ODYSSEY 9999

The return of the RYSZARD KRAMARSKI PROJECT with this sixth album in six years (difficult to do better and this is reminiscent of the mid-seventies), inspired by the literary work of HOMERE the extremely famous "The Odyssey", a single change and not the least we are now in the year 9999.

After conquering the planet TROJA, ULYSSES undertakes a long journey to his native planet ITHAQUE to find PENELOPE, his beloved wife. Eight titles linked together for this remarkable conceptual disc, that goes without saying, nourished by the texts written as in previous albums by Zdzisław ZABIERZEWSKI and great novelty the vocal contributors come to us from diverse backgrounds. As for the musicians themselves, they all or almost all belong to what I will call the LYNX galaxy. Note that David LEWANDOWSKI and Karolina LESZKO are not among the vocalists present this time. Mr. MOONRISE, Kamil KONIECZAK was responsible for mixing the album, and what a mixing damn it! It's loud in the speakers.

Those who read me now know that I don't really like to sausage concept albums with possible notation, which becomes annoying because today we find more and more concept albums... On this " Odyssey 9999", Ryszard starts very strong with the "Twelve Spaceships" sung by a charismatic guest Stuart NICHOLSON (no need to introduce him I think?), a piece of fabulous symphonic progressive (10/10) further illuminated by the saxophone tenor of Lukasz PLATEK, the only one of the participants whom I did not know before, after research it appears that he is above all a jazz musician.

Who else but Ania BATKO, the singer of ALBION, could replace Karolina LESZKO for "Pénélope" and "The Killing Songs of Sirens", let's say it bluntly, no one! (9/10) for the two, which make a pair. Marek SMELKOWSKI ephemeral singer of MILLENIUM in 2020 takes care of the vocals on tracks four "The Curse of Circe" the poisonous magician of the companions of ULYSSES and six "Calypso Nymph" the maritime nymph in love with ULYSSES and he gets away with it very honorably in either case. If we are looking for the little beast, the two tracks sung by Lukasz GALEZIOWSKI (GALL for those who have been following for more than a quarter of a century) namely the three "Cyclops Cave" and seven "Ithaca" are those which stand out the least from the rest although Piotr PLONKA's guitar solo in the Cyclops' cave...it's still something!

The two Grzegorz (FIEBER and BAUER), current and former drummers of MILLENIUM, brilliantly provide the tempi with the help of the inevitable Krzysztof WYRWA who stands out as often on the Fretless bass and whose arabesques dot several titles.

One of the essential records of the year 2023, will find a place among my sixty best progressive music albums of all time, that's saying something. Originally published at profilprog.com