THE INVISIBLE LINE

Artists like Antony Kalugin, Fabio Zuffanti or Neal Morse are born once in a decade, people involved in plenty of projects as leading figures, putting up consistently impressive music.Kalugin put Hoggwash and Karfagen a bit aside to focus on his Sunchild project in the 2008-09 period.The masterful ''The gnomon'' was then followed by ''The invisible line'', released on Caerllysi Music label and featuring some 15 guest singers and musicians with Kalugin handling multiple instruments.

While not that magnificent as the ultimate opus of ''The gnomon'', ''The invisible line'' is another work showcasing Kalugin's amazing capabilities as a composer.This is closer to the classic Symphonic Rock style as performed by SPOCK'S BEARD with some Neo Prog sensibilities, sounding overall more modern than the works of the Americans, but offering solid instrumental and vocal work both in long and short arrangements.The standard rock and keyboards instruments are often surrounded by surprising sax, oboe, trumpet, accordion and flute parts and for this reason Sunchild recall also Italian veterans HOSTSONATEN minus the ambiental and folky soundscapes.The material is great to say the least with evident GENESIS and CAMEL inspirations, lacking the true presence of vintage keyboards and being based on hard-edged guitars and powerful synthesizers, but the orchestrations are absolutely convincing, the melodies come as instant and memorable and grandiose parts are all over the place.Plus all vocals are sung in English with a set of amazing singers.I am excited to say that even if the music is highly symphonic and very energetic, the pinches from instruments like the sax, flute etc. are incredible adapted within the Classic Prog frames, without hurting the consistency of the album.No weak tracks in here, but there are a few standouts, like the title track, separated in two movements, with the emotional melodies, symphonic overtones and fantastic singing lines, absolutely awesome.

''The gnomon'' was simply a masterpiece, this one is also an excellent work on modern Symphonic Rock with nice variations, bombastic tunes and laid-back textures.Definitely among the year's highlights, do yourself a favor and grab this fine piece of art, especially if you love SPOCK'S BEARD, THE TANGENT, APOGEE, TRANSATLANTIC, HOSTSONATEN and the likes.