Roz Vitais is a Russian band from Saint Petersburg), which plays music somewhere between avant-prog, symphonic progressive rock, church music and ethno/electronic psychedelics. Their main influences are: Le Orme, Yes, ELP, king Crimson, Gentle Giant and Supersister.
The `group' formed in the spring of 2001 and originally was one-man band consisting of Ivan V. Rozmainsky on keyboards and programming. The following year, Ivan expanded the band into a quartet with male and female vocals, but, as before, without “live” basses and drums. Roz Vitais stablized its lineup as a trio- (Ivan Rozmainsky – keyboards, programming and winds, Nadeznda Regentova – keyboards and voices, Vladimir Polyakov – keyboards).
In 2003 the band completed an EP- “Painsadist” and one-hour long album- “Lazarus.” These two albums showcase the groups classical influences and feature keyboard-based electronic prog with changing measures, ethnic motives, rare wind insruments and female “church” voices.
The next year, Roz Vitais released two self-released two albums of polyphonic prog-music devoted to the theological idea of Trinity- the 35-minute-EP “The Threesunny Light Power” and the 70-minute album- “Das Licht Der Menschen”. The latter disc consists of three 20 – 28-minute epics which are interlinked through numerous themes, riffs and chords.
In 2005 Klara Metelkova (music, recorders, harmonica, voices) and Yuri Verba (clarinet) joined the band and helped create their new album- “Enigmarden," which incorporates a greater use of folk and jazz elements. In the fall of the same year, guitarist Sydius from Diogenium joined the band live and Roz Vitais performed live shows as a trio (Rozmainsky/Metelkova/Sydius). The proliferent band is again working on a new album and are looking into finding a label to showcase their talents around the globe.
March 30, 2018 was the release date for the band's new album. "The Hidden Man of the Heart" was released, also by Lizard Records. It ican be listened at:
https://rozvitalis.bandcamp.com/album/the-hidden-man-of-the-heart
The other relevant albums are "Revelator" (2011) also released by Mals Records, "Compassionizer" (2007) released independently, and "Overcoming-Up" recorded in 2008 and released digitally by Mellow Records in 2014. Most of the mentioned and some other albums were highly rated by prog reviewers at ProgArchives, Progressor, Sea of Tranquillity, DPRP etc.
It should be mentioned also that in 2010 ROZ VITALIS has participated at 'Baltic Prog Fest' (Lithuania) and in 2011 at Saint Petersburg "Branch" of 'In Prog Fest' (Russia). In general. the band had played a lot of gigs in Russia, Finland, Lithuania and Latvia.
MP3 files can be downloaded at:
http://music.download.com/roz_vitalis
www.garageband.com/roz_vitalis
Reviews can be looked at:
http://www.progarchives.com
http://progressive.homestead.com/prog6.html
http://www.progressiveears.com
http://www.proGGnosis.com
http://www.manticornio.com etc
The current line-up
Ivan Rozmainsky - keyboards, conception
Vladimir Semenov-Tyan-Shansky - guitar
Philip Semenov - drums
Vladislav Korotkikh - flute
Ruslan Kirillov - bass
Alexey Gorshkov - trumpet
The Selected Discography:
Painsadist (EP) 2003
Lazarus 2003
The Threesunny Light Power (EP) 2004
Das Licht Der Menschen 2004
Enigmarden 2005
Live Autumn’05 In The Ad Lucem Studio 2005
The Hidden Man of the Heart (2018)
