Karda Estra

Karda Estra is an very competent group of British musicians who from from the late 90's to the date, create music that combines the dark spirit of the Eastern Europe ethnic sound (present in the use of Bazouki and Rastrophone) with the skills of the most pristine Symphonic Prog you can imagine expressed in complex and well developed orchestral arrangements that create an atmosphere of mystery and obscurity enhanced by the haunting chorals.
Karda Estra is the brainchild of the multi instrumentalist and composer Richard Willeman who is obviously obsessed with the 1800's Gothic Revival and created this Neo Classical - Progressive project to exploit that dark mood that most Progressive Rock followers love so much. Their main inspiration is so wide that goes from Romanian music from the Carpathian Mountains to Steve Hackett with who he shares that obsession for obscurity.

This twelfth album from Richard Wileman’s prolific jazz rock operation collects Karda Estra’s two EPs The Seas & The Stars and Future Sounds, but there’s a feeling of intoxicated, stargazing wonder running through these tracks that means it sounds as coherent a set as any they’ve made to date. The beautifully drifting orchestrations of Season’s Greet provide the sonic clouds from which Ileesha Wileman can beguile us with airy vocal reveries, as she also does to head-spinning effects on the similarly contemplative The Sleepers Of Gliese. Elsewhere, however, it’s more soundtrack-like, with Andromeda Approaches! benefitting from an eerie Moog-like motif, and there are distinct echoes of avant-garde legend David Axelrod on the classically dressed, faintly baroque soundscapes of Niall, enhanced by the subtle polyrhythms of perennial collaborator and Muffins drummer Paul Sears…

In mid-2002, Artemiy Artemiev simultaneously released a handful of collaborations (four, to be exact). This one, with England's project Karda Estra, is the most unexpected and satisfactory of the lot. Sure, it does not stand as the Russian electronician's most cutting-edge work. Honestly, on listening to it one could not care less. Equilibrium is a brilliant album of spacy pieces with gothic and soft prog rock overtones. Artemiev provides most of the background textures: vaporous synths, slightly disquieting samples and atmospheres, occasional electronic percussion. Karda Estra's main man, Richard Wileman, adds soft guitar lines, usually slow melodies faded in with a volume pedal and soundscape loops - think of Richard Pinhas' softer music…

2015's 'Strange Relations' was the eleventh album to be released by Richard under the Karda Estra banner, and although it is still recognisable as such, there is a much larger jazz element contained than normal. This is because the first six (of eight) tracks were a partnership between Richard and drummer Paul Sears (The Muffins). Given that it's not unusual for drums to hardly feature at all in Richard's work, having a jazz drummer involved is bound to give a very different feel to proceedings. This time around Richard uses electric, acoustic, classical and bass guitars, keyboards, samples, percussion, zither and rastrophone while Caron de Burgh provides oboe on three songs and cor anglais on two, Amy Fry clarinet on three and sax on three, Mike Ostime trumpet on one, Kavus Torabi (Knifeworld) electric guitar on a song while of course Ileesha Wileman provides her delicate wordless vocals on a couple as well.

Loving the new solo album from Karda Estra's Richard Wileman. New songs and instrumentals written by Richard Wileman plus some rearrangements of Karda Estra pieces that can fit into a live setting. Also includes a cover of 'The Tinker Of Rye' (written by Paul Giovanni) from the film 'The Wicker Man.' Thoughtful, atmospheric music with an agreeably skewed view of the world around us.

Progressive rock usually takes its inspiration from litterature, especially when it comes to science-fiction or fantasy. Edgar Allan Poe is usually regarded as the father of these two genres, especially with his famous novels, translated in French by Charles Baudelaire in 1856 under the title "Histoires Extraordinaires". The American author was the perfect subject for this project by the Musea label and the Colossus fanzine. A mountain to climb as well… Here are the artists that rose up to the challenge: Marco La Muscio, Senogul, La Théorie des Cordes, Oracle, N.O.T., Dunwich, Guy Leblanc, Jinetes Negros, Karda Estra, Jukka Kulju, Anima Morte, Blank Manuscript, Areknames, Little Tragedies, Armalite, Chansonoir, Magnetic Sound Machine and Daal. Mission accomplished!

The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft is an inspired and exciting musical journey through "weird fiction" as explored by twenty modern Progressive rock bands from around the globe. Jointly published by Colossus and Musea, this boxset includes three discs and a gorgeous sixty-four-page booklet. H.P. Lovecraft was one of the most influential writers of the XXth Century. A pioneer of "weird fiction", he influenced Stephen KING and helped create the subgenre which includes "The Twilight Zone", "The X-Files" and "Fringe". Each participating band chose a different novel, and then composed a musical piece based on, or inspired by, the story. These weird tales proved to be a fantastic launching pad for the bands' imaginations, as this project contains track after track of fantastic and creative Progressive rock…

Some will be aware of the long running partnership between the Finland’s Colossus Project and French label/distributor Musea Records. The fruits of this joining have produced an impressive twenty-plus back-catalogue of ‘compilation’ releases dating back over a decade and a half. The format has altered somewhat over the years, but in essence the varied projects bring together bands and musicians, from across the globe, to offer interpretations from a given theme. This is the second installment in the Colossus Decameron series, spanning Decameron days 4-7.
As the album title implies, the book itself contains one hundred tales - this is told by a group of ten young people who are hiding in an isolated villa just outside Florence in Italy to escape the Black Death, circa 1346-53…