POGLEDOT NA SZERCATLEYA (Погледът на съзерцателя)

Now with some years of experience, young Bulgarian talent has confirmed he is a musician to follow due to his more mature and interesting sound, and of course, because he has managed to play all the instruments and produce quality albums. "The Eye of the Beholder" is the title of his third studio album released last year (2010) which can also be found and downloaded via his website. He is kindly sharing his music, and we should take advantage of that.

Different from its predecessor which has only five tracks, this album features nine compositions and a total time of 52 minutes, all of them were composed, arranged and performed by the self Ivanov. It starts with "Dust of Chaos" , a short introduction to the album, gentle piano and soft atmosphere, vocals ( I still think this is Ivanov's weakest point, I don't know if it is because I don't understand Bulgarian, but I don't enjoy it so much). Later the song's sound increases, and the rhythm becomes faster due to a drumming sample.

"A City Winged" has a nice acoustic guitar sound, which is combined by electronic drums. After a minute this track becomes more interesting, the keyboard sound is pretty good all over the song (all over the album, I would say). I will not talk about the vocals again, because I believe my opinion is clear, I would prefer instrumental album, or another singer, sorry if I am being harsh, Velislav, I mean no harm. "The Eye of the Beholder" flows perfectly with the previous track. This is a longer composition with various changes in time and tempo, and mood. He likes playing keyboards, he really knows how to manage them and do what he wants, I believe it is evident, or at least his strongest point.

The longest track is "Midnight Suite" in which once again he delights us with the delicate piano sound. A soft and even relaxed rhythm is shared until minute four when it turns a bit louder with a distorted guitar as background. A minute later it slows down and begins to build up a structure, and before reaching minute seven, there is a wonderful part with a saxophone-like sound that produces a sensual mood. The last passage of the album has a peculiar electronic sound which is progressing and becoming faster and faster, finishing this great and complex composition.

"Wilderness" on the other hand, happens to be the shortest song of this album, which is not a disadvantage, actually I believe that in three minutes he can offer a lot of things, he can gather different elements and share them with good music. "A Slide" is a nice track which starts weak, but after a couple of minutes it turns really interesting, due to the orchestra-like sound he added with keyboards. There is also a cool disarming guitar interacting with those keyboards and producing together a fantastic sound.

"Compromise" is another short, but wonderful track, taking once again that orchestra-like sound and exploding it at its highest, one can close the eyes and let the music flows and take you to another world. This time, I actually enjoyed his vocal performance, I have to highlight it, because before I have shown my little interest for them.

"Blood of the Alphast" is an intelligent and complex composition which should make Ivanov proud of, I should tell you that you will enjoy more this album if you listen to it with good headphones, because you can truly appreciate the different textures and its multi-layered sound. This track may be my favorite, especially for the second part where drums and orchestral keyboards work together, creating a strong melody, and of course, a complex and strong song.

It finishes with "The Whole in Myself" which starts with a melancholic sound (actually the whole songs sounds melancholic) but the thing is how he adds the elements, colors and textures while the seconds pass, after a couple of minutes there is a beautiful passage where the piano produces a disarming sound, being accompanied by drums and vocals. Then a hypnotizing keyboard sound appears, and later the song brilliantly concludes.

It is great to see these young musicians creating great albums, showing that we have music for so many more years. This is a very good album, not what I would call a masterpiece, but it is original, different and interesting, to be honest at first I was thinking of rating with three stars, but now I believe four would be more accurate, and would encourage Ivanov to continue with this good compositional process.

Enjoy it!

The language of music

Velislav Ivanov is a young Bulgarian neo-progressive rock artist. The man, who's been making albums since he was 18, has an interesting style, full of mellow, atmospheric lines of lush orchestral progressive music. Of course the man is not proficient in every instrument, and relies heavily on programming to implement his various instrumental lines. Sadly, these often are MIDI programmed, and not the more "realistic" type, but straight from Microsoft Wavesynth kind of MIDI voices, which give much of the music a very cheesy and unprofessional feel. Although the music itself is a nice show of mastery over melody and a nice display of compositional prowess, but overall the album has a cheesier, more "hobby" like album, without the intent to make a true work of art.

One I thing I like about all international albums in different languages is that music is truly the universal language. Despite the fact that I have no idea what the album title of song titles mean (without the help of Google Translate), I can still feel the emotion, understand what is being played, and know what notes, melodies, rhythms and other musical nonsense. I don't understand the lyrics, but can still interpret the gentle melodies and atmospheres surrounding them. Although the whole atmosphere surrounding the music to me is too ambient and slow for my tastes, one can see the nice compositional treats thrown into the music, making a more credible piece of music.

Although I am not keen of the horribly cheesy programming, the overall album is adequate. This type of atmospheric neo prog is not exactly my cup of tea, but the music is overall decent. The young man has shown his comprehension of melody, music, and the overall art of composing music. Although it's not the greatest thing ever recorded, it's also not "bad," per se, although some sections are almost inaudible because the melodies are so damn mellow and gentle. I the end, I think the album is recommended for only those who like atmospheric, gentle neo prog, and not many other groups. 2+ stars.

In many important ways this is more of an electronic ambient album than anything, even if Ivanov's influences lean decidedly on the neo/crossover axes, and vocals have greater prominence than in typical electronica. But it's also barely rock music, with most tracks lacking muscularity that would enhance their character and connect emotionally with the listener. This unfortunate tendency is sadly more pronounced in the longest cuts that scream loudest for diversification beyond a few curious piano rolls.

Luckily, at its worst "Eye of the Beholder" is at least soothing a la DAVID SYLVIAN (but not as captivating), and at its best Ivanov cooks up some intriguiing song structures and eerie hypnotic melodies mostly carried on what sounds like guitar samples, particularly in the first 2 tracks; track 6 with its deliciously ominous leads seemingly patterned after Robert Fripp or, more recenty nigh locally, Mirek Gil; and the closing cut.

Musical beauty is also in the eye of the beholder, and while this quality is amply demonstrated on the latest Ivanov effort, a little more grit might have gone a long way towards driving that beauty beyond the first few epithelial layers.

About two years ago, maybe more, the artist offered me the album for a review. Initially I didn't like it and instead of writing a bad review I decided to send a message to Velislav Ivanov only.

For a strange reason after two years the album went back to my memory and I have given it another spin, trying to remember what I have found good and bad.

Let's start from the bad: the bigger issue with the album is, I think, the production. There's too much reverb on the vocals. The other thing that I remember to have found negative was that I have found it too melodic. It's neo prog but it actually bothered me like only a full Coldplay album can.

So what is changed now?

Listening better it's melodic but not too mellow. There's enough balance between the instruments. In general a one man band has a preference so an instrument sounds better than another, especially in foreground, and in this album this is not the case even though I guess that Ivanov's main instruments are the keyboards.

The song which definitely made me change my mind is the title track. It has a thin dark background and this darkness pervades all the songs. It's an element that I have previously missed and gives a different meaning to my listening experience.

As usually happens in the prog world the best tracks are the longer but the track #5 is a good one even if short.

It's a pity for the vocals as the reverb doesn't permit to see if they are good or not, and a bit of guitar could have helped, but the album is not so bad as the first impression made me think.

Three stars are a little rounded up, but I think that the songs matter more than the production, otherwise people wouldn't buy bootlegs.

If you are in the right mood for quite and sad melodic music give it a try.