FIVE-STOREY ENSEMBLE

I voted this as my number 1 album in 2022. It is just strikingly beautiful. Now I've got to say that the appropriateness of the prog-*rock* label may be doubted, as this quite certainly isn't rock music but rather 100% instrumental classical chamber music. Still I think that this will appeal to many prog listeners because of the wonderful marriage between sophisticated composition, very accessible melodies and mostly slow rhythms (no drums or percussion here though). This is an emotional album after all, atmospheric, calm and occasionally sad. The transparent sound world reminds me of Steve Reich (particularly the use of strings) and other minimalists (Michael Nyman,...), but despite the meditative qualities there is more change and evolution in these tracks. Some of the piano parts hark back to end 19th century classical piano music by let's say Rachmaninov. Another association is the North Sea Radio Orchestra. Despite all these connections, the album ultimately delivers a unique experience that appeals equally to the heart and the brain. I'm very happy that I came across it.

The much anticipated follow-up to their 2014 debut album, Not This City, Olga and Vitaly have toned things down quite a bit for this collection of serious, emotional displays of musical expression. It has taken me a long time to get to know and like this album as my expectations were greatly hampered by the extraordinary previous album. Now that I have let go of the old and allowed the beauty and depth of these new tracks into my heart, into my being, I feel so grateful, so much more satisfied and fulfilled. Olga and Vitaly have shown us how much they have grown as both musicians and human beings. I hope that they both are feeling as fulfilled and satisfied with these songs as I am.

A quote of the description accompanying the production company (AltrOck)'s publicity release of the album:

"Second episode for the Five Storey Ensemble. Natural pursuit of previous experience with Rational Diet. Much more complexity, more room for melodies, a real small orchestra, guides us between awkward and melancholy atmospheres. Chamber music with sounding solutions and interlocking sounds with unique style and elegance. A narrative that encapsulates the drama and pathos of a movie soundtrack. A disk of great maturity and quality."

1. "Night Across the Street" (4:43) opens as a kind of sharp-edged, discordant reinterpretation of the opening Adagio sostenuto from BEETHOVEN's "Moonlight Sonata" before adding some STEVE REICH-ian pulsing wind and string instruments. Cinematic in an unsettling Psycho-kind of way. (8.5/10)

2. "The Respectable Booksellers" (4:39) syncopated, odd-timed piano notes establish a pattern before the rest of the full ensemble joins in with an unusually cohesive and melodic piece--until, that is, the piano goes Wizard of Oz at the two minute mark. Then everything kind of becomes deconstructed and disassembled--everybody left to their own lonely devices. At 3:23 the storm crescendoes as leaves. Piano and reeds and pizzicato strings gather themselves into an ensemble again--as if to prove that they can pick up the pieces after the previous chaotic debacle. (9/10)

3. "Makaó" (2:10) Olga's piano étude with double bass support. Again, I can only think of Beethoven or Chopin or Rachmaninov as predecessors to this type of emotion. (4.5/5)

4. "Postmonition" (3:33) my guess is that this is Vitaly's usurpation of the Olga's previous song ideas and expressions. The sober, serious nature of these sounds and performances hit so deeply. (9/10)

5. "Rearrive" (5:57) another Vitaly composition which opens with his bassoon with flute and oboe and, later, violin, playing a weave of multiple melodies. The flute is given solo voice in the second minute over Vitaly and Olga's sparse and spacious foundation. Then simple violin and other strings get their turns. A vary spacious and vacuous sonicscape--especially when the piano is not pounding away on its higher octave chords (as it does in the very middle). The slow build of sustained strings tapestry over the staccato reeds and piano in the fifth and sixth minutes is quite emotional. (9/10)

6. "The Road Away from..." (6:12) The first song that opens with an ensemble approach. The slower, almost Baroque pacing, allows each note its presence, its deserved recognition, which I love. I feel totally bathed and relished in each note, each harmonized chord. And when the "sad" slide occurs at 1:50 I am unconcerned--it seems natural that "help" will arrive to boost and resurrect the wonderful spirit of unity and collaboration that has been (temporarily) disrupted. The sad, cinematic, silent movie-like sparse section in the fifth minute is slowly rebuilt with some absolutely stunning and brilliant "rays" or glimpses of joyful hope. Astonishing! (10/10)

7. "Woods Are Worried from Boredom" (6:31) beginning as a very tense and emotional slow duet between Olga and Vitaly (I hope they are lovers, or, at least, understand how touched and honored I feel to be privy to their gorgeous dance of total nakedness), it eventually enlists the beautiful support of the village. Wonderful. Ms. Podgaiskaja sure knows how to write music from the depths of the soul! (10/10)

8. "Jupiter" (5:06) opening with a surprisingly upbeat, almost Michel LEGRAND-like sound, the joinder of strings is almost too gorgeous in a RALPH VAUGH WILLIAMS "Larks Ascending" kind of way. The piano-cello duet at 1:30 is equally heart-wrenching. Amazing piece! Amazing end to an amazing musical journey! One that started so sparsely and then slowly, ever so slowly, built and built, until we ended with this extremely beautiful and optimistic piece. (10/10)

Belarus must be a sobering yet beautiful place! And Olga Podgaiskaja and Vitaly Appow two of its existential heroes!

A/five stars; a masterpiece of progressive chamber music.

Another masterful release from the uber-talented avant-garde/neo chamber composer Olga Podgaiskaja. I am saddened to hear that Olga and her collaborators had to pout this album together as expats, having sought safer lands than their home in Belarus during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I wish them only the best--and am amazed that they can create such beautiful art under such duress.

1. "Presence" (4:26) a slow, beautiful piano-based chamber piece with saxophone that sounds very much like AltrOck Productions stablemate Francesco Zago/Empty Days' (originally Not a Good Sign's) "Coming Back Home" from 2013. (9.5/10)

2. "Drops of Silence Through the Silence (6:57) a piano-based chamber piece with only strings accompaniment. Gorgeous! (10/10)

3. "Feuchtwanger" (3:17) a more uptempo dynamically stimulating chamber piece with strings in the lead positions. Sounds eve more classical. (8.75/10)

4. "Not Winter" (4:02) is an insistently piano-propelled piece in which swells of strings and horns Reminds me of many bleak, challenging winter scenes from film and children's stories. (9/10)

5. "Silent Zone" (7:49) a slowly plodding piano- and bowed double bass-based piece with accordion and strings accompanying while flute holds the lead (with occasional simple piano breaks). Sounds like a contemplative dance. Soprano saxophone and viola get turns taking on the lead melody in later expositions. At 5:30 we get a very slow swell of all instrumental volumes during one of the exposition passages, between the constant piano and soft (even squealy) strings foundation. Brilliant! (13.25/15)

6. "Epitaph" (5:30) a rondo that immediately reminded me of one of my other favorite chamber prog bands, CICADA, from Taiwan. It also reminds me of foot traffic in a busy city street--one in which car traffic may take a back seat to that of pedestrian. Piano and three strings players perform this beautiful weave for the first 2:10, then Vitaly Appow's soprano sax joins and somehow the musical weave smooths and while at the same time flying forward with effortless ease and grande vitesse. (10/10)

7. "Nonna and Seven Pink Eyes" (7:05) dissonant and oddly timed solo viola notes open this one. Gentle woodwinds join in, offering comfort and peace as a grandmother would. Heart-wrenching. Accordion and organ make for more comforting support, though the organ almost makes it sound as if we've joined a funeral. Multiple strings and soprano saxophone interplay with the organ and each other in a kind of follow the leader weave. Very cool. What a beautiful, emotional, yet comforting story in the telling. (14.25/15)

An amazing album of mature and very human emotion, expressing so well the angst of our times. As much as I love the band's 2014 debut, Not That City (and 2017's Night en Face), this one may be better.

A/five stars; a true masterpiece of progressive music--my #2 Favorite Album of 2022. Thank you, Olga, for once again making me feel so proud to be a member of the human race--for reminding me of the great things our species is capable of doing/creating/expressing.

Out of the ashes of RATIONAL DIET rises this phoenix of incredible power and beauty--in my humble opinion, an album ten times better than the very well crafted albums of its predecessor. Yes, Five-Storey Ensemble is the spawn of RATIONAL DIET. RATIONAL DIET founding member and reed player, Vitaly Appow, and keyboard/vocalist Olga Podgaiskaja, of the final two RATIONAL DIET albums, At Work and On Phenomenon and Existences, are principle composers here, while violinist, Cyrill Christya, and bass guitarist, Dmitry Maslovsky participate on several songs. While I thoroughly enjoyed the Avant/RIO/Modern Chamber musings of RD, I was quick to zoom in on Not That City once it was posted on progstreaming.com. Bam! Was I broadsided! This album blew me away from the opener through to the last song. It's music is reminiscent of RATIONAL DIET but, like ARANIS, it is much more melodic. Plus, vocals play a much more important role in defining their sound. The vocals here are used more operatically--and really only used in the forefront of four different songs. Whenever the male tenor and female soprano voices perform I find myself reminded of Goreki's Third Symphony. Even though vocalists Sergey Dolgushev and composer and keyboard player, Olga Podgaiskaja, respectively, employ operatic approaches stylistically, their vocals are often used almost more as additional instruments--which has the tremendous effect of deepening the conveyance of emotions within each song. And each singer makes such a distinct and different contribution to the songs with their voices--often at the same time--that it has the effect of bringing two very different, almost divergent threads into the emotional weave.

1. "The Harbinger" (5:51) opens the album with some long, sustained note playing from accordion player, Alexander But'ko. He is then gradually joined by violinist, Anastasia Popova, and oboist, Natalja Malashova, all weaving their magical notes together, slowly, deliciously. At the 2:20 mark pianist Olga Podgaiskaja, bassoonist Vitaly Appow, and double bass player Vyacheslav Plesko join in, taking the music into more staccato, rapido mode for several measures before fading back to let the original weave evolve. This cycle of piano- and bass-infused tempo upgrade recurs twice more, before the third occasion, in the third minute, ion which a prolonged, sustained dark theme more suited to PRESENT or UNIVERS ZERO is presented and built upon. This continues until 4:15 when an additional thread of color is provided by male vocalist, Sergey Dolgushev. We then see the song devolve into a final weave coming from Sergey's plaintive voice and Alexander's emotional accordion. Awesome song--though it does get drawn out a bit in places. I've heard this song in three different formats now, album version and two different live performances with two very different instrumental lineups (one more expanded, like the album version). (The YouTube link I provided is to a video recording of the song being performed by the band in front of a live audience.) Each has its strengths and charms. (10/10)

2. "Bondman's Wings" (2:24) is a short, beautiful and powerful 'folk' instrumental using accordion, bassoon, oboe, and stringed instruments (with some military-like percussion) to tell its tale. Charming! (10/10)

3. "The Incommunication" (5:22) uses alternating female and male vocals as if in conversation. It sounds so romantic yet spiritual, almost religious. Sparse instrumentation of long sustained chords accompany the vocal until the two minute mark when a kind of Renaissance courtly music dances us into another dimension. Incredible constructions of seemingly independent instrumental voices all woven into a spacious yet multi-layered tapestry of exquisite beauty! The voices return for the final two minutes, this time woven within the multi-layered tapestry (a bit too much going on here for these ears). (10/10)

4. "To Ringfly" (3:11) begins as a rondo between accordion, bassoon and percussion and plays out very much in that format with the occasional instrument added here or there. One of my favorite instrumentals, very much in the vein of the best of AFTER CRYING. (10/10)

5. "A Disappearing Road" (4:42) To pulsing bassoon, and drum are soon woven in with accordion and other woodwinds. The first third is very Baroque/Renaissance processional feeling, but then structure shifts at about the two minute mark, taking on a more squared, constant feel, and then again at the 3:20 mark in which cacophonous strings play wildly over a woodwind section that holds long, long notes in strange discordant harmonies. Interesting and unusual. (9/10)

6. "The Unpainted" (7:57) is a haunting, even disturbing song beginning with simple piano arpeggio, double bass, and intermittent injections of string or woodwind instruments. Just after the one minute mark, the discordant tones of a female vocalist enters in low registers, then slowly climbs, octave by octave, until a minute later she is singing her dirge in her highest soprano register. Piano, strings, and woodwinds work themselves into until at 3:35 drums join in to accentuate the drama. A few seconds later and all has calmed down to 'solo' piano attended very sparsely by injections of winds, strings, percussives and, in the sixth minute, an electric guitar(!)--all painting a picture of the most ominous and despondent tones. The most UNIVERS ZERO-sounding song yet! (12/15)

7. Yesterday Dormant" (5:40) is a classical sounding discourse between male and female vocalists. Very powerful. I love music like this (no matter that it's being sung in a language I neither know nor understand.) It kind of reminds me of a more classical sophisticated version of Jon Anderson's "Chagall Duet," a conversational duet he did with Sandrine Piau from 1994's Change We Must. Beautiful music! Very powerful in the way that Sergey's tenor is so strong, staccato, and positive while Olga's soprano is so delicate, melodic and pleading. (10/10)

8. "The Protector" (3:22) uses oboe and piano over rapid hand drumming--all of which makes me feel very at home, as if I were at a Renaissance Faire. The slowed down piano chord hits with cello and percussion section that begins around the 2:20 mark is quite devastatingly sad, a mood that is then quickly dispelled with a return to the opening section. But the song then concludes with a half-a-minute of some very ambiguous chords and feel. (9/10)

9. "Fear-Dream" (3:47) piano, strings and bassoon dominate this one, though accordion, oboe and a little percussion are also involved. It's very powerful and emotional. Electric guitar even joins in for some soloing a couple of times--especially during the last minute. This one reminds me of the music of one of my favorite modern groups, KOTEBEL. (9/10)

10. "Amid the Smoke and Different Question" (6:31) starts out sounding like a Broadway/operetta, even Moulin Rouge-ish. A male vocalist sings over the simple support of long, sustained accordion chords, and later is accompanied by an almost-separate woodwind dance, then another separate, discordant thread comes from strings, and then yet another seemingly unrelated theme arises from the deeper woodwinds. It's as if several small troubadour groups are parading through a town center, criss-crossing at the center, each playing its own little diddy as it passes by where the tenor continues, unphased, singing his plaintive dirge. Brilliant and gutsy! (9/10)

11. "Not That City" (6:57) (YouTube link is to a video recording of the song being performed by the band live [before a "dead audience"!]) The recording of the band performing begins as a rondo between oboe, cor anglais, and bowed double bass and then accordion. Then harpsichord takes over! The other instruments join in in a frolicking folksie tune with the accordion and cor anglais kind of dominating the twin melody lines. The at 2:15 all stops and piano enters to take over lead melody and rhythm making while all other instruments slow down in long languorous sustained notes in gorgeous harmonies. At 3:32 it happens again, everything stops and adjusts to a section in which strings lead the basic rhythm while all else pulse and dance around them (even the double bass and viola). Another shift allows the song to play out its final minute in a very dreamy, mysterious but beautiful way. Incredible song! My favorite on the album. Were I a music theorist I might appreciate and enjoy this even more?it seems so bold and daring. (15/15)

Without a doubt Not That City is one of my favorite album of the albums I've heard from 2013. It's music excites and mesmerizes me, its constructs surprise and delight--they raise my hopes for the possibilities of music and for the possibilities of humanity.

5 Stars, unquestioned; six if it were allowed (occasionally). I've not been this excited about a new album since MAUDLIN OF THE WELL's Part The Second blew me away back in '09. Stunningly creative and fresh.