NIGHT EN FACE

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.