THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE MYSTERY

The Compassionizer quartet is back with another difficult to categorize studio album--their fourth since 2019. The two multi-instrumentalists, founders Serghei Liubcenco and Ivan Rozmainsky (ROZ VITALIS) are again joined by two clarinetists, founding member Leonid Perevalov and three-album veteran AndRey Stefinoff.

1. "To Abound and To Suffer Need (5:16) the clarinet chamber parts are exquisite. The surf rock motif is annoying. Luckily, there is far more avant garde chamber music here than rock crap. Still, I wish there were more beefy, dynamic parts to hook my teeth into. (9/10)

2. "Avenge Not Yourselves" (4:11) I love how the spinet gives the music a Gothic Film Noire/PRESENT-type of feel. The unstable wammy-bar guitar chords and notes as well. Excellent keyboard strings and deep organ work with the multiple tracks of clarinets. Nice--but, again, where's the beef? (8.875/10)

3. "To Direct Your Hearts into the Love" (5:04) synth washes and electric guitar arpeggi give the clarinets, percussion, spinet, and wordless vocals here a nice rich expansion of space to counter the centralized and single-note melodies that the others can weave. Why do the female vocalists go uncredited? Why does the song get weaker, looser, and unstructured during the final 90 seconds? (9/10)

4. "I Feel Shine of the Day" (4:05) the band is clearly trying to offer the listener some insights into the sounds, melodies, and structures of their regional ethnic folk traditions. Ivan Rozmainsky's synth flute with Serghei Liubcenco's multiple stringed and percussion instruments works well--though, as my wife just commented, it sounds very much as if I'm listening to the musical soundtrack to a video presentation of some rural farm or village scene from their bucolic day-to-day goings-on. (8.75/10)

5. "For Them Who Shall Be Heirs of Salvation" (5:01) nice village processional music that conveys perfectly the inherent looseness and "smallness" of such an occasion. Nice use of the interwoven trumpets in the second half--quite funereal and reverent. (8.875/10)

6. "For the Invisible Things" (4:21) opening exactly where the previous song ended, solo trumpet fills the spacious skies before Serghei's metal percussives and Ivan's spinet join in. Drums and unusual stringed acoustic instruments join, but then, after a slight pause, the rhythm section turns the music into almost an Arabian night rumba. A thinness of sound occupies the third minute while we wait to see the next dynamic shift or presentation--which finally arrives at 3:02. The soundscape and effect here are strikingly similar to those of a Ben Morley MICE ON STILTS song--even something by NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA might do. A top three song for me. (9.25/10)

7. "The Fellowship of the Mystery" (21:44) another opening that seems to run straight off of the finish of the previous song. The delicate folk-like chamber weave turns KATE BUSH-like power-aggressive in the second half of the seventh minute, which continues with some inventive bass play and electric guitar riffing in the ninth minute. The dynamics soften in the next minute, revealing the bass clarinet as the lead instrument while the spinet and other tuned percussives provide the delicate faerie-like tapestry around it. Another burst of power chamber rock in the middle of the 11th minute disrupts an otherwise-bucolic faerie dance, leaving in its wake a forest of metallic percussion with kalimba and synth noises blended in with Serghei's other percussion sounds. Electric guitar and clarinet play off of each other over added sustained organ chords and the rest of the jungle march motif in the 14th and 15th minutes. In the 17th minute there is a rest next to a waterfall in which the trumpeter entertains the hikers while they refresh themselves. Then, in the 18th minute the band proceed on their way once again--this time with trumpeter and clarinetists taking turns at the point position. The path soon widens a bit, leaving room for more than one lead instrument to solo at the same time, but then the view of the broad expanse of savannah as they emerge from tropical jungle around the river canyon leaves every one a bit awed and humbled. The spinet and metallic clangs seem to celebrate the adventurers' achievement until it is finally time to lay their heads down for a good night's rest. The song epic is satisfactory despite the fact that the journey it takes one on never gets more exciting than faerie sprites and the occasional appearance of a jungle fauna that might require a small burst adrenaline response as one does in a state of trailblazing vigilance. There's nothing wrong or weak here, just nothing very new or exciting: The soundtrack to a rather mundane and uneventful nature hike through safari or jungle like territories. (36/40)

Total Time 49:42

I hear a lot of what sounds like AFTER CRYING chamber work here--which I really like--yet I also hear a lot of music that sounds very rooted and unashamedly representative of Russian rural folk tradition. I like both of these. The songs are often a bit too simplistic or too romantic for a prog rock album--even Prog Folk--yet we've often talked about the creation of a Prog Chamber classification around here. Maybe this album will be the final impetus necessary for such an event!

B+/4.5 stars; an excellent addition of Chamber Prog to any music lover's collection--especially if you enjoy cinematic folk-oriented instrumental music. Though I do not consider this a masterpiece of progressive rock music, I do greatly respect and admire those musicians who champion their own heritages of musical tradition. This is probably my favorite Compassionizer album due to its wonderful consistency.

Named after the 2007 Roz Vitalis album, keyboardist / percussionist Ivan Rozmainsky started the side project COMPASSIONIZER in 2020 and has wasted no time releasing four albums already ever since. Joined by bass clarinetist Leonid Perevalov from Fair Wind Pleases (where Rozmainsky also plays), Serghei Liubcenco who plays a multitude of instruments including guitars, bass, rumba, drums, door and other percussion as well as with clarinetist Andrey Stefinoff, this band has unleashed a series of interesting chamber prog albums that really found their own stylistic approach from the very beginning. THE FELLOWSHIP OF MYSTERY is the latest offering by this Russian quartet that crafts intricately designed compositions that delve into the complex world of avant-prog and delivery it all with a nice gentile airy touch of mostly acoustic instrumentation.

Adding some extra sounds to the mix are four guests who offer violin, trumpet, vocals and ukulele sounds which guarantees a very interesting musical journey through seven tracks that just miss the 50-minute playing time. According to the label's press release, "THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE MYSTERY" is a beautiful instrumental album with a progressive spirit, captivating melodies, enchanting sounds and mystery." And all of that would indeed be true but i would add that this chamber prog sounds a lot like music from the middle ages or even renaissance music with a zeitgeist of times of yore when castles were occupied by kings and festive events featured such musical performances of crafty chamber music. While not totally acoustic, the album comes off as mostly so and perhaps the mellowest and warmest style of chamber prog i've come across considering how dark and forbidding it can prove to be.

One of the reasons that THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE MYSTERY sounds so eerily different is that the predominant instrument on the album is the spinet, a smaller type of harpsichord or other keyboard instrument. Likewise while many prog artists are inspired by popular classical artists such as Bach, Stravinsky or Chopin, COMPASSIONIZER elected to revive the influences of the rather unknown Orlando di Lasso who lived from 1532 - 1594 and was one of the leading composers of the late Renaissance and despite not being a household name in the modern age was extremely popular during his lifetime. He was also very prolific and wrote over 2000 works in many languages. The result of these influences and the instrumentation at hand gives THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE MYSTERY a rather light airy and breezy feel as it drifts through one musical motif after another like a feather gently blowing in the wind. The music can feel a bit alienating as it sounds like an entire different musical language than the most popular classical artists who are widely recognized in the modern era.

The album is really unlike anything else including previous COMPASSIONAIZER albums. While predominantly running on classical sounds of the distant past, the band finds ways to add moments of electric guitar and electronics with the most vibrant display on the closing sprawling title track that is just shy of a 22-minute playing time. Once the guitar riffs kick in it sounds like some of the most convolutedly complex Rock In Opposition with angular time signatures intersecting with unfamiliar musical scale patterns as well as various musical chords and techniques not very much utilized in the modern world. Overall this album comes off as strange and impenetrable in many ways but it's actually amazingly constructed if you can grasp the gist of it (it may take a few spins). Rozmainsky has always had a knack for taking avant-prog into strange new places with some of the early Roz Vitalis albums just as strange and weirdly constructed. Definitely one for the difficult music lovers. The melodies are very arcane and esoteric and much of the flow comes from the contrapuntal elements overlaying in distinctly strange ways. Interesting album to say the least.

Compassionizer is one of the many projects involving Ivan Rozmainski and Leonid Perevalov, who have been together also in ROZ VITALIS and RMP. This band may sound like a chamber rock version of Roz Vitalis, but the trademark of the band is the bass clarinet of Perevalov.

This is another fully instrumental album, but it seems to be based on a concept. The Felloship of the Mystery is a paraphrase of the first book of the Tolkien's trilogy, but I don't see other references to the Rings, apart of one track which seems to describe musically a Hobbit village. We'll see later.

"To Abound And To Suffer Need" opens the album with an intro featuring all the instruments but one at a time. The clarinet of Andrey Stefinoff and the bass clarinet of Perevalov work well together but suddenly bass, drums and keys enter dramatically, just to calm down and give room to a pizzicato and a synth as background for the clarinets. The track is subject to many changes but it's constantly based on minor chords and when the percussion are present it gets darker. The good with instrumentals of this kind is that if you are in the right mood, you can build your own story.

"Avenge Not Yourselves" continues on the same path. This track fits perfectly with the definition of chamber rock. It's a sort of classical composition, sometimes resembling the works of great Russian composers like Tschaikovskij and Rimsky-Korsakov, but with the use of modern instruments like synth and guitars. It has an eastern flavor, that makes me think to the Sheherazade. The mood changes abit when harpsichord and clarinet perform a very nice duet that leads to the end of the track.

The transition to "To Direct Your Hearts Into The Love" is seamless. This track features also female vocals by Sabina Vostner. The music is sweet and sad. If we don't consider some darker passages, it has the feeling of some Kitaro works.

"I Feel Shine Of The Day" has a melodic start and features a Rubab, a traditional instrument from Afghanistan ecellently played by the multi-instrumentist Serghei Liubcenco. Thinking that the actual crazy Taliban regime has forbidden every kind of music in that Nation deleting its musical traditions is vary upsetting. Hear the sound of its strings. How can somebody think to forbid a sound? Also this track alternates light and darkness. The start is very melodic and based on major chords. The lightly untuned sound of the Rubab is a great choice. It makes it sound "popular" even though the melody has few to do with Middle Eastern music. It has a medieval feel similar to the early Branduardi. This is also what I consider "the Hobbits track"

Another smooth transition brings "For Them Who Shall Be Heirs of Salvation" to our ears. Not dissimilar from the other tracks, it features a good violin performance by Ksenia Vaganova. I still hear the Rubab, too. If it wasn't for the percussion I could think to a piece by Debussy. There's also the trumpet of Oleg Prilutsky. The trumpet cries over minor chords together with the clarinets and together bring the track to its end.

The track fades into the following "For the Invisible Things" which features the other violinist, Vitaly Borodin. Here percussion come and go, and the trumpet gives a melancholic feeling to the track. The same feeling of the album "City Scripts" of the Serbian band "Wo0" (they have a trumpet, too.

There's no solution of continuity. Without looking at your reader or whatever you are using to listen, the change of track is so smooth that one may think to be still on the previous one. On this track there are a lot of things: synth, harpsychord, guitar...it looks like thay have tried to find a place far each of their instruments, including tapes. Even if I don't here reminders to the previous track, as often happens in prog, this suite sounds like a summary of what we habe listened up to now, but its 21 minutes in length are goos to let ourselves be transported wherever the music is going. I won't spend tons of words describing the passages and the variations, also because it changes continously. I can only suggest t o let us be transoported into the magic realm of the cover sleeve. A magician's lab, maybe, or the room of a priest as the expression of the guy in the picture is so nice and calm that he might also be a sort of teacher. Maybe a scientist, a mathematician or who knows what. Too many things in this suite for a detailed description. Just listen to it.

4 stars are well deserved

Compassionizer are back with their fourth full-length album, with the same core line-up as the last one, namely Serghei Liubcenco (guitars, bass, rubab, drums, doira and other percussion), Leonid Perevalov (bass clarinet), Ivan Rozmainsky (spinet, synths, kalimba) and AndRey Stefinoff (clarinet) along with some guests. The only way to describe this is by saying it is progressive, truly progressive, as there is an awful lot going on. In fact, so much I am not even sure how to start. It's instrumental, classical (with a concentration on chamber music), contains Russian folk and ethnic influences, avant garde and so much more. It is also incredibly enthralling as one never knows where the journey is going to lead, just that it is going to be fascinating.

I have followed Ivan Rozmainsky and his musical outpourings for many years and his relationship with Serghei and Leonid has created something very special indeed. It is music which must be played on headphones and only when the listener has time to really pay close attention as this is music which is all over the place, meandering yet with direction, layered with simple complexity so one just sits there slowly giving up on trying to work out how to put into words what a wonderful album this is, and instead just enjoys it. This may not be a very long review in words, but it has taken me a very long time indeed to write it as I keep drifting into their world when I should be getting my thoughts down on paper.

There is something immensely compelling about this, something which fills my up and makes me feel enriched just for having heard it. This is not something one will ever hear on the radio, but for those who want their music to be somehow dated yet current, classical yet with modern tendencies, rock but with plenty of folk, then this is for you. I think it's one of the very best albums I have ever come across from Russia and I urge all likeminded listeners to seek this out.