TOUCH THE MYSTERY

In late 2015 I received a private message asking me to listen to this album. At that time it still was not released and so it also was not included in the Prog Archives database yet, so I could not write a review about it then. The album was finally released in September 2016, and it really took several more months to be included in the Prog Archives database. Finally, it was included in mid December 2016. I listened to the album four times in their bandcamp.com website. And my opinion about this album has not changed.

The MODERN-ROCK ENSEMBLE is a band from UkraIne led by composer Vladimir Gorashchenko. It seems to me that this "Touch the Mystery" album, their first, took several years to make. It has a line-up of several very good musicians from Ukraine. The recording and mixing is very professional and good, too. I also like the cover design.

A song by song review:

"Meditations": a song with some musical influences from India, even with the use of some electric sitar and tabla sounds, at least in some parts of the song. The rest of the song also includes some very good distorted lead guitar parts and some Prog Rock arrangements. This song also includes lead vocals by Gorashchenko.

"What Will Happen To My Country?": an instrumental musical piece played by Gorashchenko with keyboards, bass and programmed drums. It is one of my favorites from this album, and it remembers me a bit the sound of CAMEL in some parts.

"Touch The Mystery": the title track of this album, with a length of almost twenty minutes, with a lot of Prog Rock arrangements, some Classical Music influences, and lead vocals by Gorashchenko, who also recites the lyrics in some parts. This song presents a "musical biography" of Vladimir Gorashchenko, as they say in their website. It also includes some very good guitar parts, some wind instruments and other orchestral instruments. This is maybe the best and most Progressive song in this album.

"My Angels (dedicated to my wife and daughters)": another solo performance by Gorashchenko on keyboards, and also it is a very good musical piece.

"Swamp (live)": a live recording from 1989 from a Jazz Festival. This song shows a lot of Jazz-Rock influences with Latin-American rhythms, very well played. But the drums and percussion sound to me like being played on an electric drum kit, and also some of them sound to me like being programmed (maybe I'm wrong).

This album as a whole is very good, and it really has a variety of influences from several musical styles, as I wrote in my review about every track.

You can listen to this album (and also to buy it) in modern-rocken.bandcamp.com/releases .