RATIONAL DIET

Still a seven piece and the strings still dominate but we get much less of those highs that were on "At Work". I do like the opener here called "Sleep Is Teasing A Man" as the strings get louder and louder, then some aggressive piano joins in. "Living The Main Life" is a top three for that catchy and melodic sound. Lots of energy too. "Passacaglia In Beautiful And Furious World" is a top three just because it is different from what I've heard from this band. That haunting section in particular before 4 minutes. Oh, the vocals a minute in are really good, lots of character.

A very solid 4 star album but this almost pales when compared to the previous album "At Work". Maybe this could be described as a more mature work. Regardless, I am a fan of this band.

I need to mention Olga the keyboardist who is classically trained and has a long list of awards and honours for her playing. But she's also a soprano singer and I love her voice. So much talent! The band would eventually breakup over artistic differences with Olga wanting to go more in the Chamber music style and the violinist and others wanting to continue with the powerful, high energy, string driven music. So Olga formed the FIVE-STOREY ENSEMBLE and included the drummer, bassoon player and bassist from RATIONAL DIET. While the two string players formed THE ARCHESTRA which also included RATIONAl DIET's drummer and bassoon player. So some crossover with the members.

"Pukhow" is a great opener with that powerful string/ piano start as the bassoon joins in. Maxim on guitar is amazing here when he arrives. "Dear Kontrabandist" has this driving rhythm and it's quite heavy with dissonant sax over top. A calm follows to get us ready for those crazy soprano vocals as it kicks in hard. "Condemned" is the longest at over 10 1/2 minutes and my favourite. How about the bassoon 3 1/2 minutes in followed by an even heavier sound. But this is a ride. I like the experimental calm. "Horse Army" deserves a mention for again that powerful driving rhythm but check out "Closed Case" for the dissonant sax and atmosphere.

I have the followup to this "On Phenomena And Existences" lined up for a re-visit this week, plus THE ARCHESTRA's only release the week after. Woo hoo!

One of these bands that found its way onto the September 2010 RIO festival in France was RATIONAL DIET that came all the way from Brest, Belarus (situated on the Polish border) and joined company with other outsider artists such as Art Bears, Gong, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Jannick Top / Infernal Machina, Thierry Zaboitzeff (ex-Art Zoyd), Full Blast, Miriodor, Genevieve Foccroulle and Aquaserge at the same event. RATIONAL DIET formed in 1996 and disbanded in 2012 but left in its wake five distinct works that include three official albums and two earlier self-made and promoted albums titled "From The Grey Notebook" and "The Shameless." These two earliest albums have been nearly impossible to track down as they were only released on CD-Rs and are nowhere for digital download or free listening so in effect this debut simply titled RATIONAL DIET should be considered the official debut album.

RATIONAL DIET qualifies as both avant-prog and RIO but express these styles through the art of chamber music which includes a large number of participants. The musicians who appear on all seven of the tracks include Vitaly Appow (bassoon, tenor sax, accordion), Maxim Velvetov (guitars), Cyrill Christya (violin), Dmitry Maslovsky (bass), Eugeny Alexeyev (keyboards) and Nicolay Gumberg (drums) with several others who participate on a a track or two. These include Alla Pustchina (cello), Cyrill Yelshow (vocal), Maria Lagodich (vocals), Andrew Bogdanow (vocals) and Oleg Gorbatiuk (vocals). The band's sound is very reminiscent of the classic chamber rock bands of the past which include Univers Zero, Art Zoyd, Present and Henry Cow but RATIONAL DIET takes on a lot more classical elements than the typical RIO chamber rock band with influences from Stravinsky and Shostakovich as well as home grown Slavic gypsy folk and even some Soviet era poets in the sparse lyrics found spoken and sung throughout the album.

Thanks to the Italian AltrOck label which is home to the avant-freakery of Yugen, RATIONAL DIET which went from a relocated Minsk based local act that toured its native land of Belarus to a more international phenomenon and this eponymously titled album is the culmination of the band's ten years of practicing, gigging and compositional creativity which finds most of the tracks lifted from the "From The Grey Notebook" and "The Shameless" releases. In fact out of the seven tracks that make up this 61 minute album's running time, only "Stop Kolpakoff!" didn't appear in some form on the first two local releases. It doesn't take long at all to realize that out of all the dishes on RATIONAL DIET's menu that the chamber rock / avant-prog complexities of Unviers Zero, Art Zoyd and Present are the sound de jour and the sextet with a few guests for those "extra" touches deliver with all the gusto and dexterity of Cirque du Soleil members at a trampoline factory. In other words, this band has seriously honed its chops.

Despite RATIONAL DIET's appetite to consume the chamber prog of yore, the band did an excellent job of bringing it into the 21st century with some local flavors to keep it from sounding like some sort of hero worship cult album that insinuates posters of Roger Trigaux and Daniel Denis on various band member's ceilings! While the chamber rock is the dominate flavor of this DIET, the actual compositional presentations are a bit more IRRATIONAL than the band's name suggests. Firstly, the band's instrumentation a lot different than its influences with a heavier emphasis on the core instruments of the bassoon (think a more energetic Lindsay Cooper) and a creepy violin (think Paganini meets Can) which conjure up bizarre contrapuntal dualisms that find one taking the lead and the other drifting off and then snapping back to the main gist of things. Second of all, while mostly instrumental, RATIONAL DIET also has vocal sections that find guests vocalists, both male and female reciting avant-garde Soviet poetry as well as "singing" at times in very, very weird styles.

Add to all that RATIONAL DIET dishes out a side serving of local gypsy folk rhythms that create nice harmonic structures although the riffing is clearly rooted in the chamber rock / avant-prog universe which makes for an interesting contrast. The rhythms also have a slight zeuhl vibe as well which at times almost bubble in symmetrical martial bombast. Best of all, the album starts out more in the traditional camp but gets more comfortable branching out into strange new worlds by the time it gets to "Don't Swing A Wheel" and the final "From The Grey Notebook - Part 2." The closing numbers provide not only the traditional but hairpin turns into the frenetically unstable and back again into a more pacifying false sense of calm before the violins screech out in ecstasy and Slavic folk influences in the form of the wild vocal gymnastics are allowed to flitter around in experimental glee. The complexities don't detract from the rhythms and melodic developments that occur nor vice versa. Somehow the band juggles all elements fairly smoothly. When all is said and done, RATIONAL DIET does an excellent job on this debut of paying homage to the greats that came before and by adding its own stamp to the world of chamber rock oriented avant-prog / RIO. Highly recommended.

1. "From The Grey Notebook - Intro" (0:23) 2. "From The Grey Notebook - Part 1" (5:05) very smooth flowing Avant Gard/RIO in the vein of many of France's most adept and adventurous jazz explorers. Definitely music that involves more rock instrumentation and form than UZED or Present. (9/10) 3. "Stop Kolpakoff!" (9:57) now this has more in common with the work of AFTER CRYING and FIVE-STOREY ENSEMBLE as well as Claudio Milano's NICHELODEON: performance art and cabaret noir. (17.66667/20)

4. "I Refrained From Closing My Ears" (12:15) Far more similar to dissonant, boundary-pushing 20th Century classical chamber music than avant prog. Not an electrified rock instrument to be found. A little too lacking in melody for my tastes, but interesting from a theatric, cinematic noir perspective. (I kept waiting for more narration.) Becomes more Eastern European in the second half--almost klezmer like. (21.25/25)

5. "An Order For Horses" (8:52) This one reminds me of early UNIVERS ZERO music--especially the first two albums--though the slurring violin and electric guitars are different. Vitaly Appow's bassoon is like a distant swan or goose squawking incessantly in the background. Maria Lagodich's frenetic peasant vocals in the fourth, fifth, and seventh minutes are interesting--an offshoot of Yoshimi P-We's work with OOIOO, perhaps? Again, I would love to see the stage or film expression to accompany this music. (17.5/20)

6. "Don't Swing The Wheel" (10:37) by this point in the album I am struggling to make out the differences between the songs, especially this one: it feels and sounds exactly like the previous one--even down to more of Maria Lagodich's crazy peasant rants. What is the band's intention here? Thankfully, there is a change in motif and, a little later, pace starting at 2:45, but this just makes the music feel even more as if it is more likely intended as accompaniment to a a narrative, short story, film, or stage performance. Like the more cinematic music of UZEd and Present, I find myself enjoying this--more if I allow my own vivd imagination to conjure up the silent film footage to attach to this music. (Fritz Lang, of course, though images from films by Orson Wells and Alfred Hitchcock also arise.) (18/20)

7. "From The Grey Notebook - Part 2" (13:48) I like the smoother, more drawn out nature of the weave of this one--at least, until the 45-second mark when the band most-assuredly counters my sentiment with some fast-capitulating note salad making. Settling back a bit, the chaos again takes over at the two-minute mark. Again, for some strange reason I feel myself comforted by the presence of the familiar rock instruments--especially the electric bass, electric guitars, and drum kit. The militaristic morale-boosting anthem that begins with Cyrill Yelshow's singing at 4:45 is another interesting and unexpected turn. Again I am reminded of some of the more odd (and, I'm guessing, colloquially Eastern European inputs similar to those of Hungarian band AFTER CRYING). Barroom piano helps transition the music through one venue to another: the streets; a chase scene! Electric bass, guitar, bassoon, and drums convey the elements and agonists involved in the run and hide--and it is a stop and go affair through the darkest, dirtiest, and most clandestine alleys of old Minsk (pre-WW2, of course). More (purposely bad) narrative singing from the military man telling the story in the 13th and 14th minutes brings us back to the present--to the story's finish. Interesting. Another situation in which I wish I could have a band member's insight into what is really going on here or that the story's printed words could be found in a good English translation. The music is okay. The story is unknown to me but, I have to admit: I am curious. (26.25/30)

Total time: 60:57

This is the last album before the arrival of young keyboard player, vocalist, and composer Olga Podgaiskaja which, after two albums, resulted in the eventual leadership struggle that would lead to the band's demise (and eventual creation of two bands: FIVE-STOREY ENSEMBLE and ARCHESTRA).

B/four stars; a very solid display of cinematic avant gard/RIO music in the tradition of and of the level of Univers Zero and Present.

How lucky are we that Francesco Zago and the AltrOck Productions record label were supporting musics like this in the late Naughties and early Teens?

From the very first note, the album grabs your attention and don't let it go until the last sound is blown. It breathes unstrained composing geniality, mathematical preciseness of performing and tons of rehearsing sweat.

The sound of RD is more a classical chamber ensemble than an electric band. Even electric guitar sounds basic, played without devices. Strings, reeds and piano are dominating. This probably makes RD sound out of any time reference point. This music could be made in the beginning of 20th century or somewhere in 23rd. In other words, it is ageless. However, it is unmistakably a rock music!

Rational Diet is based in Minsk, Byelorussia. The band was formed in 1996. The first album dates from 1999 - "From the grey notebook". The group collaborates a lot with modern artists, participates in theatre performances. It is a pity for us, listeners in the West, that it is so hard for a musician to get abroad of the last European dictatorship. Luckily, they were discovered by Italian label Altrock somewhere in 2007. In that year, Altrock reissued "The Shameless", recorded earlier in 2004. After that, RD managed to perform a few shows in Poland, Germany and Italy. They took part in Altrock fest in Milano, Italy in 2008 and in Rock In Opposition Fest'2010 in Carmaux, France. Unlucky for me, I missed all these events. I am definitely going not to repeat this mistake again!

Besides the fabulous "On Phenomena and Existences", I ordered their previous album, "At Work" from 2008, also available at Altrock.it. And I enjoyed every bit of it too! It sounds a little different, but not less fantastic. By the way, have you already discovered other bands available at Altrock.it? If everything there is on the same level as Rational Diet, Yugen and Aranis, than it is a very good place to be, for a lover of alternative rock music!

Without doubts, 4 out of 5, absolutely recommended for funs of experimental classic or rock music.

The previous reviews pretty much tell the tale. I would agree that there are a lot of RIO groups that do tend to (it's the nature of the style a bit) to be a bit vulgar and maybe over the top (although I like that stuff too!) This on the other hand is a beautiful combination of RIO, but the Samala Mamas influence, it makes the outcome quite unique and their own voice. Speaking of voice, this is unusual also, as there is a different style of singing between the songs (do to the fact that this represents a couple of albums I think,) but is still totally cohesive and fitting. I wish I understood the language though, as it's sung with passion and clarity.

Overall, this is a must have to me, as it comes from yet another angle in the challenging and yet "can't get enough of" music of avant guard/rock.

Thanks to those that continue to support the music industry that really produces music out of love of life and art - we couldn't hear this wonderful dreams into reality without them! And now, I must have Rational Diet's other albums! (my wife just doesn't understand:)

Rational Diet from Belorussia is not a new band. They have been around for a long time. But I have not been aware of them until recently and through the interview I did with them. On Phenomena and Existences is their fifth album and the first one I have heard from this band.

Rational Diet does an acoustic chamber orchestra type of avant-garde/RIO. The nearest reference for a novice like myself is Aranis. Afenginn is also another reference point. But Rational Diet plays a lot darker music on this album than you will find on any Aranis album. They are pretty close to Present and Univers Zero at times. Not to mention the Zeuhl genre when female vocals is applied to this music. Though I would not say this album is a totally dark album. It also has it's light sides too. But is it leaning more towards Richard Wagner than Johan Sebastian Bach, let me put it this way. It also have a lot of speed and fluency too. Very much fluency, I would say. It also draws in jazz and fusion elements in some melodies too.

The quality of the material is great throughout. Most of all; the music is fascinating with a lot of layers. This album is like peeling an onion (without the tears, that is). You think you have got it and then there is another layer below it. That is all the hallmarks of a quality product, in my view. Hence my sprinkling of stars over this album.

4 stars

Not many bands manage to astonish me with how they progress and evolve from album to album; little opportunity do I get to hear bands that while keeping their core sound and style, are able to bring something new into their palate, produce an updated aural image of themselves.

Rational Diet is one such group.

I've read that this band's music poses a challenge to some listeners, a barrier of disharmonic noise and orchestral chaos. I for one hear magical harmony, mysterious and eerie ambiance and highly calculated and intricate composition, arrangements and stellar musicianship. The production is also of high quality and brings forth all the small details and intricacies that can easily get lost in such a rich and layered album.

Rational Diet's music has a diverse range of sounds. From ominous and disharmonic sounding sections to more rock-oriented segments, from slow and relatively calm to a chaotic-like frenzy-driven rhythmic bit. Their music is such that it's eerie, sharp and in-your-face one minute and then it gradually morphs into a softer-edged sound with a more harmonic nature. This album presents a variety of these sounds, much like a diverse and well-balanced diet. Each of the 14 compositions on the album presents varied and distinct pace, mood and approach, all unified by the band's sound and playing. This array of templates is at times applied in one song (Sleep Is A Teasing Man, and Passcaglia In Beautiful And Furious Worlds are two examples).

Moreover, the instruments themselves are wisely used to achieve this effect, as the violin is usually the lead "offensive" and abrasive sounding instrument while the piano and organ serve the opposite end and the rest serve both "camps" as needed. This group does a wonderful job of composing modern classical music and presenting it in a rock-like setup.

Some of the pieces on the album, poems of sorts, show an interesting development for the band; A Man Went To Sleep, Sleep Is Teasing A Man and In Five Steps are such songs. These have a more intimate and exposed feeling to them in the sung parts, though they also contain the instrumental frenzy that characterizes the group. The other tracks are prime example of this group's playing prowess and arrangements skills. Take for instance Bet On A Marked Card. Rational Diet takes a theme, layer it with all their instrumental lineup, add a second thematic section to which the melody shifts, play it fast and furious and the result is a bombastic musical punch to the face. What I find most admirable here is the writing for each instrument and adding it all up to fit together and achieving harmony between them and one effective sounding musical short piece. Another feat I appreciate is that they write mostly short and succinct pieces and don't linger on unnecessarily. I would however, like to hear how they would tackle a longer composition, how would they construct and arrange it (they had longer pieces in earlier albums but I'd like to hear what they would write now).

A feature I find wonderful in their music and in this album in particular is the interplay between the instruments. Take for instance, track 10, Private Secrets of Machine; hear how the violin and piano interact, pose each other a phrase and the other answers or counteracts it. All the while, the drums provide a propulsive beat, maintaining suspense and tension, aided by the bassoon and guitar. Some would probably say that at some point, the violin and piano lines become just random babblings, aimless meanderings; however, I hear carefully composed opposing streaks of melodies. These may sound disjointed at first, but upon repeated listening will reveal their "intention" and projected melodic paths unveiling their magic.

I must say a good word about the production, which provides a clear and crisp sound in which I'm able to hear all the instruments, even those whose volume is such that they tend to be at the back of the mix and both low and high ends are heard well in this recording.

On Phenomena And Existences is a dense, odd and intense listening experience. This is an album that requires full attention to grasp all of its richness as well as small intricacies. I find it to be a wonderful step forward in the band's output, a great follow-up to their previous release, At Work.