Record Reviews

DAVID KOLLAR ~ THE SON HEVHETIA 0072 (Barcode: 8588005257091) ~ SLOVAKIA ~ Electronic & Ambient Recorded: 2013 Released: 2013 This is an intriguing and highly emotional solo album by Slovak guitarist / composer David KollarFind albums by this artist, on which he plays electric guitar, adding also other instruments and voices, creating improvised collages of sound. The album presents twelve (or thirteen) selections, cut out from three hours of material that Kollar recorded while working on this project. Based on his personal emotions in a difficult period in his life surrounding his son´s illness (hence the album´s title), Kollar transformed these emotions into sounds. The resulting music is completely beyond categorization or classification, as it includes a multitude of widely different references, like electronic, ambient, contemporary Classical, improvised music, spiritual music and others. In spite of the fact that this music is so immensely diverse, it makes perfect sense emotionally and enables total involvement form the listener´s side. Subtly hidden below the surface of this music one can find melody and harmony, which are rich in textures and full of intrinsic beauty. The serenity of the melodic element balances the anguished, tortured elements appearing on the surface, creating a complex entity which has a life of its own. The music has a strong element of tension and conflict, like a human soul torn between hope and desolation, good and evil or right and wrong. In many respects this music has a deep religious background, even if it exists only subconsciously. Of course this music is only as good as the listener´s involvement. In sharp contrast to trivial music, which is accessible to most people without asking for an iota of intellectual and emotional involvement, this music demands complete concentration and attention, being recreated anew in every listener´s mind. Such total approach to making music is of course rarely truly appreciated, but surely deserves admiration. Overall this is an astonishing piece of music of rare beauty and extraordinary power of expression. Kollar definitely deserves to appear on the "to be watched" list of ambitious music makers and one can only hope his music will reach as many music lovers around the world as possible. Wholeheartedly recommended!

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DAVID KOLLAR / ARVE HENRIKSEN ~ ILLUSION OF A SEPARATE WORLD HEVHETIA 0178 (Barcode: 8588005258456) ~ SLOVAKIA ~ Electronic & Ambient Recorded: 2018 Released: 2018 This is the debut album by a duo comprising of Slovak guitarist / composer David KollarFind albums by this artist and Norwegian trumpeter / composer Arve HenriksenFind albums by this artist. It was recorded "virtually" over the Net, by exchanging files between the two musicians, and presents twelve original pieces co-composed by them. The music is quite difficult to categorize, as it flows freely between styles and genres. Since it also lacks a clear melodic content, it is ambient in nature and presents more moods and emotions rather than what most listeners consider as music in the straightforward sense of the idiom. Henriksen´s trumpet playing is the epitome of Nordic music, with lyrical and melancholic themes, while Kollar´s guitar, with extensive usage of electronics, is mostly incidental, ambient and cinematic in nature. However, when combined together, these two directions amalgamate splendidly, creating surprisingly evocative statements. Although music of such nature can be quite tedious and lethargic, this album manages to avoid that trap with elegance and a continuous listening, although requiring some effort, is eventually rewarding and even inviting. It is a good example of ambient music, which one can listen to more than once, revealing new layers of musical depth with each listening session. Kollar and Henriksen are both established musical phenomena and this album confirms their individual talents and cooperative skills, but does not offer any surprising new vistas, being more or less something the followers of these two musicians would expect to hear on the album. Nevertheless it is an elegant, highly aesthetic piece of sound-weaving, which has its faithful followers.

Updated: 17/08/2018Posted: 17/08/2018

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KOMARA ~ KOMARA HEVHETIA 0104 (Barcode: 8588005257466) ~ SLOVAKIA ~ Progressive Rock Recorded: 2014 Released: 2015 This is the debut album by the international "supergroup" trio KoMaRaFind albums by this artist comprising of Slovak guitarist / bassist David KollarFind albums by this artist, American drummer Pat MastelottoFind albums by this artist (King CrimsonFind albums by this artist) and Italian trumpeter Paolo RaineriFind albums by this artist. It presents ten original compositions, which are not specifically credited on the album´s artwork and therefore in all probability are group compositions by the trio members. There is no doubt that KoMaRa attempts to build a new aesthetic in contemporary music. The striking cover art (by ToolFind albums by this artist´s Adam JonesFind albums by this artist) brings almost immediate association with no less striking "Alien" surrealistic cinematic art by Swiss H. R. GigerFind albums by this artist and in all honesty this album could easily serve as the soundtrack of the "Alien" movies. The music is completely beyond classification, which by itself is already a huge compliment. Cross-genre, cross-style, cross-culture it simply goes all over the place, from Heavy Metal to contemporary Classical, with a serious dose of Jazzy improvisation, Electronic and Ambient, in short a wonderful mayhem, which against all odds makes perfect sense artistically. Although there is no point in analyzing individual contributions by the trio members, as this music is an indissoluble whole, it must be stated that the final result works so well because the personas behind it are so different from each other. Kollar is the avant-gardist relentlessly searching for new sounds and effects, Mastelotto is the rock of Gibraltar, keeping everything in check and Raineri is the romantic sound poet pouring his lyricism on top to calm the stormy, erupting lava bubbling below. KoMaRa is not revolutionary; countless groups attempted similar musical synergy projects since many years, and yet it is undoubtedly one of the most successful of such projects. Therefore, rather then revolution, KoMaRa´s music presents another evolutionary step in music, which amalgamates all our musical traditions and manages to come forth with something previously unachieved, which happens, sadly, extremely rarely as of late. In spite of this music´s "strangeness", it is remarkably accessible, at least to an experienced listener. Repeated listening reveals additional layers, as usual in projects of such complexity, which means that this album can be discovered and re-discovered over a period of time. This is definitely an album that deserves to be wholeheartedly recommended and open-minded / open-hearted listeners are in for a treat!

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THE BLESSED BEAT ~ MIV HEVHETIA 0108 (Barcode: 8588005257404) ~ SLOVAKIA ~ Jazz-Rock-World Fusion Recorded: 2015 Released: 2015 This is the debut album by the international trio The Blessed BeatFind albums by this artist comprising of Slovak guitarist David KollarFind albums by this artist, Italian drummer Simone CavinaFind albums by this artist and Italian trumpeter Paolo RaineriFind albums by this artist. It presents eight pieces, which are all improvised group compositions by the trio members. The album was composed and recorded in "real time", i.e. using the "what was played is what you hear" approach. The concept behind the music was to create an imaginary soundtrack to an imaginary movie (well, not completely imaginary as at least two different film adaptations were made), based on the Charles BukowskiFind albums by this artist´s shocking story "The Copulating Mermaid Of Venice, CA". The MIV title stands for "Mermaid In Venice" and the titles of the eight pieces are quotations from the story´s actual text. Imaginary soundtracks are of course not a new idea and contemporary musicians are quite fond of this specific sub-genre, which if being used in Progressive Rock, Alternative Rock and Electronic / Ambient music. This album however completely disregards genre boundaries and being completely improvised based on a very loose pre-defined ideas, it is quite different from most other projects of this kind. In view of the fact that this music is performed by just three musicians, it is pretty amazing that they are able to produce effectively such tremendous "wall of sound" sonority. The music flows on several parallel layers of sound, produced by the distorted guitar, the powerful drums, the electronic textures and finally by the trumpet, which floats on top of everything. Since there is very limited melodic continuity, the music transmits an eerie sense of timelessness and floating dimensionless space, which pulls the listener deeper and deeper into the imaginary story evolving underneath. The music displays an amazing, almost telepathic level of communication between the three musicians, each working on his musical plane and all together creating a common virtual sonic reality. Of course Improvised Music, like this one, has a great advantage by constantly changing depending on the listener´s emotional and intellectual input at a specific moment. Therefore albums like this propose theoretically an infinite number of experiences over time. Overall this is a very powerful and ambitious debut effort, which is worth investigating by all adventurous and open-minded music lovers anywhere on this planet. Well done, Gentlemen!

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