One of the great things about living in such a small world is that it possible to uncover some great gems at times. Here we have an album by a Russian group, who reside in Israel, signed to an Austrian label, which was sent to me in NZ by a Polish friend to review! This was the band’s first record label release, although all of these tracks (apart from two) were available on two earlier albums, taken from the albums “Чужой небесный город” (“The Strange Heavenly City”), 2004 and “На закате времен” (“At The End Of Days”), 2006. Although this is described as a band album, the impression is that of Fred Adra being joined by guest musicians as the need requires, whether that be violin, mandolin, additional acoustic guitar etc as he provides guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals, percussion etc
I guess one of the questions is how to describe what I am listening to. I know that I like it, am often captivated by its’ honest beauty, but what genre is it? It isn’t exactly folk, and certainly isn’t heavy, but there are elements of the more ambient Black Metal bands, combined with the more whimsical moments of bands such as Negură Bunget. It is music that defies definition, music that is immediate and enjoyable but has huge depths. Some of that is due to the music, but also Fred sings in Russian which to me adds greatly to proceedings. Over the years I have been lucky enough to hear plenty of Eastern Europe music, particularly Hungarian, and is it very reminiscent of some of the releases from the Stereo Pereferic label.
It is the combination of so many elements – both cultural and musical - that makes album this such a joy to listen to. I was looking at the label site to see how much this CD costs, and today it is less than 5 Euroes! A bargain www.steinklang.at
