PEVNINA DETSTVA

Sang entirely in Slovak, this was the first album Ursiny cut in 5 years. It has a strong jazz rock feel to it, as both the drummer and bass player on the record were members of the Slovak jazz rock band Fermáta, wihere they were featured on the first two albums.

Vtáci A miniature. Dramatic, with great work from the already mentioned rhytm section and a fine intro to the album. 5 stars

Ostrov Begins with a dark piano and hypnotic vocals from Ursiny. Soon, the rhytm section joins in and the track develops its dramaticism further. A faster part follows, with great rhytm section work and sparse piano playing from Jaroslav Filip. After a saxophone solo, a more relaxed and melodic passage follows, with a sharp culminating passage, after which another more hypnotic part follows, concluded with a jazzy piano solo by Jaroslav Filip and then several of the motifs come back. A marvelous track, with a unique atmosphere and melodies. 5 stars

Privretými očami Again, the beginning is marked by a piano, although this time it is a Fender piano. Ursiny´s singing is perfectly hypnotic. The flute plays a main role in the overal sound, contrasting with the atmosphere. Soon, the track gets faster and also more dynamic, with perfect drumming from Cyril Zeleňák,with Ursiny´s singing and fast harpsichord playing from Jaroslav Filip. Then the hypnotic , atmospheric part comes again. 5 stars

Nové dieťa A less interesting, midtempo track with pulsating bass, but a somewhat weaker melody, but the middle part with its dramaticism and dark mood and Ursiny´s singing are very impressive. 4 stars

Jedného dňa After a dark intro, the track gets into a slightly slower and relaxed passage, after which the dark brass section comes in again, and the track becomes faster and the mood becomes dramatical, with an intensive conclusion, with a n abrupt ending that makes the overal dramatical mood even more. 5 stars

Overall rating: 5 STARS

ESSENTIAL: A MASTERPIECE OF PROGRESSIVE MUSIC

De?o is the most important person in slovak popular music. His opus is mixture of Varga's (Collegium Musicum) musicality with classical influence and Jazz fusion essence of Griglák's Fermáta. De?o in the early 70s claimed the only language of rock is English, but Ivan ?trpka (slovakian poet) completely changed his mind. De?o consider his poems as some kind of challange and he offered ?trpka collaboration. This was beginning of long year friendship and a lot of good music.

Pevnina detstva (The mainland of childhood) is their - Ursiny, ?trpka - first product. I'd rather say it's Eclectic Prog not Crossover because of dark mood, variety of music is mixed here and also the entire album is not connected to popular music at all. I don't want to compare his compositions because they are very specifical and got their own feeling. Try this album, this artist and you won't be disappointed.

In my opinion this is a big improvement over the debut that was released some five years earlier. And he's got the FERMATA rhythm section! Vocals are in their own tongue this time instead of English like on the debut. Such an interesting album with the instruments in play like trumpet, sax, flute, electric piano, keyboards, cors anglais(english horn), strings, harpsichord and bass and drums of course but no guitar. Dezo is the composer and singer.

I'm not in love with this album but there are aspects of it that really hit the mark. Again the bass and drums being from FERMATA is huge. Both sound amazing. The electric piano is my favourite instrument on here, it just sounds the way I want it to sound. The horns are hit and miss to be honest. The trumpet especially. A really good album though, very proggy with tons of tempo shifts especially on that over 18 1/2 minute second track. My favourite though is "Nove Dieta" with that rhythm section being so impressive and just the urgent sound that it has. It's just different from the rest in a good way.

Worth the 4 stars.

The closest fusion-like album by Ursiny is arguably also the most mainstream progressive album. It is highly indebted to the rhythm section and confident keyboard playing. Ironically, it is Ursiny who contributes least to the progressive sound - although he is the composer behind indeed.

I find the best moments to be instrumental, Filip contributing with an array of keyboard instruments and sounds, aggressive bass, progressive drumming seconding tightly. Considering Ursiny could play guitar well at this point, it's surprising it's completely absent in the audio.

After the first symphonic keyboard intro, we're getting to the magnum opus with numerous unrelated pop, progressive rock and fusion parts. There doesn't seem to be any graduation or common idea, just focus on the parts on their own. Really masterfully played. "Privretými očam" is better composed and greatly contrasts with mid dynamic section (good Harpsichord playing) vs mellow keyboard/violin driven first and third part. "Nové dieťa" has a running rhythm, mainly interesting due to bass playing. "Jedného dňa" offers a glimpse of the coming Ursiny style in the future where instruments support singing and lyrics dynamics rather than the other way round. 4.5 stars