AN AMBASSADOR IN BONDS

"The wind bloweth where it listeth" may be the best epigraph to the entire works by Ivan Rozmainsky. Yet paradoxically this album combines a free flight of the musical thought in every individual piece, typical for this artist, with an elaborate and strict design of the collection as a whole. It is why some compositions require to be listened several times for better understanding them in the context of the whole album. Yet although each element of the entire construction plays its role perfectly, some of them do it especially well. A real gem of the album is the opening piece, Follow After Meekness, with its mysterious sound and nervous pace. To continue this journey we travel up Different Sides of Ascension, another masterpiece, truly inventive in depicting the stages of the human spirit's adventure, to justify its title. A warm, mundane (in a good sense of this word) and very human sound of Hard-Won Humility (may be my favorite piece of the whole album) can adorn any prog rock collection. Definitely an amazing work by Ivan and his team. Hopefully, we will keep on enjoying the different sides of ascension of these great artists to new peaks of the musical perfection.