Возвращение / THE RETURN

RAINY SEASON's "Return" was their crowning moment and represents a wonderful mix of space, ambient and electronic progressive rock. This album consists of three long cuts. The first two were obviously Side 1 of the original LP, and the third was a side-long cut on Side 2. The first two cuts I would describe as GONG meets PINK FLOYD with some KLAUS SCHULZE tossed in for effects. The guitar work is slowly soloed over a heavy dark tapestry of space vibes. The total effect is something like a slowed down version of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" without the drums and vocals. The third track focuses much more on an electronic texture aka TANGERINE DREAM with a nice long exploratory 20 mins song. The atmosphere created is dark and forboding very representative of the bands dark album cover and title "Rainy Season". In many ways this last track actually runs along like horror movie soundtrack. Overall "Return" is a well recorded album with some nice deep tones and self reflexive melodies.

"Return" was recorded in 1992 by the unique Russian group RAINY SEASON This 40-minute album consists of three tracks (20, 14, and 7-minutes). The music seemed quite strange to me at first. My ears were treated to music of an ambient nature. Instruments like the flute, glockenspiel, triangle, woodblocks seemed to try to escape from their echo-y, reverb-drenched, world without success. The overall atmosphere seemed mellow, haunting, and ZEN-like. At other times, I could hear guitar, and various spacy synth-like effects. Soon, however, new detail started to emerge after each listen. This music might not appeal to most prog fans, but the album needs repeated plays to appreciate. Overall, "Return" is recommended to ambient, electronic, and/or movie soundtrack fans.

I'm not up to speed with Russia's Progressive scene but this release from 1992 has to be considered a classic and one of the early Prog albums from that nation.The band is from St.Petersburg and is basically two guys with a few guests helping out. Maxim the guitarist is the creative force behind RAINY SEASON. We get three long tracks over 41 plus minutes.This is their debut and they've released two others since this one.The band played in many concerts and festivals during the eighties before making this record.

"Scents Of A Forest" is a title that makes me use my imagination since it's -17 and snowy here this morning. Flute and atmospheric background sounds early. Guitar before 2 1/2 minutes then it turns intense briefly before settling back then percussion joins in. A nice relaxing tune for the most part. "Towards A Clear Water" opens with faint spacey sounds and it's kind of haunting. Atmosphere rolls in before 2 minutes.The tempo picks up before 3 1/2 minutes and the guitar sort of cries out with a beat. Bass and synths arrive after 6 minutes.The guitar is winding out pretty good before 8 minutes. Nice. Synths are back when the guitar stops. Drums follow and some vocal melodies arrive around 13 minutes.The final minute features a powerful atmosphere with no beat.

"Red Night" is the 20 minute side long suite. It opens with the sound of someone walking as spacey sounds come and go. Lots of atmosphere after 3 minutes.Then we get this beat coming out of the darkness. A change in sound after 8 minutes then it kicks in louder with drums. It settles quickly though as synths pulse slowly and vocal melodies join in. Cool sound. A change 12 minutes in with experimental sounds coming and going. Drums are back after 13 minutes. Another change before 16 1/2 minutes as the tempo picks up and the guitar leads as the drums pound. A spacey atmosphere ends the song and then the sound of someone walking (like the intro) officially ends the album.

A solid 4 star album that fans of spacey psychedelia should enjoy.