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As expansive and emotive a statement of progressive art rock music as you will hear this year with over 75 minutes of memorable melodies to savour. It’s an excellent mix of mostly instrumental tracks with some stunning vocals which has expanded way beyond the horizons of earlier KARFAGEN, but still retains the much loved sounds that reminds us of bands such as CAMEL and FOCUS which is built upon with the debut of local guitarist ALEXANDR PAVLOV who’s playing is masterful.

For the first time there is vocals on three tracks by MARINA ZACHAROVA a female vocalist in the tradition of Celtic flavoured bands such as MOSTLY AUTUMN, MAGENTA and THE REASONING, a sound that creates that special magic the listener is always seeking, with vocals that heighten and compliment the track rather than dominate.

SANDPIPER is the follow up to the 2007 studio album THE SPACE BETWEEN US, since then we have been treated to the compilation 2CD, THE KEY TO PERCEPTION. KALUGIN stated then that Keys was a closing of the first chapter of KARFAGEN.

So with the Solitary Sandpiper Journey what else is new? Well like any artist who is continually progressing (don’t forget he is still not even 30 years old) in his work there comes a moment when a combination of changes marks a watershed and the tracks here show this. The previous KARFAGEN studio albums were recorded on restricted budgets and with AK accordingly handing over control of certain aspects to other parties, here just like with the SUNCHILD and HOGGWASH albums he has complete control on all aspects of the recording and mastering showing Kalugin's abilities in these fields which places him at the forefront of the new generation of progressive art rock musicians.

So here is 75 minutes of KALUGIN in full KARFAGEN vein and bringing you as good a mix of instrumental and vocal music as you will hear in 2010 enjoy the feast folks.