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Cagri Tozluoglu is the new keyboard player!
Hailing form Istanbul, Turkey, Cagri is emerging as one of the hottest keyboard talents on the rock scene.
Cagri moved to London in 2008 to persue his musical career, performing with various rock and progressive bands before
auditioning for Karnataka.
Karnataka is very pleased to announce Hayley Griffiths as the new leadsinger. Hayley was singer for the Irish "Riverdance" and toured all around the world.
This means Ian is full with new ideas and working on a new album.
Hayley has now embarked on a hugely successful solo career, releasing her debut album Silver Screen to critical acclaim in 2010 and winning the
prestigious Classical Crossover Album Of The Year Award 2010.
This ethereal music is based on a magical brew of influences, progressive folk-rock with layers of Celtic and eastern references. With playful melodies, no complex song structures, melodic keyboard tapestries, nice gently guitars and highly emotional vocals. If you want to compare: All About Eve, Clannad, Enya, The October Project, a touch of Mostly Autumn and Misplaced Childhood of Marillion is another that came up to my mind. Guitar solos are giving the music a sharper edge, but the music remains a bit light - they never get heavy or bombastic.
Formed in '96 their first eponymously titled album was released in '98. Most members came from The Big Pink.
The Storm is an album from 2000.
They did a successful tour with Porcupine Tree (01) and they had several gigs with Mostly Autumn.
They will perform at an festival in the U.S.A. with Mostly Autumn, Asia, Uriah Heep and others (6 October 2002; good luck!).
They have a DVD released in 2002.
Rachel did some vocals for The Story so Far, a live album from Mostly Autumn ('01).
What are your musical roots?
Ian: My musical roots start with progressive rock: Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Yes, Pink Floyd, Marillion … but over time my tastes have diversified to include pretty much all types of music. Rachel and myself have become big fans of Celtic artists such as Clannad, Iona, Loreena McKennit, ambient artists such as Deep Forest.
Rachel: I’ve always listened to a wide variety of music from an early age. Kate Bush was an early influence. Clannad are also a band I admire much. David Gray, Brian Kennedy and Celtus have also become recent favorites as well as discovering some great bands who have already been around a while such as Yes and Pink Floyd.
They have a new album out. The disc is entitled Delicate Flame Of Desire, and is described as being "sensual, spiritual and unrestrained by musical boundaries, the dramatic, multi-layered arrangements combine with haunting vocal melodies to create a powerful and epic work where panoramic soundscapes give way to fragile moments of acoustic intimacy". Well, that's quite a mouth full! The album is currently only available through the Karnataka website, and will be on general release in January 2003. (Thanks to DPRP).
They had planned a tour with All About Eve (only in Great Brittain). ;-(
Live In The USA DVD ('03):
A double live album entitled Strange Behaviour is released in 2004 and will be the final album of this great band. And the album is really a must have, great recording and excellent playing.
News August 2004:
Karnataka splitt up!
"Karnataka regret to announce that for personal reasons the band is no longer able to continue. We would like to thank all of you who supported us from our early gigs in 1998 up to the present, it is largely you who have made this journey so worthwhile for all of us and we hope that the music we have made together has been something that will continue to live on after the band. Please note that all the remaining Karnataka gigs have been cancelled.
Karnataka would like to especially thank Ray & Steph for their constant “courage under fire”, Mark Shaw for opening many doors for the band and “telling it like it is”, Martin Hudson and the CRS for opening many ears to the band, Russ Elliot for all things American, Steve Evans and Joe Gibb for their own open ears and all the other special people who have helped us along the way and become friends as well as fans (you know who you are!).
Looking to the future, the individual members of Karnataka will be working on new material, either solo or in various combinations and subscribers to the Karnataka mailing list will receive news of CD releases, live dates and any other developments as and when they happen. Information will also be posted on www.karnataka.org.uk. We hope that you will support the future endeavours of all the band members as they will all contain part of what made Karnataka such a special band.
The band’s website will continue to operate and all the CDs and DVDs will continue to be available with the exception of the first album “Karnataka” (we have approx. 100 copies left and once these are sold the album will be deleted). The T-Shirts will also no longer be produced once the current stock has sold out.
We hope you’ve enjoyed listening to us as much as we’ve enjoyed playing for you.
Anne, Rachel, Gavin, Ian, Jonathan & Paul"
In 2005 they start working on a new album:
In March '06 Ian announced that Lisa Fury will be the new vocalist, see
www.lisafury.com.
She is also involved with Chasing the Monson, Ians solos project, but is it really will see the daylight?
In the meantime they did a gig at the Vibes From The Vines Festival in support of Cancer Research UK. The festival was held on Saturday 12th August 2006. the line-upp was:
Ian Jones - bass/acoustic guitars  |  |
Karnataka recently commissioned 'light graffiti artist' Michael Bosanko to produce a series of images for the new album The Gathering Light.
Michael Bosanko is one of the most exciting and original photographers / artists to emerge in recent years with his work being featured worldwide - including the recent Talk Talk mobile phone adverts. Michael Bosanko has produced a superb series of images for the new album artwork.
Ian Jones came in for a lot of criticism when he revived the Karnataka name in 2005. The previous incarnation of the celtic-flavoured progressive rock band had imploded a year earlier just at the point where they seemed to be poised for a major breakthrough. The new-look Karnataka played some live dates in 2007 with just Ian Jones on bass remaining from the original band, which led some critics to dismiss them as a ‘glorified tribute band’, despite a fair proportion of new material in the setlist, including the memorable title track for their forthcoming album “The Gathering Light”.
In the end it would be another three years before that album would finally see the light of day, but when it finally emerged, it’s exceeded all expectations. The original band was great on atmospherics, but the new Karnataka have gone and done an album of the sort of hugely epic symphonic prog I haven’t heard done this well since Marillion’s “Brave”. The sound is massive and multilayered with impassioned vocals and soaring guitars augmented by guest appearances from Hugh McDowell of ELO fame on cello, Troy Donockley’s distinctive Uilleann pipes, and a string quartet on a couple of songs.
Lisa Fury has always impressed me as a live singer, her studio vocal performances here have just the right balance between emotional depth and technical precision that distinguish a great singer from a merely good one. But for me the real revelation is Enrico Pinna’s guitar playing; prog guitar at it’s finest, with occasional echoes of Steve Hackett or Pendragon’s Nick Barratt, but a symphonic style that’s still his own.
The album starts with two instrumentals, the short but evocative “The Calling” featuring Troy’s pipes, followed by the lengthy workout “State of Grace“. The string-laden ballad “Moment in Time” is one song that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on “Delicate Flame of Desire”, and again features Troy’s pipes, along with some great slide guitar from Enrico. The three-part epic “Forsaken” is perhaps the high spot of the album, tremendously moving vocals from Lisa Fury on the opening section, the symphonic instrumental “Glowing Embers” flowing seamlessly back into a reprise of the opening part. Lots of prog bands have attempted epics like that over the years, but very few succeed as magnificently.
It’s been a long time coming, but Karnataka have delivered the first essential progressive rock album of 2010.
You can find Tim Hall excellent blog at
Where Worlds Collide, with more excellent reviews and thoughts, please check him out.
The line upp in 2012 is:
New Light.
Rachel sung a few times with
Mostly Autumn. She did again a great job at the launch of "Storms Over Still Water", Mostly Autumns new album,
at the Astoria 4th of June 2005!
And it was really nice to meet her and her friend, see you Another Place another Time!
Rachel is on board at ProgAID,
just like Jonathan and Paul.
Futher she worked with Andy Pickford and Dave Bainbridge (Iona (March 2003))
to provide backing vocals for studio recordings and stage performances,
and has recently contributed a track to the forthcoming album from the UK's newest dark metal band
The Drowning.
Ian started a project called Chasing the Monsoons with
Steve Evans (producer of Delicate Flame of Desire) and Ian Simmons (songwriter, jazz-rock
guitarist).
The release date of their debut album is sheduled in the early 2006.
See: www.chasingthemonsoon.com
, great flashy site with an promising mp3 to download.
Jonathan Edwards and Paul Davies started the band Panic Room and joined ProgAID, just like Rachel.
Anne Marie Helder; see this page.
You'll find a link to their nice good looking site at my link-page.
Symfo-Index.