Customer Reviews

THE IRON MASK

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There is a lot of soul in this music...Russian and American. The song, Blues Lullaby, is an amazing amalgam of the two cultures, featuring the sexy voice of a Newport News singer of fame in that coastal region, and the guitar of the Russian physicist known as Costy L. Annie Johnson knows how to deliver the lyrics and Costy, the song writer, did a whale of a job. Great song!

Costy-L delivers a CD based on traditional blues and rock elements generously seasoned with eastern flavors but consistent in style. A large part of the songs are instrumentals with masterful razor-blade guitar work others feature the intriguing voice of Annie Johnson as the bitter sweet "Blues Lullaby" which is one of my favorites. Some are sung by Costy himself.
Despite the English lyrics it is quite obvious that this is not an American soul which gets revealed here. Stories fueled by the inner conflicts of the old world, its rich history of beauty and destruction, its heritage of suffering and survival. Songs of despair and hope. Truly a fine piece of work.

this is the second cd of costy l.'s which i've gotten (the first was "dirty sky"), and his music has become even richer & intricate. on this album he has added a drummer on several tracks and a female lead vocalist on "blues lullaby," which are indeed great additions, but he again impresses me with (& makes me extremely jealous of) his multi-instrumentalism, and his creation of sounds which don't seem to me to come from any of those many instruments. i can't get over the variety of the sounds, techniques and influences on this album. i guess one of the most striking aspects of it is how vivid and demanding his (six) instrumentals are, especially the *highly-narrative* suite "hanging, drawing & quartering," the deceptively simple "immense light," and "bride of the blue fire." it is very often some of the most involving and original music i have heard in some time...listen for yourself, there are four samples from the "iron mask" on here (amazon)...