Wheel of Life

What can I say? First of all, if you don't own this album, you are truly missing out. Right from the beginning with Masterplan pt. 1, Jonas and the boys show their outstanding talent with lightening fast chord structures while exploring several melodic soundscapes. This is definitely my favorite track on the album. I simply cannot put into words how awesome this album is. As a flower kings fan and listener of such other bands as Yes, Genesis, Bela Fleck and the flecktones, and Phish, I can say that there is a little something in this album for everyone. I give it my highest recommendation. With a cd collection of over 1400 cd's, this goes right up in the top 10 already. Buy it, you will NOT be disappointed.

Well I love hunting out new music and when i found this CD I was bowled over (eventually). This CD took me 2 or 3 listenings to get my ears round it...but I see that as a compliment to the material and the bands direction. I believe if you like an album too easlily you will just as easily tire of it.

This is another typical Prog side project led by Jonas Riengold (Bass Player of the Flower Kings). This album is a great mix of styles with a bit of jazz rock edge. It is orginal and like a breath of fresh air to listen too.

As you might expect the Bass playing is quite prominent..but what the hell its the Bass Players project...but hey what a Bass player he is too.

Karmakanic is for the prog purist I would say... its smooth, exact, calculated and well excecuted music.
Ignore this album at your peril. If you do not own it yet then it is your loss. Listen, be open minded and give it a chance....you'll end up loving it. I know I did and it remains one of my best CD finds from the past couple of years.

I much prefer this material to that of the Flower Kings and can't wait for them to release the third album (second album 'Entering the Spectra')

The music of Karmakanic gets better with every release. Their debut Entering The Spectra although a very good really does sound like one of the Flower Kings albums. What we are getting on Wheel Of Life to some extend and even more of on their latest Who's The Boss In The Factory (my first exposure to this band) is the increased amount of beautiful melodic moments of the sorts the music of Yes and Genesis would usually end up exploding in. For whatever strange reasons the music of Flower Kings was lacking these overtures, as far as my ears, or actually my heart and soul could tell. As I think is quite visible by now Jonas Reingold happens to be very spiritual and I am so glad that he had found a way to express and share with us his beautiful inner self.

`Every single action has its consequence
From the greatest conquest to a thought.
Every single flutter from the wings of a butterfly
Causes little whirlwinds that will make the heavens roar
In the wheel of life.'

The above text was placed by Jonas on the inside cover as a motto of this album. It is a part of his lyrics for the title song Wheel Of Life. I don't know much about butterflies but the first sentence of this statement I believe in as well. It is one of the basic laws of the spiritual world. I am not sure if Jonas as well is spending his free time following the body of work left behind by spiritual scientists, or should I say, by the scientists of the realm of spirit like Rudolf Steiner, Djwhal Khul and many others, but it surely seems like it, since he shares their main and fundamental esoteric truth with us and writes a rock concept album around that thought. This world may seem uninspiring on the surface but It is truly magical beneath its appearance, and we are so lucky to have access to such an enormous body of knowledge by now. From one search to the other we are able to google our way into the wisdom of the world accumulated by others over the centuries. Although technologically we are at the pinnacle of our development right now I actually feel like, unfortunately we are walking down the mountain from the heights of our spiritual development achieved by us exactly 100 years ago. Do not confuse what I am talking about with spiritualism, which was a very materialistic approach to...completely missing the point. I have a feeling that in the next years and decades we will be getting more and more little clues here and there, gentle and beautifully wrapped, like this album Wheel Of Life, slowly opening our eyes to the secrets of our esoteric universe. It would be such a waste for humanity to move on in the way we are moving right now, oblivious to the fundamentals leading our existence. Here are the lyrics beginning this album:

`SOS for mankind, stuck in the illusion
Crawling in the mud of, convincing misconception.
SOS for everyone suffering from the belief
That everything we feel is real and driven out of greed.'

Musically this album has a progressive rock feeling lightened by its jazz influences. This mood keeps on growing on you with your consecutive listening. Perhaps nothing strikes you here as spectacular but the concept is grand, the music is great and the light acquired keeps on shining within you. This album is very even and although my favorite song might be Where The Earth Meets The Sky there are no highs and lows here. This music just flows... If you have not heard Karmakanic before do not buy this album but first get their newest Who Is The Boss In The Factory. Musically it is quite an improvement over this one, and I consider it one of the best albums of the last 2 years. I have a feeling that you will like that album so much you will be getting this one next. I am already looking forward to what Jonas is working on presently because the curve of what he has been developing is extremely promising.