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Julius Dobos - Mountain Flying CD (album) cover

MOUNTAIN FLYING

Julius Dobos

Eclectic Prog


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Greger
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars The Hungarian composer Julius DOBOS started playing piano in 1976 at the age of five. His first album "Connecting Images" was a Nokia only release, and as far as I know this is his first official CD, released on the same label as AFTER CRYING and SOLARIS: Periferic label. His music is melodic and movie soundtrack-like and it ranges between beautiful and quiet to bombastic. It's a blend of classical, electronic, ethnic and symphonic music. There are reminiscences to the Hungarian composer Attila HÉGER (aka under the pseudonym Al NORDER and LAREN D'OR), MIKE OLDFIELD, VANGELIS and John WILLIAMS. "Mountain Flying" was broadcasted on Hungarian radio and television in 1995. The CD was recorded in 1999 with the 80-piece North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, the 50-voice Monteverdi Choir, and several guest musicians including the Grammy Award winner Martha Sebestyén. This is definitely worth checking out if you're into soundtrack-like electronic and symphonic music.
Report this review (#1777)
Posted Monday, February 16, 2004 | Review Permalink
hazikristof@y
5 stars Mountain Flying is one of my few CDs that I listen to over and over again and find new details every time. It's even better than Julius Dobos' Connecting Images which was also a masterpiece. Jurriaan Hage says: "A perfect marriage between classical music and electronic music in the style of Vangelis. Much better in my opinion than what I've heard of the Greek in recent years. The combination of the two styles really works well on this album that should appeal to lovers of Vangelis, filmscores (Morricone) and possibly also classical composers of the more melodic variety (Dvorak), but, of course, also lovers of After Crying are invited to take a listen." I think Mountain Flying is a work that musicians and composers of today should learn from and anyone with musical interest should appreciate. As the composer says "it's a musical journey" and surely, listening to this music takes your mind on a journey. I highly recommend this album to everyone who likes orchestral filmscores and electronic music.
Report this review (#49001)
Posted Wednesday, September 28, 2005 | Review Permalink
kev rowland
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Reviewer
3 stars Apparently Julius is well-known in Hungary for his compositions, and this recording with the North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra plus extra musicians, the Budapest Monteverdi Choir and Marta Sebastyen (the latter was on 'The English Patient' soundtrack), is a revised version of his first collection of demos, which were all performed on a synthesiser.

I don't listen to nearly as much classical music as I should, so in all honesty find that I can't really review it. I know I like it, with the melodies and interplay between synths and traditional orchestra working well, and finding that it is very easy to listen to (as opposed to easy-listening).

Report this review (#136994)
Posted Friday, September 7, 2007 | Review Permalink
5 stars After falling in love with Julius Dobos' Hymn to the Fukushima 50 on YouTube and downloading the composer's new album, Transitions, I purchased Mountain Flying last week and have had the chance to listen to the album three times since.

I already feel that this album is going to be one of the gems in my strict collection of instrumental music. The melodies are wonderful, the instrumentation is unique and often monumental, but most of all the details and complexity of various parts are mind-blowing.

My instant favorite is New Pangea - It's one of those piece of music that you could not possible add anything to, it has symphonic orchestral, various word music instruments, a famous singer's voice, hige percussion, many synth parts and even some sound effects. It's just huge. Inspirational is not the right word to characterize it, I would rather say "adrenalin-boosting":)

There are three Mountain Flying titles on the album. I am yet to figure out the thematic link between them, but Mountain Flying I. is also amazing. It completely takes you to another level of emotions.

The Last Millennium is the most electronic piece on the album, features a repeating melody but again, even at the third listen, I knew that I haven't discovered even half of the background melody parts and "hidden" sounds yet.

The closing piece, Life, is a beautiful vocal-piano-synthesizer track that clearly shows the composer's film scoring past.

It is the powerful sound, the very concentrated emotions and the amount of details that make Mountain Flying a must have, and certainly a 5* album for me. The only frustrating thing is that I have just discovered this album - 12 years after it was released!

I am looking forward to listen to previous other works from Mr. Dobos.

Report this review (#424488)
Posted Wednesday, March 30, 2011 | Review Permalink

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