MDC Rec.
Sergei Kalougin : Nigredo (RU,1994)***°'
Wow, I thought after the first couple of tracks, this Sergei Kalougin seems like a very talented guitarist and arranger. We hear two small poems and almost every track arranged with different ideas. “Rasskaz Korolia Ondatrie/The speech of the King” is arranged with 3 layers of acoustic guitar, and some acoustic rhythm and violin., “Tanets Kazanovi/ Dance of Casanova” is similarly recorded with 3 layers of piano, also with Bach-like kind of arrangements, and a small “Miserere” choir theme. Besides classical guitar, 2 more tracks "Moon on the Carmel" & "Sonnet n°3" have very good flamenco guitar and some flamenco singing. "Voschojdenie Tchornoi Luni"/"The Rise of the Black moon" has again different ideas. All tracks are acoustic, except for the last track, "Radost Moia"/"My Joy", my least favourite, which is arranged with a rock-like atmosphere.
Sergei Kalougin studied classical guitar and soon became one of the more known poem-driven folk bards. He performed these texts which were very anti-communist, and music which between 1983 and 1988 for the “punk, hippies & rock” underground scene. Since Glasnost in 1989 he became widely accepted, began to write as journalist, and became a movie actor and participator in music. Especially as a writer he gained more recognition. This release which has a literature connection to was recorded in Brussels by invitation of this Belgium label. Recommended.
