The new album “Aquarium” has hope for the future
[ad_1]
Grebenshchikov and his comrades surprised again
If the group is fifty years old, and there are dozens of releases in the discography, then it is not so easy to surprise the audience. The news about the new Aquarium album will probably seem like a terrible routine to many, but just a few tracks from the House of All Saints will be enough to understand: the rock legend has done it again. He again made me immerse myself in his music and not regret it at all.
BG releases albums both under his own name and under the Aquarium brand, and the clear difference between solo and collective releases is most likely clear only to him alone. However, at least one difference between Grebenshchikov’s albums and the Aquarium’s albums can be determined fairly quickly. Aquarium’s song selection is reminiscent of Aladdin’s cave in terms of abundance, and All Saints’ House is no exception.
Work on new tracks went on for more than a year, musicians from various countries traditionally participated in the recording, and as a result, songs were obtained in which no one particularly restrains himself either in emotions or in music. Lately, some media outlets like to treat BG as a rock guru on the run. Perhaps in this respect there is expanse for headlines, but the truth, as is usually the case, is a little more modest, if not boring.
Absolutely everyone who is a little aware of the affairs of the Aquarium leader is well aware that BG moved to London in 2020 and connects his move with a much more convenient organization of the recording process in the form he imagines it to be. Cosmopolitanism has always helped in creating extraordinary music, but now for some reason a wide view of the world annoys many. But this can hardly be considered a BG problem.
Grebenshchikov solves his problems, at least those that are creative, very successfully. The trilogy of the albums “Salt” (2014), “Time N” (2018) and “Power of Fire” (2020) became not only a strong statement of the poet and citizen, but also an exciting musical journey. “The House of All Saints” in some way grows out of some songs of the trilogy, although it relies on the classic “Russian Album”, where the members of the “Aquarium” formulated their view of folk.
In 2022, pamphlets on an acute agenda are often seen in the songs of caring authors. However, on the “House of All Saints” post-February, at least at the time of writing, only “Divination” can be considered. But in this track the sound is sometimes worse than the words. It starts off like the usual Aquarium acoustics, but then breaks into a break beat and turns into something like a horror movie soundtrack. And if the darkness has a sound, then the British producer Leo Abrams, who recorded for BG “Time N” and “Sign of Fire”, managed to create it.
Among the fifteen new tracks on the album, there are many other discoveries. The twelve-minute track “Mahamaya” can probably be called a real meditation, inspired by the folk of various territories, but at the same time surprisingly Russian in spirit. The title track “House of All Saints” makes one want to once again state the excellent form of BG as a poet. “Wine from the Sand” in many ways resembles the waltz in the musical interpretation of “Aquarium”. But the guest vocals of the Georgian group “Mgzavrebi” takes the classic reception of Russian rock legends to another level.
In terms of various guests, “The House of All Saints” is an incredibly generous album. Grebenshchikov recruited British violinists Eliza Carty and Duncan Chisholm, as well as the brass section of the Kickhorns, Jamaican reggae producers Sly & Robbie, Indian musicians scattered around the world who managed to be assembled into an orchestra, real theremin expert Lydia Kavina and many others, not forgetting , of course, about the participants of the “Aquarium”.
BG, like his colleagues, who managed to put real poetry into music for a large number of people, have the ability to come up with lines that are filled with different meanings depending on the time and situation. In the “House of All Saints” you can hear the plots, as if inspired by the news (however, the news itself in the interpretation of BG is a “cesspool”), but the main value of this album is rather in humanism and the desire to move forward even despite the circumstances. “And the sunlight does not depend on the shoulder straps of the house manager,” Grebenshchikov reports in the track “Don’t Go Out the Door,” and there is a suspicion that this is exactly what he has been trying to instill in the public for fifty years.
Newspaper headline:
Take out all the saints
[ad_2]
Source link
