ADVENTURES AT THE BABOOINUMFEST 2017

The summer of 2017 saw the third Babooinumfest take place in St. Petersburg. Eleven bands from St. Petersburg, Moscow and Vladimir took part in the two-day event which included the debut live performance of the St. Petersburg- Vladimir collective Rozmainsky & Mikhaylov Project (RMP), which has now been released as an album. Keyboard player Ivan Rozmainsky (Roz Vitalis) and guitarist/bassist Vladimir Mikhaylov (Enine, Algabas) were joined by clarinetist Leonid Perevalov (Yojo, Pustotsvet) and drummer Yurii Groiser and released their debut album, 'For The Light', in the same year. When looking just at the song titles it appears there isn't any crossover between the two but given that these are improvised works perhaps that isn't surprising.

For the most part the sound is very good, although the drums aren't quite in the space they need to be and I'm not sure if that is down to the production or how they were set up, while the clarinet isn't as to the fore as it should be at times. For the most part the ears are concentrated on the interplay between Rozmainsky and Mikhaylov, and the guitar sound in particular is very clear and distinct. Given the band were new, and hadn't performed live prior to this, perhaps it isn't surprising there are times when they lose their way. When they get it right then they are very good indeed, but when they lose the musical thread it can be heard for them to pick it up again. Pursuing a musical area often thought of as belonging to the likes of Art Zoyd, this is an album showing promise, so given that both this and the studio album are now two years old I look forward to the next release with interest.