Russian Lullabies Artist: Havalina Rail Co. Label: Jackson/Rubio Entertainment I read somewhere that the Co. studied traditional Russian music without actually listening to any, and then reproduced what they'd learned for this album. They do this with drums, plenty of background vocals, saxophone, violin, bass, male and female vocals, percussion, flute, a washboard, cello, xylophone, and guitars of varying types and tones (but usually not all at once)--their usual eclectic mix of instruments, in other words. Having never heard Russian music of any kind before, I can't say if they've succeeded on that account or not. If you've never heard Havalina Rail Co., though, perhaps now the time has come. I can't truthfully call the songs on Russian Lullabies conventional, but they seem to follow a more linear structure than the band's previous experiments. That is, I found them easier to digest and more enjoyable than those of other albums (or maybe it just took me three albums to get used to them). It's safe to say most of the swing and strange country influences have been put aside, leaving the surf-guitar, jazz, and avant-garde (anything I can't label I stick under that). All of this means you can't really put Havalina Rail Co. into a category; there's too much variety and uniqueness. They're like Star Trek--going where no one has gone before, and finding all kinds of groovy, spooky weirdness. Tied for my favorite tune would be the very frosty, acoustic, "Winter," with vocals by soft siren Lori Hoopes, and the also acoustic "Total Depravity" (both very melancholy and with very sparse instrumentation).
it's a wonder you keep me, it's a wonder I can shine.... (from Total Depravity)
The music on this album is described by the band as their attempt to do what Stravinsky once did for jazz. Without ever hearing jazz, he attempted to compose pieces based on what he had read about it. The music ended up nothing like jazz, and like nothing else either. In this case, one can definitely hear the Eastern influences in the music. Based on the romantic images they found in literature (Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, and Nabakov) and music (Stravinsky and Jarre), the resulting mixture is definitely interesting. Of course, we must stick in bits of Havalina Rail's usual avant-garde influences which results in an eclectic but interesting mixture. An instrumental piece called "Before Ararat" was my favorite. The lyrics while definitely Christian are full of Russian imagery, such as in the song "Tundra":
To every inch of ground by an icy old stream, And nothing that's green can ever stand... Still the tundra calls me,
I'm currently studying Russia in my history class so I was eager
to hear this album - both to hear Havalina Rail Co's impression of Russian
folk music and to explore the imagery they were reputed to employ here.
To prepare for this album, the band studied Russian culture and music,
without actually listening to any of the music, and mixed what they'd learned
with their other influences to produce a very fresh sounding album.
I guess things turn blue, the lights in the sky are not yet on high I can only be thinking of you, and there's nothing that you can do, to avoid touching down, won't you send me a crown that says in a way, I need you ( from "Twilight Time") If you're looking for something a little more experimental and avant-garde than average, then this album will almost certainly appeal to you - an interesting mixture, demonstrating that experimentation does live on in modern music.------James Stewart    |
