This sister fronted progressive rock band from Russia make beautiful psychedelic influenced progressive rock with gorgeous extended instrumental passages. The style is reminiscent of Mostly Autumn, Karnataka or Iona at times. Lead vocalist/keyboardist Elena Kanevskaya has a voice that reminds me of Rachel Cohen or Heather Findlay with an accent that’s not immediately recognizable. I guess I don’t hear enough Russian prog!
There is much to enjoy about The Door to a Parallel World, especially its rollicking title track featuring a long Pink Floydian instrumental and outstanding guitar from sis Tatyana Kanevskaya. The musical motif here recalls Mike Oldfield’s work at times, but the guitar solos are very much in the David Gilmour vein. The recorder at the beginning of “Too Close to the Heavens” again brings to mind some of the Celtic influences of Mostly Autumn. “No Way Back” is good powerful rock & roll, this and the following instrumental “Visions of the Lost World” pushing a classic Golden Earring vibe. Though the latter slightly overextends its welcome with its almost twelve minute length, however.
It’s a bit gloomy at times, and it seems that they were saving much of their best work for the follow up album, 2011’s So Far And So Near, but The Door to a Parallel World is an essential part of Eternal Wanderers catalog as the debut album of a band with an extremely bright future.
Reviewed by Terry Jackson on August 21st, 2012
