demo
Rada & Ternovnik : 2003 (RU,2003)**°°
possible airplay : tr.2, 4, 6-7, 11
This demo was send to me to show the group’s sound as it is today, to know what to expect for eventual live concerts in countries like Belgium. In 2003 it still seemed rather difficult to get people warm for original Russian folk out of the polka ballroom context, especially when also the "folk" genre seems to be crossed widely and more so for the live concerts of Rada & Ternovnik. I thought at first Rada would still fit into a folkrock context, but this live act surely proves it doesn't.
It is even more difficult to get some group to another country, when knowing a style doesn't fit any category too well, while people prefer to have an acceptable context to organize something in. In general, also, songs in another language are obviously impossible to understand, except when they are also explored from a musical creative level, which is universal. The accompaniments on the first five tracks on this live act have more recognisable style references, with little musical invention. If, like with a group singing in a foreign language, we fall back on music alone, and then we hear a music approach which we also have heard many times before, I guess it is not enough. Thoroughly however, the music is getting more and more interesting. The first five tracks are rather emotionally driven, and drift along with a calm rock band improvisation. It sounds more matured since the 1999 'Russion Epos' album I just heard, but fundamentally, until here, is little different in the approach. On the 6th track, "Inter", however the band improvises moodyly and heavily with guitars, in an almost psychedelic way for 5 full minutes, which is nice to hear. Also the track after that, another song stretched to over 5 minutes is more progressive. I assume some of these following tracks are live versions from albums I described before on the first Russian review page, which showed also more universal creativity. From here on, the music keeps all attention vivid, there is beautiful vocal variation, and the emotions drift along with the band. The 12th track, "You shall dance" is a more bluesy improvisation, with some vocal and also electric guitar improvisation. The last track is even stretched to over 12 minutes, with plenty of place for improvising with voice and electric guitars, but without finding much more variation in that time.
According to the website live Rada is only a three piece : Rada : vocal, lyrics, acoustic guitar, vargan ; Vladimir Anchevsky :guitar, notebook ; Igor Chernykh : bass guitar.
