Karfagen - Birds of Passage

In early 2019, the Ukrainian symphonic prog rock band Karfagen released the incredible Echoes from within Dragon Island.  In January of 2020, they followed up that masterpiece with Birds of Passage.

If you are unfamiliar with Karfagen, they are headed by the mighty Antony Kalugin.  With Antony involved with 3 bands, an orchestral project, and his own solo output, the man is prolific to say the least.  But it makes you wonder, being stretched across all those projects, surely the quality of the music must suffer, right?  O, say not so!

Consider Birds of Passage:  the titular opus is split into two parts, each exceeding 20 minutes, followed by 2 short bonus tracks and a short recapitulation of the intro (only included on the digital version).  The lyrics in Part 1 are set to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poems Birds of Passage and Daybreak, while Part 2's lyrics are set to William Blake's Eternity and The Ecchoing Green, and the bonus track Spring (Birds Delight) is set to Blake's Spring.  The piece is punctuated here and there with Antony's short statement:

This Time, this place,

This world, your grace!

Your time, your faith,

Your voice, your grace!

Musically, Birds of Passage has everything you'd expect from good modern symphonic prog album: lots of different moods, layers, textures, and dynamics; the odd and mixed time signatures (the main riff of Part 1 starts off in a bouncy 7/4), layered vocals, expert guitar, bass, and drums; and of course, keyboards.  For a nice change of aural texture, a classical guitar kicks off Part 2. 

The bulk of the time you spend listening to this album will be spent on listening to achingly lovely keyboard voices that appear and disappear, can be as subtle as a little lamb or a quick flourish that grabs you gently and says, "get ready for the next part!"  Nothing is too dissonant, abrasive, heavy, fast, or dense.  This is truly music for relaxation and contemplation.

The band even went so far as to record some birds in Germany during the summer, which is a bit ironic when you consider the poetry of Part 1 seems to be based in winter and Part 2 in spring.

Karfagen - Birds of Passage is available on Amazon Music in HD, on Bandcamp in 24-bit high res, as a Tidal Master.