Dimitar shares his thoughts and feelings behind the songs...

Purely And Simply - It came all at once, the melody and the song.
I got caught up in the excitement and thought how the best things in
life are pure and simple.

HyperSonic - A fun homecoming song to my teenage years, when
powerful guitar riffs were all I needed to feel hypersonic.

Not A Game - The opening melody was influenced by thoughts of our
humanity and the sadness that rises from war.

End Of Summer - It was the end of Summer and I wanted to express
in music, the wonderful feeling of colors and sounds around me.

Orpheus - My roots are from the Bulgarian mountain range, Rodopa,
considered to be the birthplace of Orpheus - the Greek mythological
musician. The area is full of vigor and mystery that can only be felt in
person.

Universe - Our Universe is our mind.

The Wide - I have always dreamed of traveling to all the wonderful
places on earth.

Elegance By Soul - An older song that was left unfinished, until I was
inspired by the Universe project. The title reflects the gentleness of the
melody.

Jack Frost - It was winter time. While playing my guitar and watching
the snow fall, the song just appeared in my mind.

Shade - In the shade - a cool place to be.

Unknown Town - I've lived in three different towns so far in my life. In
this song I tried to convey the "unknown" feeling when moving to a new
place, then finding the goodness and beauty there - that is everywhere.

“Universe" was originally conceived by Dimitar Nalbantov in 2004, as a
totally solo project. It developed into much more, as Dimitar gained the
support of four others over the next two and a half years.

The evolution began when Dimitar met John Mayes online, in the Spring
of 2004. John, a fan of melodic rock guitar music, became an instant fan
of Dimitar's music and the two quickly became good friends. Dimitar
shared with John, his vision for "Universe" - an album which musically
represented his feelings and views of the world around and beyond him.
Dimitar received John’s pledge of full support for the project.

By the Spring of 2005, Dimitar had chosen and recorded most of the
album's 11 songs in his home studio, playing all the parts himself. He was
not satisfied with the sound or feel after mixing and unwilling to settle for
less, began to upgrade his studio gear. After the upgrade and recording of new parts, Dimitar still felt his drum programming on nine songs did not have the life he wanted, so a search for a real drummer began.

In the Fall of 2005, session drummer, John Wooten, was hired to provide
drum tracks for nine songs. Dimitar worked with John over the next nine
months, exchanging studio tracks via email and airmail. Since John's
drum tracks provided a new feel to the songs, Dimitar recorded new tracks to enhance that feel. By the Summer of 2006, they finished tracking and Dimitar began mixing the album with the help and feedback of friend, Peter Konstantinov.

Near the end of the mixing process, the decision was made to approach
well-known mastering engineer, Fc Bester of FcB Mastering. Fc was in
the final stage of mastering Neil Zaza's latest release and agreed to take
on the project. Dimitar and Fc worked together on the album's final details
for several weeks and on November 30, 2006, Dimitar’s birthday, "Universe" was officially released.