Roman Ryabtsev traded synth-pop for folk

The singer released a joint track with the vocalist of the Melnitsa group Helavisa

Roman Ryabtsev unveiled a new track called “The Last Song” and clearly puzzled his fans. The sound is not the most obvious for the author of the main hits of “Technology”, the recording partner is also intriguingly unexpected. “MK” found out the details.

Roman recorded the “Last Song” together with the vocalist of the folk group “Melnitsa” Helavisa. At first glance, a rather strange alliance, although according to the author, everything is more than logical.

“This is a return to basics for me,” Roman said in an interview with MK. – I grew up at the “Aquarium” and all my first musical exercises were inspired by folk. And I also really liked Celtic music. So the song was just waiting in the wings and the voice.”

Helavisa’s voice is well heard here, literally and figuratively. The style of the “Mill” is immediately guessed, and perhaps it happened because Helavisa, as a musical author, improvised with all her heart when recording her doubles, and, according to Roman Ryabtsev, even took the melody a little in the other direction.

“In general, I am not enthusiastic about proposals to record duets with other folk artists, because I am very picky and boring. I need a wow effect, a way out of my comfort zone,” says Helavisa. “And here comes Roma Ryabtsev, a legend and a dinosaur of a completely different guild, and brings a well-knit folk hit with a pleasant raid by Ramin Javadi …”

Some doom in the title probably shouldn’t be taken too seriously. “The Last Song” may not be the last joint experience of Helavisa and Roman, besides, it reveals the intrigue of the album, on which the singer and composer is currently working. As a thrifty author, Roman Ryabtsev has accumulated a number of unreleased songs, added new ones to them, invited various colleagues for duets and is planning a full-scale release.

“There is no single musical line in my new disc, and this is fundamental,” says Roman. – At one time I suffered for a long time because I had to endure everything in the same style, as it seemed to be accepted. As a result, the songs that sounded the same way in my head had to be shifted into this fucking synth-pop. In 1993 I flew to Paris and re-recorded my songs with a live French band, apparently even then I liked to go beyond a certain style. I generally like completely different music from Joe Dassin to Foo Fighters.

Among the songs that Roman Ryabtsev selected for the future disc, there are greetings from a very distant past. One of these compositions came from 1985, when the future musician was still a schoolboy. “Part of the text had to be rewritten,” Roman remarks, not without irony. “Still, the words written at the age of fifteen are now embarrassing to show even to your own wife.”

There is not the best news for fans of “Technology”. In the new album of Roman Ryabtsev, there was no place for synth-pop, even in a dietary amount. And such ruthlessness, as Roman himself says, is dictated by the spirit of the times – according to the musician, this genre is more dead than alive. And not only here, but also in the high-tech wilds of Western musical civilization.