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LP
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SKR 008LP
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2023 repress; second edition of these recordings from 1995. Originally issued on LP in 2017. Svitlana Nianio has been active in the Ukrainian and Polish underground music scenes since the early '90s both as a solo artist and a prominent member of the now disbanded avant-rock outfit Cukor Bila Smert (Sugar White Death). Her music draws on aspects of modern composition and traditional Slavic music, with songs and experiments from that early period culminating in the 1999 album Kytytsi (Koka Records, Poland). Prior to that in 1995, Nianio recorded Lisova Kolekciya (Forest Collection) live in a simple home studio setting with Olexander Yurchenko and Konstantin Nazarenko. Less indebted to folk tradition than Kytytsi, Lisova Kolekciya was performed using Casio keyboards, electronics, and voice, positioning itself more in-line with Terry Riley's Shri Camel in its otherworldly reinterpretation of the ancient through modern means. Retaining aspects of traditional music in its use of spare instrumentation and haunting vocal melodies, this largely unknown album pushes at the edges of what folk music might be, resulting in music previously described as being "deeply rooted in primeval myths, creating a world of magic realism, in which the temporal dimension and the other world constantly move and permeate." Issued here officially for the first time after an extremely limited private cassette edition handed out to friends in 1996 -- where the recording was twinned with the album Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhi (Know How? Tell Me) -- Lisova Kolekciya comes packaged in a full color offset printed sleeve featuring artwork by Svitlana Nianio. Recorded in Kiev, Ukraine, 1995. Personnel: Svitlana Nianio - Casio MT-200, voice, texts; Olexander Yurchenko - Casio CTK-200; Konstantin Nazarenko - recording engineer, sound effects. Digital master by Sean McCann, 2017. Design by Andrew Chalk and Tom James Scott. Includes download code; edition of 300.
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LP
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SKR 011LP
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"Recorded in correspondence throughout a calamitous and uncertain 2020, Eye of the Sea is a collaborative record made by Tom James Scott of the United Kingdom and Svitlana Nianio of Ukraine. Active since the late 1980s, Nianio has released a treasure trove of diverse and beguiling music under her own name, as a member of the legendary Ukrainian experimental unit Cukor Bila Smerť, and in collaboration with the late musician and instrument maker Oleksandr Yurchenko. For his part, Scott has steadily published solo recordings since the mid aughts on labels such as Bo'Weavil, Students of Decay, and Where to Now?, and worked often in collaboration with kindred spirits like Andrew Chalk and Timo Van Lujik. Eye of the Sea began as a series of intimate, muted piano sketches put to tape by Scott, which Nianio embellished and re-contextualized with voice and instrumentation before returning them to Scott for further overdubbing, editing, and mixing. Listening to these recordings, I'm struck most by their patience, frailty, and beauty. Soft piano lines unspool alongside Nianio's weightless voice on tracks such as 'Slowly Turns the Spring,' which achieves a richly devotional air, and 'Lotus,' a piece that all but halts the passage of time as it slowly blooms into expression. But despite their elusive, gauzy palette, there is a startling directness to these recordings that feels unique in the oeuvres of both musicians. Much like Nianio's wonderful 'Lisova Kolekciya,' (reissued by Scott on Skire in 2017) there is the sense that this music, particularly the vocal arrangements, is firmly rooted in some hermetic, primordial tradition. Ultimately, Eye of the Sea is a work of romantic, phantasmagoric beauty shot through with morning light; one which draws deeply on 20th century classical, chamber and liturgical musics, and ambient minimalism to arrive at a distinctive voice of its own." --Alex Cobb (Students of Decay/Soda Gong) Edition of 300; includes download code.
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