Album Notes

How often do you hear about numetal from Ukraine,singer/songwriters from Korea,progressive rock from Kenya or AOR from Bulgaria?!,well I don?t know about the others but Clearland really do play AOR and comes from Bulgaria!

It?s a duo consisting of Nikolay Raikov-Vocals and Konstantin Jambazov-Guitars,Bass,Keyboards and Vocals,formed in 2000 in Varna, Bulgaria-they started writing songs in the AOR vein in the same vein as their favorite bands Asia, Kansas, Yes, Toto, Foreigner, Chicago etc and in 2003 they were signed to UBP International and recorded this debut album.

First of all I must say that the album cover reminds a lot of Styx classic art cover "Pieces of eight" with the famous men in stones standing on the Easter island,then the music which is really early 80?s based AOR like a light weight version of Asia.

These boys got great ideas like the the opening track "Feel the world","The way to love you more" (best song on the album) and the instrumental cover of Queen?s masterpiece "Bohemian Rhapsody" (an odd but cool version),but "Keep spirits high" echoes out Eurovision song contest a long way......and the fusion/west coast syrup dripping "Love and tenderness" and "I will fly" don't belong here at all.

I think they should consider a more straight ahead AOR-ish style over the whole album next time and with a larger production,Clearland could be a band to reckon with.