L'ASCENSIONE

I don't know where the passion for Italian titles is from. "L'Ascensione" (the Ascension) is the debut album of Ivan Rozmainsky's creature "Roz VITALIS". Listening to the band's more recent output many wonder about why they are placed into the RIO/Avant subgenre. I wasn't around when the band was debated and added, but this album is very experimental even if not too far from the soundscapes of King Crimson and Gentle Giant. The first track changes mood several times and the russian sung final reminding of a horthodox mass with a Vangelis like background belongs to the genre.

Many people thinks that Avant rock is made of free jazzy improvisations, noise and unpredictable sequences of notes and chords. Well, it's also this, but this is not the case of Roz Vitalis, whose tracks have a well defined structure and don't leave much room to improvisations. "From Heaven Th Earth" is an organ base with a classical mood counterbalanced by a drone percussion riff. Very unusual. Later the organ fades out leaving it to electronics and percussion. more or less in the half of the 11 minutes of this track, there are some passages when the percussion stop for a while leaving harpsichord and xylophone the duty of the base. Signature changes, dissonances, electronic noises don't destroy the various melodies in the background. I think it can be called a Crimsonian track with the structure of a nightmare: starting from a quite regular piece of music and ending into a very dark ambience.

"The Unpurified Substance Of A Soul" starts not too differently. It's a good follower of the previous one, but turns immediately into a Gentle Giant like track. The style of percusssion programming is similar to that often done by Senmuth. Also this track has very dark moments. It closes with a short part of organ and Nadezhda Regentova's vocals.

"Through a spiral...." is again a dark mixture of drone percussion and keyboards, but I hear a classical music influence. Debussy comes to mind.

The mood doesn't change much with "Dreamy Memories" A strange section of vocals and "doohs" can be called contemprary classical in the vein of Giorgy Ligeti. I think it's similar to the instrumental things of Nichelodeon.

The longest track "Ascension Dream" is more melodic. It's a hint of the future tendencies of the band which will later abandon the experimental side and will concentrate more on the melodies. With the many changes and the strange "mass like" vocals it's like watching a movie or reading a book. You don't know what will follow but it's everything very consistent. The melodic piano base comes and go throughout the whole track. Desscribing it further is useless, also because it changes a lot of times. It has to be listened to, and it's a good listen.

A short interlude of one minute and half full of bells leads to the last track: "L'Ascensione 2". As often in the prog world, the last track closes the circle with the first, so it's church organ again, but it's more dreamy and a bit psychedelic, too. This is an album that requires headphones and the right environment and mood. An excellent debut by a band which has released and still releases a huge quantity of material, and honestly I haven't listened to their whole output, but up to now I haven't found anything bad.

Mainly (this album) for who likes Gentle Giant and King Crimson.