"No doubt, it is very nice to discover for oneself some new talented music – and the previous album by Fusion Orchestra, "Octagon" was such a discovery. But you never know what will happen next – that is why it is cool when continuation of acquaintance appears not less interesting than the beginning. It is especially nice that the album "Apocrypha" does not repeat previous ideas, but pushes off from them and makes a step forward. Yes, in this music you can still hear well the hot southern sun – but still, on the foreground, you have original cool elegance. And one can feel based on which law the space of the disc is designed: rather not to satiate, but to extend this space as much as possible – but softly. That is why here there are enough light, thin strokes, tiny details – but they do not prevent you from breathing, do not fence the horizon. If you have ever seen a large open space – a steppe, for example – you know: even a thousand birds are not able to cover, to fill the sky. Vice versa – with them it becomes even higher, deeper. And – closer... Personally I like to hear in music well-accented pauses, it is they that make it possible to follow not only thoughts and feelings of musicians, but also – pace next to them. Here this is – both possible, and pleasant. If we get back to the name of the album... Are there in one's life a lot of things as near, elusive, light, necessary, distant and warm as – the Mystery?.. if one is not afraid, sure..."

"Nice sound. i study jazz and play upright bass but i like this fusion quite a bit. i've sorta become a free jazz snob but damn this is pretty good..."

"Concur with Gregory Piere's comments. This is a very nice, elegant, sophisticated piece of modern jazz! Kept me listening and involved thru the entire track all the way to the end (and what a classy ending it is)! For me, all notes, beats, breaks, changes and melodies worked with no unnecessary dead spaces. Tight arrangement and wonderful piano work. All instruments fed the piano melodies and yet maintained their own individuality and clarity - not always an easy thing to do, especially with jazz (but that's also why this music can be difficult to play and master for all but the very best jazz musicians). You guys accomplished that, and my hats off to all of you for this very marvelous and top-of-the-line jazzy tune!"

"You guys have a very clean and polished sound. Excellent. The dynamics are amazing. You sound like you are telepathicly tight in your breaks and turns. And the sound is moving and soothing at the same time. A very nice contrast. Excellent indeed!!!"

"Firmness and masculinity of the rhythm combined with tenderness and sensory sounding of the keys. In this music we can trace some philosophy, some clearness, some balance between any extreme points and exotic features…"

"Based on the bands name, I was expecting something a little more electric, or perhaps a combination of orchestrated fusion music. Yet what this band from Crimea are about is jazz textures with elements of world fusion. Mostly all acoustical, the fourpiece of electric bass, drums, piano, and electric/classical guitar take a fairly laid back approach to their style of music. It is unique in it's own way, yet something we have heard before. All the players are very skilled and well versed in jazz improv, creating songs that are structured for the sake of interactive accompaniment, yet leaving a lot of room for stretching out as soloists.
I find that the music is very relaxed, yet shows enough technical arrangements to keep your ears piqued. Not smooth jazz in any way, as they take a more non-commercial path in their writing. In some ways I sense a little Chick Corea's Acoustik Band, yet never really going that deep into the virtuoso playing. The pianist gets main stage pretty much on every song, as the bassist and drummer provide workmanlike backdrops. The guitarist, while present seems to only be heard on occasions, giving the music a second voice.
I guess this CD is decent, though certainly not something most fans of intense fusion music are going to find that interesting. All told, this is a jazz CD, straight forward, unadulterated organic music that follows some old paths and incorporates some new ethnic sounds. It's apparent that by virtue of the bands' skill level, that they are capable of doing pretty much anything if they want to get more into the electric field of fusion, as for this CD, it's a relaxing listen on a Sunday morning kind of CD".

“Wow! "Octagon" is a very enjoyable progressive jazz fusion CD by Fusion Orchestra. The musicians on this CD are phenomenal and the band is very tight. The recording sounds very crisp, with simple production that highlights the natural sounds of the instruments and ac-complished musicians. The songs are musically complex yet enjoyable to the non-musician listener as well. For example, the tight breaks and complex runs in “Jadido” are awesome and blend together with rich piano compositions into an excellent song for the listener. Whether you enjoy listening to jazz fusion, or just listening to extremely talented musi-cians, you'll love this CD. Pick up a copy today!”

"Great stuff. Music like this is the reason sequencers will never kill a truly talented live mu-sician. Could you even imagine where to start with trying to turn this into a midi file? It just wouldn’t work on so many levels :-). "

"Hey Fusion Orchestra!! I wanted to stop thru here to let ya'll know that u are putting out some good vibes on the musical aspect man! I was just listening to the song ya'll have made called Black Bagel and I gotta give props cuz its like smooth and upbeat all at the same time!!!! How the heck do ya'll do that there??? Anyway good job and good work!!!"

"Love your music, especially the original material. Listening to Dance as I type this... what a great track!"

OCTAGON
The group’s second album containing only the original material proves to be a consistent work full of interesting ideas. Despite a standard jazz combo format the group achieves a rather unique sound.

Dance
The opening composition displays all the main features of the whole album – odd metres, a fluent but reliable bass (Pavel Voronezhsky), a briefly surfacing and easily going to background guitar (Sergey Bogdan), energetic drums (Denis Melnikov), and a piano (Eugene Popov) taking major melodic and improvisational duties. The song starts without any introduction. The slightly processed classical guitar sounding in a folk manner exposes a short main theme, which is repeated in a rondo-like succession for more than 1.5 minutes. Then a powerful bass comes in and the other instruments follow. At first the theme seems tiresome but in a while it enchants you with its unusual rhythm of 4 + 3 + 3 + 3. After a resolute bridge a lyrical improvisation comes in with the dramatic bridge revealing itself in the middle one more time. Finally a short reprise brings the theme back just when you start missing it.

Unexpected Guest
An extended melancholic and contemplative piano introduction is followed by a light bossa nova with a chain of alternating solos by Bogdan and Popov. However it is not just Latin jazz and the bossa nova can turn either into an ominous episode or a repetitive short 9/4 motif. The pianist increases intensity in his developed solo which softly resolves over the familiar 9/4 figure. The guitar bossa nova gets interrupted once again with menacing piano chords and the return of the introduction rounds up the cycle.

December Rain
December rain typical for Crimea continues the Latin theme but you cannot expect pure styles from the Fusion Orchestra. The rhythms and moods are changing, what seemed to be a smooth jazz rumba in a wink becomes swing (not a real strength of the ensemble though) and then funk. Here we can hear the first guest appearance – vocal of Lolita Poplavskaya. Unfortunately she was not allowed to deviate from the theme longer than a couple of measures so this colour in the limited group’s palette showed just as a stroke. Another interesting moment is inclusion of a real rain sound into the record. And it is not just in the intro or fade out which would be completely trivial if not banal. It is in the middle of the composition and it lasts good 1.5 minutes. All the instruments tactfully release the pressure and the rain and Voronezhsky’s pulsing bass come to the foreground.

Jadido
The fact that these musicians highly respect Chick Corea becomes evident in the “Spanish-speaking” Jadido by Voronezhsky. Its violin version was released on the first band’s CD. Arguably, it is the most popular number from their repertoire. Irresistible drive, captivating full stops… Why is it not played by radio stations? The only thing getting me off rhythm is the too loose drum solo. However the album’s voltage is getting higher.

Black Bagel
The title is inspired by Victor Pelevin’s novel The Clay Machine-Gun (Chapaev i Pustota). Its main recognizable feature is a rhythmically complex and ever escaping bass figure which unpredictably rolls groups of three and four eighths notes. The first theme is anxious and questioning, the second one is a philosophical response. Now and then we can hear an extra quarter and in a moment another quarter is missing. In the middle part the guitar and the piano trade short solos divided by lightning speed basslines. Bogdan’s guitar is far from the common patterns here. In the short break all-knowing Chapaev whistles the second theme standing at the edge of Ural (the Undefinable River of Absolute Love), and then a windmill of sounds captures you again.

Mayan Loom
Another enigmatic title meaning probably not the infamous device the Loom of Maya but rather the symmetric pattern of their calendar tool reflecting the structure of our DNA. But let’s talk about music, and the music just rocks! This is a composition of a serious length (longer than 10 minutes) and serious tension. Light jazz gives up the place to solid rock. Live sounds interweave in a rhythm of a loom, the musical texture is subtly coloured with non-standard programming. Another chromatic solo by Bogdan, then great piano work by Popov followed by – surprise! – his electric guitar solo in a manner far from the common ways. The rhythm section is amazing. Little pearls are sprinkled here and there – burst of double tempo before the end, harmonics sending shivers down my spine, and finally the stopped time of the disappeared civilization. Well, the music is much greater than this description!

Russia
By the album’s end the tension eases although the final songs are full of drama. The initial title of Russia was Country Miles. These are exactly the associations caused by the monotonous repetitive theme backed however with some harmonic movement. But the words Russia, boundless spaces, endless roads live well together and they are underlined by certain Russian thematizm. The melodically developed middle part with gradually doubling tempo is particularly interesting.

Forgotten Feelings
The CD closes with a romantic rhapsody for piano solo. The ending piece manages a rare finale combining downfall of the rhythmic intensity with increasing emotional intensity.

In the conclusion I would like to say something about the album as a whole. The cover design is pale but highly original. The disc released in the CD-Text format but unfortunately the song titles are in Cyrillic and are not displayed right by most players. Personally I would like if the always present propulsive and melodic bass of Pavel Voronezhsky was exposed at least in a single solo. I hope these wee remarks will not diminish all the strengths of this excellent body of work.

Your CD sounds and looks very good. It's very interesting and slightly "exotic" to me with all the oddmeter tunes and different scales and harmonies. My favorites are "Unexpected guest" (nice mood and beautiful melody), "Jadido" (reminds me of Chick Corea) and "Black bagel" (cool groove and high energy, funny name too :-).
It's also a very nice solopiece your pianist plays at the end. You seem to have played together for a long time, as you are tight and follow eachother well. Good idea with the voice on "December rain", more of that!
Overall, a very good, original and 'organic' album - good job!

"You guys are great! I absolutely dig the sound you have as a group and the commitment to your art!!! All the best with the new CD and all of the new tunes already brewing!"

"Fantastic album you guys have made! I love listening to it...
I can tell a lot of work went into making this album, and its great to know there's musicians at your talent level still out there. Each song has so much depth to it, it's amazing! And every song has many subtle surprises that I find myself listening over and over again. Very impressive work.
I'm so glad I found you on this thing... I don't even know how it happened... just sort of found you. And the end part on "Mayan Loom" is nothing short of brilliant. I wish you well in all your endeavors and please keep me posted on any other new material you guys make. Again, fantastic recording! I wish I could see your live show sometime."

"Listened for all downloadables I managed to find in the web. Very very interesting, many fresh hooks. I especially liked those not-so-common twists in the odd metres! My favorits by far are "Jadido", "Black Bagel" and "Mayan Loom. I await for the ordered CD and then place a full review on it."

"This is nice stuff - nicely recorded too. Reminds me of Ben Folds Five before they disappeared up their own arse."

"Black Bagel"! Great work on that one... The solos were super cool! I totally dug the transitions to whistling... But the main groove was a jammer! Great work - Especially that piano; went on a roll."

"I downloaded all 3 tracks you uploaded - all very cool tunes. I was happy to hear no vocals in the music, and that there was a certain 'jam' feel there. I hope you don't mind a comparisson, but I was thinking you sounded a bit like Phish when they were younger."

"Excellent!! Nuff said, just listen to this and be taken for a ride, that's if you dig jazz that is structured melodically & thematically while being both loose and complex at the same time? Shall have to listen to the rest of their tracks..."

"Hello Fusion Orchestra - you have good music! You have a combination of elements in your collective sound that gives a positive energy to the notes."