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Collocutor - Archaic Morning (Antoine Abayomi Edit)

“Krok” means “step” in Belarusian - and for Alex Chumak and his band this word comes with a lot of meaning. It’s the title and theme that run throughout СОЮЗ (SOYUZ)'s fourth album, reflecting the journeys the band has navigated in recent years, having moved to Warsaw due to political unrest in their homeland of Belarus and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Embracing the uncertainty became both the inspiration and main lyrical theme for Alex Chumak, SOYUZ’ composer and arranger, who also decided to go a step further and change the language in which he writes songs from Russian, which is used as lingua franca in many post-Soviet countries, to his native Belarusian. The result is nine songs about dreams and outer space, ordinary miracles, things very close and very distant at the same time. 

In early 2022, Chumak and original members, Mikita Arlou and Anton Nemahai, joined tens of thousands of Belarusians seeking safety abroad. Resettling in Warsaw, the band released Force of the Wind in October 2022, garnering widespread acclaim, a string of major European gigs, and led to Polish musicians Albert Karch and Igor Wiśniewski joining the band.

Deeper and more melancholic than previous works, KROK is quintessentially SOYUZ, laced with hope, dreams and a celebration of life. Given the difficulties with finding rehearsal and recording spaces in Warsaw and the departure of the drummer Anton Nemahai from the band, Chumak explored alternative options. He reached out to friend and fellow musical collaborator, Sessa, about the possibility of recording the new album in his recently finished studio in São Paulo, with Sessa and Biel Basile coming onboard as recording engineers.

At the tail end of 2024, Chumak and SOYUZ’ new drummer, Albert Karch, made the trip to São Paulo to record the first sessions for KROK. Laid down directly to tape, these sessions featured prominent Brazilian musicians Sessa, Biel Basile, and Marcelo Cabral, with a guest vocal feature by Tim Bernardes recorded at a later date. The final touches were then added back in Europe. Lush string and woodwind arrangements written by Chumak and Karch were recorded at the Polish Radio studio in Warsaw, and Rhodes parts were added by Chumak at Sven Wunder’s studio in Stockholm.

Though primarily recorded in Brazil, KROK is not a Brazilian or MPB album. It blends the band’s Eastern European roots with jazz, folk and global influences. The genre of the music is hardly identifiable: there are folk ballads and jazz-driven pop compositions covered in lush and often dissonant string and woodwind arrangements where each note is placed with care and meaning behind it.

The title track was the first song Chumak wrote in Belarusian as an adult, making for a fitting opener and one of the band’s finest tracks. Darker than most of SOYUZ’ songs, the tensions lift and lighten as the track progresses. The cinematic library jazz of 'Voo Livre', with ghostly vocals sung by Ciça Góes and Ina, feels like a modern twist on the Italian library composer Alessandro Alessandroni through its sublime choir and woodwind orchestration. Elsewhere, the heartfelt 'Lingua Do Mundo', composed, written, and sung by Chumak and the incredible Tim Bernardes, features one of the standout string arrangements from Chumak and Karch. 'Cichi Karahod' is an instant SOYUZ classic, almost Pat Metheny-esque as it opens, with the acoustic guitar and bass riff transitioning into jazzy AOR / pop-folk territory. The record closes with 'Smak žyćcia', a gentle, dreamy spoken-word poetry piece in Japanese by singer-songwriter Manami Kakudo. 

Despite immense challenges, SOYUZ have delivered a career-defining album in KROK.


СОЮЗ (SOYUZ) – VCB

I’ve been sat on this one a little while. Amanda and I have been in communication now since around 2021, after a few messages we met for the first time backstage at We Out Here. We started collaborating almost immediately, and yet none of that work has seen light of day. 

Initially she recorded pieces for what was supposed to be Believers Vol. 2, but as that project stalled heavily and I dropped it to make Paroxysm, much of the music got archived - including this piece, Red Weather. 

Red Weather is a meditation on increasing global temperatures, it sounds to me like a heat haze, like the shimmering air above baked earth. As the annual weather warnings increase, even 2 years after this song’s inception, it remains increasingly relevant. 

I hope you’ll enjoy this seven-minute meditation. It is not rushed, it is full of space and texture, languid Rhodes gives way to the breeze of Amanda’s harp which in turn metamorphs in and out of Moog synths, the melody intertwined. I love taking lead melodies like Amanda’s playing here and converting them to information I can run into my synths and it really works so beautifully here. 

The single is out on Wednesday and we hope to share more of our up-til-now hidden collaborations soon. 

Red Weather feat. Amanda Whiting

Buy album 'TETRA' or EP : http://smarturl.it/iTunesTetra
Discover the Music Video of Down The Road here : http://bit.ly/Ts4Xyy
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Twitter : @C2Cdjs
http://www.c2cmusic.fr/
Artwork by LVL Studio
Picture by Samuel Cornillet

Collocutor - Archaic Morning (Antoine Abayomi Edit)

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