Tag: Kalin Tonev

Kalin Tonev Returns With New Single – ‘Sides’ – New Album Due In 2023

Five years after his last release Human Not Machine, Kalin Tonev is back with new material, which will result in a full blown album somewhere in 2023 (title TBA). This time Tonev has chosen to enter the vast territories of vocal music, introducing different singers in his music. The forthcoming new production promises a great variety of sound, style influences, form and arrangements, still retaining in its body several instrumental tracks (the core of Kalin’s previous work) under the big hat of progressive rock. The first single – SIDES – features Nikola Zdravkov as a vocalist.

Having released his first project – TravelHouse (with it’s sole album ‘Mind Mapping’ – 2008) and his solo album ‘Machine Years’ (2017) – both received good reviews in the main progressive rock sites and radio stations ( Prog Archives, Prog Radar, Morow, Friday Night Progressive, Aural Moon, Delicious Agony,etc.), and still being the author and presenter of the only one progressive rock radio show in Bulgaria (Oasis – part of the Bulgarian National Radio program Horizon), Kalin Tonev is one of the important local prog rock figures.

Watch the video for SIDES here:

Review – Kalin Tonev – Machine Years – by Progradar

I love a powerful instrumental album but they have to work harder than your normal release due to there being no words to elucidate the songwriter’s thoughts and ideas.

The best ones are chock full of brilliant instrumental phases and phrases and tend to not let each track follow the same musical path.

Hailing from Sofia, Bulgaria, Kalin Tonev was previously known as the heart and the leader/composer/keyboardist of the prog rock project TravelHouse. Tonev released just a single album (‘Mind Mapping’– 2008) under this moniker, but it gained some favorable reviews in the main prog rock sites. Kalin began working on his debut solo effort, ‘Machine Years’, spanning the whole gamut of prog signatures.

Spread over thirteen tracks and covering sixty-five minutes, ‘Machine Years’ is a thoroughly involving musical experience. Massively injected with the classic 70’s lines, modern electronic scapes with occasional dark and heavy riffs, it is a theatrical journey awash with catchy melodies and intelligent moments intertwined with a more industrial, dystopian edge in places.

Kalin’s signature synth sound is dynamic and edgy with a real feel to it and he is joined on this impressively involving soundscape by three talented guitarists, Nenko Milev, Daniel Eliseev and Biser Ivanov. Their frenetic, energetic and compelling playing adds force and vigour to an already compelling mix.

There are moments of wonderful clarity when Kalin’s vintage keyboards soar to the heavens and these are countered by the somber, skittish feel when the music takes a more chaotic route. It’s a record full of memorable tunes but the highlights for me are Short Story About Tanks, Beings, Mad Dancer, News From Nowhere and the hypnotic This Empty Space.

Complex industrial, instrumental progressive rock with a lush and thoughful side, ‘Machine Years’ is an impressive debut and should see this talented musician really forge a name for himself.

Released 27th January 2017

Order the album from bandcamp here