Welcome to Our Press Review Page!
Here, you’ll find the latest media coverage, interviews, and reviews about our music and projects. Explore what critics, journalists, and fans are saying, and get an inside look at our journey.
cdbaby review
Space & Light
Meditation, reflection, and deep appreciation of the Divine brought the singers and musicians from Universum Musica together.
Inspired by the mystical spirit of Indian music, they decided to recreate it in a new way, abandoning the traditional frames. Their music combines the typical Indian sitar and the traditional Bulgarian tamboura, Irish flutes, and percussion instruments from India, Peru and the Balkans. This created an interesting synthesis of ethno, jazz, and folk.
USURI magazine , Issue 2, 2009
All & Nothing
Sounds from another world
Mystical journey in the company of, and created by, Universum Musica
Everything = All and Nothing
This music is the experience of pure feeling …
The new album All & Nothing is a collection of nine songs in which, at its foundation, is the sacred sound of mantras. Bulgarian bagpipe and Indian tabla bring a common tone, complemented by sitar and djembe… also with piano and acoustic guitar. The ancient Tibetan chant blends into one infused with a mysterious Bulgarian voice – here it is folk singer Sorina Borgilova. Simply magic!
Mantras
They define the energy of Universum Musica. The mystical spirit of All & Nothing is an equally good friend for all meditation, relaxation andcontemplation. Mantras are messages from ancient times which are a practical purification and bring change of consciousness for that quiet sensitivity that we express through our joy, with our compassion, and with love.
Spirit
If these songs bring you comfort, it is because they are of a family of cross-culture and east-meets-west music. Comparable to the mode created by Universum Musica are Karunesh, Oliver Shanti, Deva Premal, Krishna Das, JaiUttal as well as some of Peter Gabriel’s material. Not for no reason is Fire&Love and now also All&Nothing exceptionally well accepted in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the U.S.A.
April 2007
Fire & Love
“Hot-loved” Kirtans
Typical for singing Kirtans is reiteration/repletion of different names of Gods and Goddesses. The group “Universum Musica” presents eight well-known Kirtans, in high mood and devotion, under the very fitting title “FIRE&LOVE”.
The distinctive male voices are the Fire, dynamic and rhythmic by their music’s folklore arrangement, counter-pointed by the strong expression of Love and devotion in the female singers.
Anyone who loves diversity will get not only a inherent mix from two different style traditions, folklore and Kirtans, and will be intoxicated by effusive rhythms of song, clapping and dance, invoking all possibility of gathered joyful expression.
After 64 minutes you may be completely exhausted however lucky to leave yourself on the sofa.
FREESTYLE magazine, December 2005
“Fire & Love” Kirtans
The newest, outstanding work of maestro Nikolai Ivanov – front man of the music project OM and master of the ethno-fusion.
The word “Kirtan” is derived from the Sanskrit verb “kirt”, which means celebrate and praise. In the Yoga tradition it designates those songs, in which the names of the Gods are repeated. Following this line of ideas, the music of the eight compositions is predominantly based on the traditional Indian choir chant. They are marvelously, exceptionally, harmonious, expressive and radiate joy and spiritual energy.
In the project “FIRE&LOVE” ten musicians and vocalists were involved but the highest plaudits for these beautiful musical arrangements must go to Nikolai Ivanov, whose musical style is so distinguished. Kirtans is an invitation on a journey to the spiritual beauties of the East.
rhythm magazine, December 2005
Fire & Love
Fire and Love, or Fire of Love, is the feeling which supplies folklore in any and each corner of the world. In this case the emotional portion is double, because it gathers in a common energetic stream the folklore heritage of India and Bulgaria.
Central for the project are Nikolai Ivanov, leader of OM Art Formation, and the singers Morrigan and Miglena Tzenova. With the voice of the esoteric they express themselves with the other members Boyan Boyanov – acoustic guitar, djembe, percussion.
It has always been known that Nikolai Ivanov is an interpreter with charisma, as equally good when he touches ethno or jazz. The 8 compositions of FIRE&LOVE arranged by him, is the next solid evidence, that if you are growing music correctly does not leave you. A harmonious bliss gently flows not only from the vocals [in sanskrit] and also from every instrument. An Indian sitar and kazu; wrongly taken for Bulgarian tamboura (the tribes of Asparuchus brought it here in the 7th Century unknown from where), Irish flutes and Peruvian percussion put their colours in this palette fusion. All comparisons are arrogant and brave, but more than appropriate here.
The CD is from the high class of the productions of Trilok Gurtu, in the best ambient traditions of Gandikota Suba Rao or Aib Dieng, of the Bill Lasuel re-mixes, or the divine acoustic in Afro-Celt Sound System – pride of Peter Gabriel in the catalogue of his label Real World.