That does mean that I started listening to the follow-up album titled Omi II, Act 1 The Glass of Time with very high expectations. The title indicates that more parts of Omni will follow and that is of course great news. One thing is immediately clear, he has worked with heart and soul on this new album and you can hear it.

With Omni I we have already welcomed many renowned guest musicians and that is certainly the case with this follow up too. The main album contains 8 tracks and has a total playing time of over forty-seven minutes, so it is perfectly suitable for a single release on vinyl. However, there is a pleasant bonus, side C with equally great pieces of music that are all instrumental except one and are at least as good as the regular album. As with Omni I, this is easy to understand, but when I hear what the combination with the pieces in between would have been like, I sometimes regret that choice a bit. Of course, the album is also available on CD and a digital download will be available. There will be a vinyl version too ofcourse. As always, I go for the CD but have written this review based on a digital version because I think there should be a lot of attention for this album and an early review can help with this.

As already mentioned, there is again a variety of well-known and recognized guests who make their contributions both vocally and instrumentally, while the regular musicians also show beautiful things. If I have to indicate who exactly is playing in each song, it will become an impossibly long review but where necessary I will give some names.

We open the ball with Overture, Glass of Time part 1 and immediately we are majestically sucked into the overwhelming keyboard work of Kalugin and his fellow musicians. This instrumental piece has everything, the guitar work of Michel St-Pere is really fantastic. The theme melody is immediately recognizable and it will reappear several times. Then we meet the second well known artist, Roine Stolt of the Flower Kings, he sings and plays guitar in the fairly quiet and slightly jazzy track Frozen Rivers. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of this Swedish band and especially of Roine's voice that is somewhat pinched. Still, everything sounds right in this track and if you consider that his brother Michael plays the bass, the comparison with the Swedish Flower Kings is inevitable and it is in favour of this track because Kalugin has given the song its own identity with his subtle keys and his sense of melody. John Hackett's flute playing also provides that extra dimension and we also hear Marek Arnold's saxophone who fortunately also plays quite calm. This is followed by a fantastic track called Shadowbound with a truly phenomenal singing Maria Panasenko who exchanges her usual place in the background for the absolute foreground, what a voice. The underlying guitar lines are also so beautifully processed that you have to concentrate to experience them. And while we're on the subject of great vocals, Marco Glühmann of German Sylvan is also present again and he shows in Shape of Love why Kalugin lets him shine again, because this song is also very beautiful and has that typical Karfagen layering. Great melodies follow each other in quick succession and both guitar and keys sound beautiful again, this time without real solos and I think that's a shame. The real star of this track is Glühmann with his sometimes fragile voice that switches back to voluminous just as easily. The elusiveness of love in all its forms is clearly felt in the emotion he puts into his voice.  And then, before you know it, you're at the end of side A, to speak in vinyl terms. (while I am not a vinyl fan)

Side B starts with Carry On, a long track with RPWL singer Yogi Lang and guitarist Kalle Wallner and this is another great song with fortunately a beautiful guitar solo and I think RPWL would like to compose a track of this level. For the loyal visitors of my site it is known that I don't really like saxophone but I can live with the way Marek Arnold gently introduces the next song, Beyond the Mirror, where Per Malmberg (Salva) takes care of the vocals and he was also present on the first Omni part. His voice appeals to me a bit less but because of the excellent background vocals of Olha Rostovska, Maria Panasenko and Jannica Lund it is vocally strong again. The track itself is not that exciting, a bit flat, but it fits perfectly into the overall concept. In How fragile we are Maria Panasenko is up again and the flow of the album is kept alive. How do you best end such a beautiful album, well like with Uverture The Glass of Time Part 2 in which St-Pere together with Antony himself provide a great instrumental finale with delicious guitar outbursts on a thunderous background of keys. And that melody, that is prog rock of the highest order and of course the theme of the opening song comes along again so that the circle is nicely completed.

Just like with Omni 1, I do miss some instrumental fireworks here and there, but that is more than made up for with the bonus side. Especially Silent Compass, with beautiful guitar work and Omni 45 also with another great solo by St-Pere are instrumental hits that would fit in perfectly with the regular album. The only vocals you here are from Jean Pageau, the excellent singer from Canadian powerhouse Mystery. In We live while we remember he shows his skills as a vocalist. This track has a melody to die for. In the end Kalugin has consciously chosen to make the main album a vocally oriented album and he has more than succeeded. And you can see that you don’t need a whole bunch of rhythm changes and technical capers to make an excellent prog album that sounds great too.

I haven't talked about the lyrics yet, they are also very beautiful and so Kalugin can express his view on many worldly but also human emotions in a very intelligent way and every listener can interpret them with their own experiences and thoughts in mind.

I have to say something about the artwork again, Gyuri Lohmuller has managed to capture the atmosphere of the album perfectly in the very beautiful cover, making Omni II a work for the sake of joy in which Antony has put everything he has got. I have so much respect for this man who really does everything himself and has been labouring day and night to get this release on the road.

With this album, Kalugin has once again proven that he is at the absolute top of our genre with his sense of melody, atmosphere and his choice of guest musicians. Omni II Act 1 The Glass of Time is therefore a more than worthy successor to its predecessor and I'm sure the next part will be too. But first enjoy this masterpiece and I can only say, buy this album because you won't regret it!

Music 93

Cover 93

P.s. Sorry that I did not mention every name of the people playing on the album.