LIBERTAGE

90% improvised and yes, pretty much experimental. DISEN GAGE turned from a math/guitar band to an avant/post-rock band with elements of Kraut and Psychedelic Rock. Imagine KC's projects combined with CAN and 65daysofstatic...or something related...Anyway, that was really the Experiment. The album begins with a pretty nice melody (then repeated in "Sortie",the most accessible track here IMHO).The further it goes, the heavier and darker it becomes. "H5N1" is almost a Zeuhling hardcore! So, if you're into KC's 73-74 stuff, get this one (if you're interested), you'll be pleasantly surprised! Fortunately, DG didn't put dozens of CDs of that kind in order to keep the Experiment untouched, and I must admit, this is what I find the most friendly thing here. The other one is that DG's music is FREE-TO-DOWNLOAD from their official site, so don't hesitate to check it!

Since their debut album, the instrumental group DISEN GAGE has evolved from a straight-guitar-influenced prog-rock outfit to an exciting and entertaining improvisational avant-prog band. This incarnation is still a duo-guitar quartet. Original members Konstantin Mochalov (guitar), Nikolai Syrtsev (bass), and Eugeny Kudryashov (drums) are joined by a fantastic performer Sergei Bagin who uses his guitar to add new unexpected colors to their music. Intricate textures, atonal improvising, tough rhythms and riffs, enfeeble soundscaping which could delude a listener by gentle touches of the absent keyboard, string or horn sections, cute but carefully warped sense of melody, remarkable individual skills and humorous visions - everything makes their second, Libertage shining throughout. The result is not a hash, but rather complex pieces with a sense of the bizarre and the misplaced. It is almost unbelievable that the whole album was spontaneously composed and improvised on the spot. This time around, the group makes a go of imagination, not concentrating on specific music themes but turning to something more in the vein of impressionist glare-art, gorgeous but sorry sight of the things. No guest appearances, no synthesizers, no overdubs! Alexei Fedorov's production is delicate and sleek without stripping the music of its authenticity. Those who got hooked on the pure instrumental avant-prog aesthetic will not be disappointed!

Two years after their debut, Disen gage returned with their second album in 2006. With the departure of founder member and guitarist Yury Alaverdyan, the band regrouped and brought in Sergei Bagin as a replacement. The rest of the line-up still being Konstantin Mochalov (guitars, Fx), Nikolai Syrtsev (bass) and Evgeny Kudryashov (drums). It is worth noting that although this line-up stayed together for the next album, 2008's 'The Reverse May Be True', over the years since then only Konstantin has been on every release, but it was this quartet who performed on 2019's 'The Big Adventure'.

With this release the band had taken their King Crimson investigations into new directions, playing with RIO, avant- garde and experimental weirdness which came to fruition more in their later works. This one still contains a considerable amount of guitar at times, yet they are moving through krautrock and other areas to create something which is quite compelling and certainly outside the norm. The one major issue for me with this release is the sound of the snare drum, which is just too high in the mix and detracts and distracts from the proceedings around it. I can cope with the toms being fairly high as their more bass sound provides a good tribal backdrop, but the snare is just too high up and the reverb which has been applied definitely makes it stand out.

That is a real shame as there are sections of this where the experimentation is a delight, taking the listener on different journeys that may be intensely melodic or something filled with anarchy, and one never knows where the adventure is going to culminate. I would probably look to one of their other releases before going to this one, but yet again it is good to have it more freely available.