At the very beginning, I must admit that I love former Soviet Union and Russian hard rock and metal bands like Galaktika (Galaxy Group), Avgust, St. Peterburg, Status, Monomakh, Radio-Rock, Paranoia, Kredo, Aria, Master and a few dozen other groups who took possession of me. There are also many great guitar virtuosos in Russia: Sergey Mavrin, Victor Zinchuk, Igor Kupriyanoff, Alex Rosen and many others. But this time, I’d like to present a composer and keyboard virtuoso, Oleg Gurtovoy who founded his group Vega alongside Dmitry Simakov (bass) and Fyodor Guskov (drums) in the year 2006. The first full-length album of this commando was recorded along with a well-known Russian pop rock session guitarist, Oleg Belov in 2008. Its original title is “Voshozhdenyeâ€쳌 what means “Ascensionâ€쳌 in English.

Vega represent so-called cosmic space synth genre with influences of symphonic and bit operatic music. Most of compositions are dynamic, pompous, majestic and lofty. Obviously, here are also calmer tracks, however even those faster are very relaxing. The material has no weak points, especially as all tunes are hit, catchy and very accessible. This is the stuff for those people who admire electronic virtuosity with touches of Vangelis Papathanassiou, Jean-Michel Jarre, Harold Faltermeyer and guitar playing by Mike Oldfield and Patrick Rondat. With this mind-refreshing work, Oleg Gurtovoy deserved the title of one of the most talented electronic music virtuosos on the globe!

I listened to Oleg’s music and it's really good! One can feel he has a perfect understanding of the compositional aspects of music in general.

His music is very "logical" and some of it carries that Russian emotional feelings found in the music of the composers of that region. And he has "roots" which certainly go far deeper than just "electro-pop" music.

His sonic approach is very interesting, original and also very "clean".

Also, and though one can feel some of his "influences", the music retains a great sense of originality. The changes and the construction of each piece is logical, though sometimes it can be somewhat "unpredictable", which is very good, because it gives the listener a sense of "knowing" the music, and at the same time "surprise" the listener at some "corners".

Once again, Bravo to Oleg!

Oleg Gurtovoy is a unique artist & composer that has the ability to perform his sonic magic to the world audience & stages of any international arena, whilst transforming his listeners senses in an effortless & comforting manner that exudes talent & brilliance in the 21st century while acknowledging the great composers of the past, that reflect & dip into the pool of inspiration & emotion that is Oleg.