Jah levi & The Higher Reasoning Selassie I Vibration CD

Mikhailo Kovalchuk was born in Lvlv (Ukraine) on 3 July 1963. His father was born on the border between France and Spain . That's were Mikhailo got his first influences from Latin forms of music. His first involvement with music began as a child studying violin. Mikhailo didn't like the instrument and gave it up for playing the guitar. He was a self taught player and after seeing a concert of Paco de Lucia decided that the style of Flamenco was the direction he would take. His understanding and knowledge of Flamenco came strictly from listening to popular flamenco artists works since guitar teachers and other player in that style of music didn't exist in the country. His early performances were with Ukrainian bands playing progressive rock and Latin jazz but it wasn't fulfilling Mikhailo so he broke into a solo career concentrating on original compositions. His performances took him to concerts and festivals all over Eastern EuropeMikhailo first recordings "Hidden by the Curtain" on cassette was released in 1997 while he was touring in Prague. In the following year he had sold 7000 cassette tapes. After his return to Ukraine Kiev's national TV studio produced a music video called "Wind under the sea" which was aired on all Ukrainian and Prague stations for 3 months. In Ukraine Mikhailo was the only acoustic guitarist that wrote and performed music in this style. He spent approximately 6 months playing a duet with a flamingo dancer in a Latin club. Mikhailo also established his respect in front of other international guitarists by being a prizewinner of numerous festivals all over Europe.