IAMTHEMORNING

Incredible. Beautiful. Original. Innovative. Brilliant. Versatile. Audiophile. Expressive. Thought-provoking.

I could just go on like that. I was completely blown away when IAMTHEMORNING were introduced to me by a friend on youtube. Wow! They really know how to use their wonderful craftmanship to produce artful music. No note is too much, no sound is misplaced, the arrangements are never overdone, no undue instrumentalist boasting ever comes in - and yet you feel the brilliance of their vision AND their playing in every moment.

If you are ready for introspection, for rather intimate and non-rock arrangements, for fresh, pure sound, for minimalism and also for the gaps between the lines and notes - this is for you. It has been one of the nicest surprises of last year.

First of all, this album is very well promoted, being on-line distributed by "one-click" free downloading from the band's website. With its fresh sound, excellent performance, amazing female voice and high production quality this easy-of-access album guaranteed the wide audience and PA reviewers' top ranks for the band. Few days ago I received the long-awaiting CD and it is just ... Beautiful! A pretty nice blend of symphonic/folk/crossover prog with piano sound dominating and lack of rock instruments like quitar, bass, drums (though not completely eliminating) make this album sound somewhat resembling a famous AFTER CRYING's Overground Music masterpiece. Marjana's voice is simply bewitching, charming, relaxing, gorgeous, ... (add whatever you want). Very strong debut, and 5 stars no doubt!

This band plays neo-classical music in combination with folk and progressive rock, but it would be better to describe it in one word : Iceland. The music of this distant, fairy tale country can't be confused with any other, so if anyone has ever heard Mum, Sigur Ros, Bjork they'll know what iamthemorning sounds like. In 2012, the band released their debut album "~". That's right - "~". And that's what I'm going to talk about. So back to what I was saying - their music is filled with virtuoso piano melodies and soft vocal, accompanied by a strong sounding of strings, guitars and drums. The album is very professional, saturated and atmospheric. There you can find such powerful compositions as "Burn", "Monsters", "i.b.too", that are perfectly supported by the soft revelations in the form of intermission. Some compositions, like "Inside", "Circles", "Scotland", "Weather Changing", "Would this be" may be a little bit confusing, as under the delicate wrap of piano music is the powerfull rock hidden. The main and only single from the album - «touching II», is a beautiful composition with soulful lyrics, adorned with playful pizzicato and string orchestra arrangements. At the same time, surprisingly enough, in this song you won't hear any guitar sounds or beats of drums. Already a bold move, considering that the Russian public usually prefers powerful rock. Marjana's vocal deserves a special mention. Light and soulful - as fragile as the wings of a butterfly - her voice shyly, yet confidently goes through the stormy sea of piano music played by Gleb. As if a little boat is in the open sea of guitar waves, and from the board you can hear how the sea is crashing into the beach with blows of hi-hats. A very bright image supported by the album cover. In conclusion, I'd like to say that for me iamthemorning has become a kind of a revelation in the abyss of poor-quality Russian music, where every once in a while you can still find a silver glimmer of hope for a better future. If I continue to develop this metaphor, i should say that these ordinary guys from St.Petersburg has become a great shining part of something amazing - wonderful music. And if this album is not enough for you, don't worry, they are already working on their next and they also regulary upload new songs to their side projects - sleepwalkingmusic and poloniumcubes. Connoisseurs will be very pleased to hear the exquisite "lo-fi" with familiar Marjana's vocal and amazing spontaneous piano melodies from Gleb. But, of course, don't forget to come back to the light in the pitch black - iamthemorning.

What a debut!

After seeing multiple reviews of this band along with the beautiful album artwork, I felt compelled to check out Russia's iamthemorning...boy was I in for a treat. From what I understand, the members are all classically trained and still in college at this time, yet "~" could've conviced me that this was a work coming from a mature band near their prime that had been together for many, many years!

The overall sound of the album is primarily classical, with the piano and violin/viola/cello being the main driving forces of most of the songs; however, the structure of many of the songs give a progressive feel to them. The two that particularly stand out to me are "Burn" and "Inside", which both have several different "sections" to them, being both beautiful and intense at times.

The only minor gripe I have with the album is the constant feeling of intensity and urgency in the sound. I'm looking forward to future releases from this band, and I hope the band in the future will produce at least a few songs that show another side to the band. Give me a song that is relaxing and peaceful throughout!

Regardless of this nitpicky criticism, this is one of the finest albums I've heard in years. I've never quite heard a progressive album like this that has such an emphasis on classical music, which makes it fresh and exciting! I would encourage everyone to check "~" out, and spread the word of this incredible band. From what I've read, they are still in debt from promoting and recording this album, and any support would be well appreciated. This band is well ahead of their years, and this is what a debut should sound like! 9/10

Iamthemorning firstly caught my attention not because of their third position on Progarchives (I'm a newbie here), but because of the name of the band. As a huge Oceansize lover grieving about their separation I caught this band as a straw that could save me from drowning. I thought that it is highly possible that people that took Oceansize title as a name of a band (modified, though) make music that can be not bad - to say the least!

And oh how wrong I was! "Not bad" is the least suitable mark for this outstanding work! It is simply brilliant! I did a bit of a research and it turned out that things are even more interesting than i firstly thought. These guys are just a students in Russian Musical College, and the vocalist is self-taught. No one in a band is above 23 years and they already competing with Big Big Train and Anglagard! From their facebook page i found out that they are even embarrassed because of this sort of confrontation because this is their first album and they never expected something like this to happen.

Anyhow. Immediately after turning this charming music on you are literally switching the world off. This young girl guides you to some sort of surreal and mysterious world full of beautiful voices and visions. Holding on to the powerful piano parts you continue your journey with drums filling the air with tinkling and strings colouring the landscapes to some fantastic colors. Each song is like a full fairytale - the lyrics is amazing! Beautiful abstract poetry.

The arrangements are totally awesome. These kids combine their classical thinking with progressive music they obviously like, so harmonically that this definitely may turn into something new and called-for in case they continue developing their own unique style. I just hope that severe reality will not break them down and they will continue making this outstanding music. I think that progressive community should unite to help these folks.

I kind of felt compelled to listen to this album after seeing it at the top of the 2012 list. Besides that, it's free; so you basically must give it a shot. That said, I've seen many great reviews for iamthemorning's debut album entitled "~". That title is quite appropriate, but I'm not even sure why.

The music is certainly very muted and even indescribable. It has a neo-prog feel, as well as a bit of prog folk. This combination is very pleasing to the ears, and it is does remind me a bit of the excellent bands Introitus and Frequency Drift. The eclectic array of musicians rarely do anything overtly complex, but they do play excellently. There are, however, some rather amazing moments that really blew me away. "Touching II", for instance, really sucked in my attention. The fantastic violin work and the soft vocals really score highly. Speaking of vocals, the female vox are outstanding, and very delicate. Again, she does remind me of the Frequency Drift singer---that is not a bad thing at all. Also, I must comment on the lyrics. The lyrics are highly abstract and amazingly well written. They claim inspiration from Maynard of A Perfect Circle (amazing band), and it definitely shows.

Overall, iamthemorning's debut is quite outstanding. It is delicate and beautiful like a watercolor painting, and it requires a step back mentally in order really to appreciate the abstraction and pure beauty. Is this album of the year? I don't think so, but it is certainly deserving of a spot somewhere in the best of 2012.

This album being the best album of 2012 (as of March 2013), really? Although this album isn't bad, I wonder how it can surpass Big Big Train, Anglagard and Co. It's merely prog related and much more classical / folk with some rock orchestration here and there. Piano and violin are the main instruments throughout the 50 minutes. It's mostly laid-back music that you will play in the background while doing other stuff. If you like that kind of music try Jorane, her first albums are of this kind, with a very similar voice and with a larger emotional palette, the breadth of the music on ~ being restrained. It's playing in the same zone for the most part and after a few listens it becomes monotonous. I also see other similarities with artists like Loreena McKeenit and the likes, minus the pop factor.

So all in all not a bad album but not ground-breaking either. It's worth checking out since it's free but honestly I wouldn't buy it if I had to. Sorry but this is the perfect example of an overhyped album. And what left me perplex is the lack of progressive rock, isn't it what this site is all about? So 3 stars because it's good music but I remove 1 star because of the lack of prog rock.

I was very surprised when I saw that Iamthemorning's album got such acclaim on Progarchives. I knew this band right from the time they started to create music, and I listened to them on many live performances for the last two years. In the beginning there was nothing but celestial piano and heavenly voice ? this was "Inside". So, composer Gleb and vocalist Maryana are the core of Iamthemorning, creating beautiful airy sound regardless of other musicians, who were, in the first incarnation of the band, Alina (cello), Ilya (violin) & Filipp (viola). The band went through some changes, it was interesting to see differences in the sound when they performed as quintet, trio or duet. But when it was about recording of the album, Iamthemorning underwent transfiguration into complete modern band, adding electric guitar, bass and drums to their sound. The aforementioned string trio participated in the recording, but after that they left the band. At the presentation of "~" Iamthemorning included what I call "cosmic" section of the band (Gleb & Maryana), string section (varying from 2 to X musicians from one gig to another) and "rock" section ? Eugeny on guitar, Max from Kubikmaggi on bass (this guy is crazy wild master of bass, listen to Kubikmaggi, you will hear that his technical level and creative power are absolutely mindblowing) and Misha on drums (cheerful guy who is responsible for most of the spontaneous jokes in live concerts).

This incarnation of the band is really powerful in composing as like as in performance. All the music is built on fantastically beautiful piano of Gleb Kolyadin (aka Poloniumcubes in his solo work), the cornerstone of Iamthemorning sound. Gleb has a talent to fill all the musical space with his piano, as the air fills all the room given to it ? that's the reason why Iamthemorning sound so brilliant even if they perform as a duo with Maryana, or why I do find Gleb's solo sketches as cool as 'morning's music. Maryana's vocal is strong and crystal-clear (Maryana is total perfectionist in the studio; and she's cute and shy in live performances). I'm glad that the role of string section was reduced ? it appears to be dominant only in episodes. For me as a rock music addict it's a great thing to hear powerful bass-drums-guitar driven sound reigning over 'morning's music! But there is neither real "rock" on the album, nor "prog" (except if you like to call everything that sounds interesting and not-dated "prog"). Iamthemorning play intelligent, elegant chamber music with half-rock instrumentary. That results in great duality of graceful studio music and powerful live playing.

I certainly hope I do not sound too arrogant, but I will have to disagree with the "majority opinion" about this band and especially this particular album.

First of all, I think the only real novelty that the band is introducing in this record is the band itself. Yes, now we know that there is a band called iamthemorning. We also know that its members all live in St. Petersburg and attend a distinguished musical school. Good stuff.

As for the novelty factor of the music itself, there is none: the album simply continues to carefully tread the celtic-ky slash nordic-ky slash New Age-ey path. There are a few brief forays into the "crossover prog" territory, but even those lack the lush, voluptuous "prog" sound texture we all know and like.

I may be becoming a grumpy old man, but I positively do not see anything in this album that would stand out or stir any emotion in me.

By the way, I am not detecting anywhere the "virtuosity" many other reviewers have been reporting. The guy on the piano is probably the best musician in the band, but even he is just good - not great. The rest of the players are competent, but their playing is uneventful and unremarkable. The female singer's voice is not unpleasant; still, it's a little bleak and thin in my opinion. The vocalist is not a risk-taker: she delivers her airy notes in a rather low volume and avoids "unnecessary" excursions outside of her safe (and, for that matter, narrow) range.

The melody lines also seem to be revolving around the same ambient-style chord sequences over and over again. Again, not horrible, but not terribly stimulating either.

On my 7-Star scale this would be 3/7 ("below average"), so I am afraid i will have to award this album two stars only.

When i first time heard this album, i was stuned. It was to me inconceivable, that it's not in top 100 PA albums, because there are not many albums that i can rate as better than this one. And the longer i listen to it, the better it appears to me. First thing that must be said about Iamthemorning is georgeus voice of Marjana Syomkina, in some songs dynamic and perfectly sliding between the sounds, in others, ambient multi layered chorus. The piano line is excellently writen. In most of songs piano is main instrument and i find it very enjoyable in this role. It is influenced by classical music, and it makes the album sound deeper. Also the violins and cello does great work. In most of songs they are making background or filling empty spaces, but there are exceptions. For example in "Touching II" after great played pizzicato. Final rating: 5 stars.