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Karfagen — Ukrainian art rock band formed in 2006 by songwriter, architect and designer Antony Kalugin from Kharkiv, Ukraine. The music of Karfagen is mostly instrumental and combine elements of progressive rock, art rock and symphonic rock. Almost all songs and concepts of the band created by Antony Kalugin himself. By the end of 2018 band released nine albums and participated several European progressive rock festivals. The band don't have a constant line-up although since 2006 a lot of musicians from Ukraine and all around the world played there as a session musicians. Karfagen is mainly an instrumental band that shows imaginative use of keyboards, guitars, classical and ethnic instruments. Their music has strong connections and references to the music of the other Antony Kalugin projects — Hoggwash and Sunchild. According to Antony, the music of Karfagen is created under the influence of Camel, Genesis, UK, Pink Floyd and The Flower Kings among other art rock bands.

Formation and first albums (1998 — 2009)
The history of Karfagen began in 1998. The keybordist Antony Kalugin invited session musicians to record a few songs written by him during the school and University years. These records was released only in 2009, as the bonus traks to the album «The Key to Perception». After that Antony writes sseveral new age albums (by now there are more than 40 of them ) and works on his skills as the songwriter and mucisian. The first album, «Continuum» was released in 2006 on the Unicorn Digital Label, Canada. Besides Antony Kalugin, Kostya Shepelenko is the only contemporary member of the band, who participated the recording of this album.

The second album, «The Space Between Us» was released in 2007 on the same label. During the recording of these two albums the band was championed by Will Mackie from Caerllysi Music who participated another Antony project, Hoggwash. The cover design was created by Johnas Thuren from Xinema band (Sweden).

In 2009 both of these albums was reissued on Caerllysi Music. The reissue, called «The Key to Perception», contained archive materials and demo-records from different periods.

2010—2015
The next album «Solitary Sandpiper Journey» revealed the new step in the band growth. It was released March, 1, 2010 on Caerllysi Music and contains a 75 minutes of art rock music. In contrast to previous album, «Solitary Sandpiper Journey» includes a 22-minutes long epic song «Mystery». 18 musucians from Ukraine participated the recording, including well-known ukrainian jazz singer Marina Zakharova. Album was mestered by Antony himself. Comparing to «The Space Between Us», this album was well-rated by audience (3.90 comparing to 3.15 on progstreaming ).

«Lost Symphony» was released in November, 2011. This album was rated as one of the best Karfagen albums. It is noticeable also because of the Roberto Diaz from Anima Mundi, who participated the record as the guest guitarist. During the recording of this album Karfagen also joined by basist Oleg Prohorov, who also participates the present line-up.

The next release — «Aleatorica», finished in 2013. The album is written by Antony Kalugin in collaboration with the bayanist Sergey Kovaliov. The line-up was extended with multiinstrumentalist Sergey Klevenskiy (Russia) andTomek Mucha (Poland), who participated it as the session electroviolin players.

Sixth album, «Magician's Theater», according to Caerllysi Music, is one of the band masterpieces. It includes a 21-minutes long epic «Magician's Spell» and forms part of the band concert setlist. Max Velychko (Inside the Sound, Modern Rock Ensemble) was invited as a session guitarist for this album; after the album release in 2014 he became a constant Karfagen and Sunchild member.

The next album «7», reveales the strong influence of Pink Floyd. It was released in 2015. For the first time the cover was painted by artist Igor Sokolskiy from Zaporizhzhya (but still designed by Kalugin). This is also the first album, written with the participation of all the constant band members — Antony Kalugin, Max Velychko, Oleg Prokhorov and Kostya Shepelenko.

Breaking Free Tour (2016) — till present
In 2016 Karfagen enters the 10th anniversary European tour called «Breaking Free Tour». The band tours Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Netherlands and France. Later, in 2017, the materials from this tour was released on DVD. The band line-up of this time is Antony Kaugin (keyboards, vocal), Max Velychko (guitar), Oleg Prokhorov (bass-guitar), Kostya Shepelenko (drums), Olha Rostovska (keyboards, vocals) and Olga Vodolazhska (vocals, accustic guitar, percussion). The band plays several Sunchild tracks, songs from Magician's Theater, Continuum, 7 and upcoming album «Spektra».

This album, released November, 2016, is the conceptual album, devoted to the myths and culture of Ancient Greece. It is divided in three parts, called "phases" and is entirely instrumental except the one song; album also includes a long epic song. By the structure as well as the sound it is close to the progressive rock of early 70th.

In 2017 band participates several progressive rock festivals: ProgSud in France and 2 days prog + 1 sharing the scene with Karmakanic, Glass Hammer and Procol Harum. At the end of this year band releases the ninth album — «Messeges from Afar: First Contact». The line-up of six mentioned above members was extended by the sax of Michael Sydorenko. This album also reveals the complex structure: on the inner level it is divided into three instrumental «messeges». Each of them has circular structure and connected to the other by a few instrumental lines; moreover, entire album also has the circular structure and ends with reprise. The second part of this story released in 2018 by Sunchild and called «Messeges from Afar: The division and Illusion of time». Two albums has a lot of references between each other and are creating the structured music sequence, as it is typical for progressive rock albums. The sound of «Messeges from Afar» inherits a lot of ideas from the classic progressive rock bands, such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, Supertramp, Kayak etc. Antony Kalugin commented the idea of this album in following words: "Messages from Afar are messages from faraway, messages of good and bright music, positive. The moment has come, when I felt, that today’s prog sound and music is not kind and… not vintage enough, I guess. It is the same with pop music — it’s too aggressive and full of sexuality (and sometimes it is the same thing). I decided to make a kind and good album, and my modus operandi was to reach people’s minds is the “Messages from Afar".

In December, 2018 Karfagen announced their next album — «Echoes from Within Dragon Island» that will be released on January, 2019.

Discography

 * 2006 - Continium
 * 2007 - The Space Between Us
 * 2009 - The Key to Perception
 * 2010 - Solitary Sandpiper Journey
 * 2011 - Lost Symphony
 * 2013 - Aleatorica
 * 2014 - Magician Theater
 * 2015 - 7
 * 2016 - Spektra
 * 2017 - Breaking Tour Live (DVD +CD)
 * 2017 - Messages from Afar: First Contact

Current members

 * Antony Kalugin – keyboards, vocal
 * Max Velychko – guitar
 * Oleg Prokhorov – bass-guitar
 * Kostya Shepelenko - drums

Former and session members

 * Sergiy Balalayev – drums
 * Sergiy Kovaliov – bayan
 * Andrew Kobylanskiy – guitar
 * Alexandr Pavlov – guitar
 * Victoria Osmachko – vocal, percussion
 * Olga Vodolazhska – vocal, acoustic guitar, percussion
 * Olha Rostovska - keyboards, backing vocals, percussion
 * Konstantin Ionenko – bass-guitar
 * Alexandr Pastukhov – bassoon
 * Lesya Kofanova – fluite
 * Oleg Polyanskiy – grand piano, keyboards
 * Oleg Pashkovskiy – grand piano
 * Michael Sydorenko – sax
 * Ivan Rubanchuk – drums
 * Olena Bour – oboe
 * Marina Zakharova – vocal
 * Sergiy Klevenskiy – fluite, clarnet
 * Tomek Mucha - electric violin
 * Mathieu Spaeter – electric guitars
 * Roberto Diaz - electric guitars
 * Max Morozov – viola
 * Daria Morozova – violin
 * Oksana Podmaryova – cello
 * Artem Vasylchenko – tenor-sax
 * Olga Koganiyk – backing vocal
 * Vadim Samosiyk – drums
 * Alexandr Tunyakin – bass-guitar
 * Roman Gorelov – acoustic guitar
 * Denis Moroz – guitar
 * Roman Kucherenko – bass-guitar
 * Timotei Sobolev – vocal
 * Georgiy Katunin – lyre, fluite
 * Olena Moskalets – vocal
 * Oleg Korotaev – guitar
 * David Todua – electric guitar
 * Roman Filonenko – guitars
 * Marianna Sobol' - vocal