‘Lucy’ is the foremost track of the debut S/T album by Russian dark romantics Sobranie 8 18. Hailing from Saint-Petersburg, Anastasia Alekseeva and Kirill Drobishevski have finally managed to release their first full-length album on February 3 which is a pleasure in all aspects.
It all started back in 2016 with the duo’s first release, the ‘I Was Sick’ EP, and then in 2017 they offered on limited edition and remastered ‘Сollected Works’ LP where they included the EP plus a few more songs in the package that featured collaborations with Perfect Human and Lucea.
This proper debut LP is a pretty ace collection of 10 tracks that hold many sharp arrows in its creative quiver.
Altogether the album is a bold and thrilling of collage sounds and stories.
Sobranie 8 18 are dark romantics, or in fact, darkwavers occasionally, with an interesting overall point of view on dark pop music too. All of this appears quite elegant in their music and certainly very Russian by all means. I don’t know if their lineage from the by far most beautiful city of Russia has an impact on their whole artistic perspective, but I somehow feel that the former imperial city of Russia must have whispered things to their souls.
In the same ‘faith’ with the most outfits of the current alternative scene of Russia, Anastasia and Kiriil are weaving their sonic tapestries in the most peculiar way. Either be it post-punk, darkwave, shoegaze, post-rock, or alternative electronic music, the Russians show an impressive constancy in creating something altogether different than the rest of the world.
Sobranie 8 18 are hailing from a country with a very long and a heavy tradition in music, culture, and the rest of the arts. All things in their album are shouting beauty, style, passion, with original talent in creating art.
Dark romanticism all over their music, dark pop arrangements everywhere and with good help by a handful of friends οn the flute, sax, bass, piano, and harmonica, they present an album that sounds colorful but on a very strict musical prospect. The most inquisitive song is ‘Mozart’ where they narrate an ongoing story of jealousy, inspired by A.S.Pushkin’s ‘Little Tragedies’ (Mozart & Salieri).
Asking Anastasia for details on the song ‘Angels Fight’ she told me:
“This is one of the first tracks we’ve recorded for the album. Almost every sound is made by Elektron Analog Four synthesizer. We asked a friend to record bass guitar which you can hear in the chorus. The lyrics are repeated as well as in the track ‘Lucy’.”
‘Harmonica’ also amazed with its fantastic blend of dark pop with coldwave. When I asked her about that track she said:
“The main tune of this song is a melody played on harmonica and the lyrics is a poem on the desperate desire to travel and to fly around the world like a bird, or about the failure to do the simple things.”
All songs in the album have a very special meaning and some hidden messages. This record is an artistic tour de force of poetry with the best-fit music an all tracks. Sometimes it could also work as a concept album (it is not) in terms of its musical continuity and its sonic sequel.
This thing is a marvelous achievement. I trust that listeners will have to revisit this record several times to pick up on all the multiple meanings and interpretations, and to hear the duo’s progress since 2016!
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