschi e la maestosita di un bolero, la title-track si muove con lentezza, a differenza di brani piu brevi e pungenti come “A new day will come” e “Energy of light” (influenzata dagli Yes di “Relayer”), dove la band si esprime al meglio.
Formazione indubbiamente preparata, compatta e ambiziosa, gli Eternal Wanderers hanno bisogno di una messa a fuoco piu severa e meno autoindulgente.
Album “The Door To A Parallel World” (2008)
http://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=6962
I’m in love! Yep, I admit it, I’ve fallen for the gorgeous Elena Kanevskaya (vocal, keyboards, recorder). It’s not just her sultry good looks either, but also her captivating vocal performance on The Door to a Parallel World , Eternal Wanderers’s first album, that has taken me over the edge. I’d better be on the look-out though, because her sister, Tatyana (guitar and bass guitar), may well poke a married man in the eye (or even kick him painfully in a tender place) should he dare to attempt to woo her sibling. Jeez, guess I’d better content myself with their music then….
And content with this music is what I am..Kicking off with the spacey keyboard intro of “how long i’d been facing the dark” you begin to lull yourself into slowish-tempo space-rock mode when, almost immediately, Elena’s vocal brings you back down to earth – literally – the inflection and phrasing of her melodic lines recalling traditional folk songs and dances, and you soon find yourself deeply enmeshed in a musical world that is a fusion of mainly keyboard-driven space rock with light influences that come, I would guess (given the band’s origin), from traditional Russian music. This meshing of folk-rooted music into a rock landscape is nothing new of course but it is the first time that I have heard a fusion with space-rock (the band themselves style it as a blend of psychedelic and art-rock, citing influences from many great 1960/70s progressive bands: Pink Floyd being the greatest to these ears at least). Despite being very different to the most traditional form of folk or celtic-rock, or even the more recent fusions that bands like Nightwish have attempted, Eternal Wanderers’s fusion works extremely well and that’s thanks not only to Elena’s fine mezzo-delivery but also to the band’s musical performance. Not flashy or virtuosic, just perfectly concentrated on the delivery of the musical effect.
Eternal Wanderers started as Elena and Tatyana’s “Keyboard-guitar” project in 1997. They issued two demo-discs (in 2000 and 2001), a single in 2000 and contributed to a number of compilation albums featuring electroacoustic music. It was only in 2006 that the girls were joined by a bassist and a drummer and, in their words, “became at last a true rock band “. The Door to a Parallel World followed, released by Russian label MALS earlier this year. Some of the compositions on the album have their origins back in the girls’ pre-band days, for instance the instrumental “visions of the lost world”, featuring the most overt electronic experimentation, dates back to 2001’s demo-disc. This version is longer though and still manages to weave in some folkish themes during one of its phases, so perhaps the band have tinkered with it during recording.
“visions….” is, for me, the least successful piece within the context of the album, meandering off in directions but failing to carry me along with the music throughout all of its duration. “the door to a parallel world”, the other instrumental, is more successful, the guitar dominating over a synthesizer backdrop, a short folk-jig in its second half, before returning to the main theme. The remainder of the compositions are sung: all are enjoyable but a special mention has to go to “no way back”, which is the most enjoyable take on the perennial “lost in space” theme that I’ve heard for many years (I’ve already previously reviewed two in my short time on this website alone! – Jim Ladd and Jupiter Society). Here, the folk-space rock approach suits the subject extremely well – it’s an excellent song.
Anyway, as the band themselves say on their website: “it is possible to tell much, but it’s better to listen to the music once than to read a hundred reviews”. I’d better shut up then! Just to let you know though, that if you are interested you can follow the band’s advice: click on the band’s website link below, then find and follow the “music” banner – below the discography you will see that you can listen to or download music from the album in a fairly rough 112kbps mp3 format – enough to give you a taster and persuade you to buy the actual CD!
Added: November 5th 2008
Reviewer: Alex Torres
http://www.indoprogsociety.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=153&Itemid=1
Written by Soen S. Mojo
Friday, 19 September 2008
In the effort to observe the development of progressive rock in Russia, the presence of Elena Kanevskaya became highly important. After read some resumes of her career, instantly I liken her to a smart bluestocking. As can be seen in the records, a few her works included in some sci-fi compilations, such as Music For Brain, Electracoustic Music, etc. At that time her so-called keeness on the impact of hectic perestroika, concealing endless psycho-clashes among personal urges, traditional norms and political hypocrisies. The thought of the problems of her music practice and the endless hypo caused she took a long way in searching for utopia. Then, together with her sister Tatyana Kanevskaya as guitarist and accompanied by Sergey Rogulya on drum, Dmitri Shtatnov on bass and Dmitri Drogunov on flute and recorder, in the name of Eternal Wanderers they set out on a journey. In the end, all of these were left untouched and replaced instead by expression in music works.
“How long I’d been facing the dark”, said Elena on (track-1) as is expressed her restless. On hearing the opening bars of this track one immediately thinks of Annie Lenox’s voice that echoes through the outer space. Still and all, Elena was a bold adventurer in improvisation with her cured and fluctuated voices. Intervened by noisy guitar riffs, moody synths solos that recall Manfred Mann, followed by disquieting key’s broken chord and mellotron choir, this opening became a point of voyage to searching enlightenment. The album title “The doors to a parallel world” played as instrumental part on (track-2). Introduced with sound of jingle, music stranded illusion into the space with prominent guitar’s offers mixing influences of 80s Andy Latimer and Steve Hackett. They went to “Ride without end” on (track-3) hopefully. Led by ethereal metal sound Elena belted out a beautiful melisma in her gripping vocal, and as an accomplished keyboardist she bridged each modulation with sprakling Rick Wakeman inspired synths solo that interspersed with Steve Howe-like weeping guitar of Tatyana. “Too close to heaven” is the apogee of Elena’s imagination that is expressed on (track-4). It opened with astral traveling feel and sound of magic recorder, where the both recalled my mind of the soundtrack of TV serial ‘Avatar’. Seemed like in a trance Elena sung freely, in contralto, then spiraled and wailed with fantastic inflection to reached trangulity. The while, the band created an accompaniment like the opening section with metal sound slice. “No way back”. That’s the statement of them that well expressed on (track-5) as they made a progress of music. It’s full of aggressive guitar, piercing recorder, harmonic various keys and in up-tempo the music a bit reminds me of ELP’s Eruption. “Visions of the lost world” is a hallucination that is described musically on (track-6). The sound presented in this work has sobering twists and turns with spacey background and rhythmic textures of mellotron string that evoked memories of Camel in Pressure Point era. At least, they got “Revival” as is structured on (track-7). Therein, they unleashed deepest anxiety and restless, then reconstructed the idealism through invigorating, inspiring and stunning ending. It’s lush with spacey atmosphere, calm, floating and put in the patterned breaks to led plaintive female voice. The music flowed in voyage’s accompaniment and made a tricky interval, then built metronomic keyboard to shifted time and tempo, created assertive and energetic music that will certainly attract plaudits from prog fans. Slowly thence left the atmospheric sounds that is cemented as a memorable thing. All in all here I have to emphasize that all the works of this album are complex, well arranged and well played. Fan of both the space rock and symphonic prog will find much to enjoy here. It’s a superb debut that is highly recommended.
http://www.dprp.net/reviews/200815.php#eternal
There is nothing uncommon about female singers in prog bands these days but what makes Eternal Wanderers quite unique is that the band is fronted by two sisters. Elena and Tatyana Kanevskaya put the band together in Moscow just over ten years ago but have taken until now to release their debut album. Elena supplies the vocals, keyboards and recorder whilst Tatyana takes care of the guitar duties. They are joined by bassist Dmitry Shtatnov and drummer Sergey Rogulya, with Sergey Alyamkin, who has subsequently left the band, providing the drums on one track. Flute and recorder player Dmitry Drogunov has also joined the band since the recording of this album.
Elena sings in English in a distinctive style that would fit comfortably into a traditional folk environment. Her voice did take a while to grow on me I must confess sounding not unlike a cross between Joan Baez (on the mellow songs) and new wave singer/actress Hazel O’Connor (on the strident songs). Her mostly synth keys work is very much in the symphonic neo-prog vein whilst Tatyana’s guitar technique betrays her love of Steve Morse ‘s playing. Their musical style is fairly eclectic injecting songs and instrumentals with elements of prog, folk, psychedelic and electronic. It all fits together in a harmonious fashion and I was especially taken by their flair for strong melodies. This is certainly true of the title track The Door To A Parallel World , a mellow and tuneful instrumental led by spacey Floyd ian guitar. The technique also reminded me of PFM ‘s Franco Mussida , a name that doesn’t come to mind as often as it might when I’m comparing guitarists.
As instrumentals go even better still is the albums longest cut Visions Of The Lost World . An unhurried introduction eventually blossoms into a hauntingly beautiful guitar refrain that Camel and Wishbone Ash would be proud of. It also benefits from some busy and nicely timed drum articulations that are a throwback to Phil Collins ‘ pattern from Band Aid’s Feed The World single. The only weak link is an ambient bridge section compising eerie electronic effects of the type normally found in sci-fi movies. This part’s a tad drawn out in my view but the guitar theme returns once more augmented by symphonic keys and tubular bells to provide a majestic coda.
Of the songs, which range from the Bjorn Lynne flavoured electronic soundscape opening of How Long I’d Been Facing The Dark to the fluid guitar solo that closes Revival , they’re all sufficiently diverse in mood and tempo to hold the listeners attention. The former includes a neat fretless bass solo whilst the latter indulges in forceful organ and synth interplay that brings ELP to mind. Elsewhere the vigorous Ride Without End features a memorable chorus supported by statacco metallic riffs and orchestral keys punctuations. No Way Back has an even greater urgency driven by a gutsy shuffle rhythm that owes a debt to Jethro Tull ‘s Living In The Past . Following a mellow synth break that has Wakeman stamped all over it, the song concludes with animated guitar and synth exchanges that standout as some of the albums best playing.
The albums centrepiece Too Close To Heavens has a folk ballad feel mainly due to the wistful sound of the recorder and the plaintive vocal. An engaging chorus is enriched by lyrical classical guitar picking and a warm bass sound. Elena’s singing is at its best here and I would say that this slower style suits her voice better than the up-tempo songs. During the aforementioned closing track Revival she also adds an ethereal chant that’s very effective especially against the celestial organ backdrop.
With The Door To A Parallel World Eternal Wanderers have produced a very worthy debut. In terms of personnel preferences I have only one minor gripe. To illustrate the albums concept of infinite inner and outer space, ambient electronic effects are liberally used to open and close almost every track to the point of predictable regularity. The end result for me is that each song is around a couple of minutes longer than it needs to be. On the plus side there’s certainly no doubting the care and effort they’ve put into the song writing, arrangements and recording. Elena and Tatyana are also responsible for the robust production which ensures that the music’s weight and subtitles are effectively conveyed. This release would make a fine addition to any neo-prog collection.
Conclusion: 7.5 out of 10
http://www.proggnosis.com/MUSIC_DBCDInfo.asp?txtCDID=25450
Published on: 11 Mar 2008
Fronted by the Kanevskaya sisters, Eternal Wanderers is a powerful progrock/hard prog band hailing from Moscow, Russia. Their sound is reminiscent to some modern currents of neo-prog and melodic prog-metal, with a slight gothic touch many times provided by the strong and unusual female vocals. Yet, the band is also unique in many ways, one of them laying exactly upon the just metioned vocal factor, which is really an interesting add to the overall musicality of the band.
Apart from the vocal department, the band presents a harmonious and melodic music, seemingly steady and secure on the so called Neo-Prog grounds, with Guilmouresque guitar soloing and sometimes harder guitar riffs, while presenting a very strong symphonic notion and a sometimes art-rock attitude. The mix of all these elements, which are very well “glued” together, provides the listener with a true enjoying ride through power/melodic/emotional meadows.
All tracks here are very well constructed, especially in instrumental terms, as the instruments interact in a positive and bright way, especially in the 3 all-instrumental tracks.
This is clearly a band with a well defined goal and a well structured and brighten musicality that will not only surprise the more melodic and contemporary lovers of progressive rock, but will undoubtedly provide them with a great new discovery and a name to keep in mind for future releases. Mals has made an essencial move when betting on this new face in Russian progressive scene, and we just have to thank them (and even more the band) for that.
http://www.progressor.net/review/eternal_wanderers_2008.html
Prolusion. ETERNAL WANDERERS is a progressive rock group from the capital of Russia, Moscow, and was formed by the Kanevsky sisters in 1997. In 1998 the band gave their first concert, after which they became an essential part of Moscow’s underground scene, attracting the people with the uncommonness of their live performances, by using psychedelic slide shows on a big screen behind the stage. In 2001 they for the first time attracted the attention of some recording companies, which resulted in the appearance of their songs in several compilations, namely “Follow the Sun” and “Electroacoustic Music” Vol. VII and IX, presented by Electroshock Records. In 2006 the band’s lineup finally stabilized, so soon after Eternal Wanderers entered the studio to record their first full-length album, “The Door to a Parallel World”, which saw the light of day shortly after the 2008 New Year holiday.
Analysis. This Russian quartet’s debut creation is a challenge to plenty of contemporary bands working within the art-rock and prog-metal idioms. Of the seven tracks here (with an average duration of about eight minutes), five contain vocals, though instrumental parts are usually dynamically evolving regardless of whether there’s concurrent singing, and therefore seem to be prevalent, both in length and influence. Shortly after its atmospheric beginning the opening track, How Long I’d Been Facing the Dark, gets a shape of what in future turns out to be the prevalent style here, startlingly progressive Hard Rock (which is synonymous to Prog-Metal utilizing overdrive units instead of distortion ones) with a perfect balance between symphonic and heavy sounds, developing with a fanfare of chugging guitar, swirling synthesizer and vibrating string ensemble, using multi-layered sonic constructions, complex stop-to-play moves, odd time signatures and so on. Ride Without End and No Way Back both evolve in a similar way: aggressive rhythm guitar and a driving rhythm section serve as a firm bottom end for lead guitar, recorder and various keyboards, though the first of these contains less dramatic transitions, due to its relatively short format, while the latter is progressively most saturated, probably the best track here (despite a couple of moves in the Jethro Tull manner), additionally notable for some East European folk colorations. The instrumental title track is overall much in the same vein as No Way Back, but without any direct influences. Too Close to Heavens starts off and unwinds as a complicated art-rock ballad with plenty of blazing acoustic guitar leads, but later on changes its trajectory twice, passing over some involved constructions within the domain of Doom Metal before transforming into symphonic Art-Rock of the first water in its final movement. Besides the aforesaid No Way Back, some outside factors can only be traced on the disc’s last two tracks, the instrumental Visions of the Lost World and the song Revival (a few Keith Emerson-inspired solos in both cases), but even then only in places, one time when Elena Kanevskaya plays organ, and another time when she turns on a Moog-related register of her synthesizer. Aurally darker than any other compositions, stylistically these two suggest a mixture of Symphonic Progressive, Space Rock and Doom Metal, though on the concluding track the latter component is less distinct. The group effortlessly slips from feverish battles with the use of big guns to calmer symphonic passages to spacey atmospheric landscapes, still retaining a strong sense of melody throughout. The level of musicianship is higher than average, with keyboardist and flutist Elena and her sister guitar player Tatiana standing out. Both have a good command of their respective instruments, deploying a variety of devices and techniques to sound fresh and resourceful. Nevertheless it’s definitely Elena who is the main star of this act, bearing in mind that not only did she write all the music and lyrics, but also handles two different instruments and all vocal duties. Though her English is slightly accented, her (unusual, fairly low) velvety voice is truly captivating, and she puts a lot of passion and inspiration into her singing.
Conclusion. “The Door to a Parallel World” is quite an apt title for this recording, considering the originality of the band’s approach. I’ll clarify what I mean. Although deploying almost exclusively classic, time-honored progressive rock styles in their music, Eternal Wanderers sound really unlike anyone else in most cases. I believe this is the best female-led progressive outfit to appear in the new century, and should receive a lot of well-deserved attention with their varied and innovative debut effort. Highly recommended, perhaps save those exclusively into Jazz or Avant-garde.
VM=Vitaly Menshikov: February 15, 2008
http://www.musicinbelgium.net/pl/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=2578
Actives depuis 1997 sur la scene moscovite, les s?urs Kanevskaya n’ont elargi leur duo familial qu’en 2006. Avec l’adjonction d’un bassiste et d’un batteur, Eternal Wanderers est alors devenu un groupe a part entiere.
« The Door to a Parallel World » peut etre considere comme leur premier album, meme si le duo originel avait deja realise quelques enregistrements d’envergure plus modeste, dont une demo en 2000. Cette longue attente n’aura pas ete veine, car ce disque est une totale reussite, un petit chef-d’?uvre meme, chatoyant, passionnant et sans faiblesse, dans lequel Eternal Wanderers parvient a se mouvoir avec gout dans differents styles de musiques, avec un sens inne de la melodie, du rythme et, ce qui est plus rare, du rebond. Les deux titres uniquement instrumentaux n’ont rien a envier aux cinq autres et permettent d’exprimer la facette la plus Progressive du quatuor.
A l’ecoute, on comprend aisement que les s?urs Kanevskaya aient pu si longtemps se contenter d’une formation en duo. En effet, elles se completent a merveille. Aux claviers, Elena incarne la douceur et la legerete. Elle travaille beaucoup a l’enrobage des morceaux et aux atmospheres qu’elles aiment aussi flottantes. Cela ne l’empeche pas de deployer une virtuosite bien reelle dans certaines parties plus instrumentales. Au chant, elle fait merveille avec une voix qui croise entre Linda de Suza et Linda Rondstadt , tant dans le ton que dans la force, avec un fond original de colorations orientales. Elle en exploite le potentiel avec talent, sans rechercher l’effet vocal spectaculaire. Avec sa s?ur Tatyana aux guitares, on entre dans un autre registre. Cette derniere represente l’eau et le feu. Son jeu peut etre delicat et subtil, mais aussi puissant, tranchant et agressif. Parmi ces influences majeures, elle cite Steve Morse ( Dixie Dregs , Kansas , Deep Purple , …), Steve Howe ( Yes , Asia ), Steve Vai et Joe Satriani . Sans conteste, il y a de tout cela, mais aussi beaucoup du merveilleux guitariste tout terrain de Jethro Tull , Martin Barre .
D’ailleurs, dans la diversite de ses quarante ans de carriere et dans cette capacite a changer de genre, Jethro Tull apparait ici comme la reference la plus evidente et la plus frequente, meme s’il faut aussi nommer Yes , dans les annees 1970, Steve Howe et Geoff Downes , et ma grande decouverte de 2007, Fromuz (voir chronique). On retrouve ici du Progressif pur jus, du Psychedelique, du Folk (Ethnique, Oriental), du Hard, et j’en passe, avec, de surcroit, un don pour creer la melodie memorable.
Pour terminer, il faut signaler l’excellente tenue des nouveaux venus a la basse et aux percussions. Leurs interventions s’integrent efficacement et sans complexe dans la musique du duo de base. Dans « No Way Back » , leur jeu eblouissant et spectaculaire aide les deux demoiselles a faire de cette piece un petit chef-d’?uvre.
En conclusion, un grand album a decouvrir a tout prix.
Мы живем в век утраты терминами заложенных в них значений. Даже сегодняшнее состояние того музыкального массива, что именуется “прогрессив-рок”, подразумевает не стремление к прогрессу, а скорее сложившийся вокруг данного жанра набор штампов – сложных, изысканных, но штампов. Кроме того, и тут не обошлось без дробления на поджанры и создания между ними непроходимых границ. Арт-рок, нью-эйдж и электронная музыка не то, чтобы надежно разделены, но наработками друг друга пользуются редко и малоубедительно. Достойных фолк-прог-рокеров после Jethro Tull так на свет и не появилось. А в так называемом прог-метал доминирует второе слагаемое – правда, почему-то без присущего металлу драйва.
Кто разорвет этот порочный круг? Пока что самые хорошие шансы имеют наши соотечественники из Eternal Wanderers . Они не пишутся на “Starless” и не выступают на фестивалях класса “In Prog” – короче говоря, они не в тусовке, а сами по себе. Не слишком известны даже специалистам? Да. Зато имеют возможность творить без оглядки на микроформаты, складывающиеся даже в микротусовках. Альбом “The Door To A Parallel World” , к которому группа шла почти десять лет – это дерзкая смесь атмосферной электроники и тяжелых гитар, урбанистического грохота и фолк-мотивов.
Шаманские плясовые с металлическими риффами и перегруженным вокалом в “No Way Back” ? Многие прог-рокеры сейчас экспериментируют с индустриальным или альтернативным саундом, но это – явно один из самых удачных экспериментов. Атмосферные композиции, полные протяжных слайд-гитар, раскатистых барабанов и переговоров на космических частотах? Подобно тому, как дебютный альбом Kingdom Come некогда использовали для мистификаций, выдавая его за воссоединение Led Zeppelin , инструментальная композиция “The Door To A Parallel World” могла бы сойти за неизвестную запись Pink Floyd . Вот только где-то на середине сей номер мутирует в людоедские пляски с интригующими атональностями. Другим инструменталом, “Visions Of The Lost World” , группа намекает на возможность выхода прог-метал из тупика: в звонких и блестящих электронных пространствах минималистичные гитарные риффы имеют возможность раскручиваться бесконечными спиралями. Есть на диске и выдержанные в более-менее традиционных тонах сочинения вроде “Ride Without End” . Этот беспроигрышный в концертном исполнении боевик удачно соединяет стилистики и продолжает линии развития таких классиков жанра, как Rush и Manfred Mann .
Наиболее сильный трек – несомненно, эпическая “Too Close To Heavens” . Полное ощущение проделанного вместе с музыкантами путешествия по смертельно опасным, и оттого вдвойне красивым горным кручам. Воющий ветер и грохот лавин, флейты, бубенцы и варган, переборы классической гитары и грозный рык ее электрической сестры, дикий, стихийный вокал и ангельские хоры… В этом номере сконцентрирована сама суть Eternal Wanderers, группы, не то, что бы не признающей – просто не замечающей границ на своем бесконечном пути.
Хорошо, но мало. Некоторые уже известные публике по концертной программе группы номера в альбом не вошли. Впрочем, история Eternal Wanderers только началась. Так что будем слушать этот альбом и ждать следующего.
13.03.2008, БЕБЕНИН, Дмитрий ( ЗВУКИ РУ )