Abaton Book Company
Veronika Dolina : Thirteen Diamonds (RU,1984-..,comp.2006)***
This album has compiled 20 ultra-sad songs with feeling and emphasis only a Russian soul is able to perform. Veronika Dolina was one of the pioneers and driving forces by choice of the public to make a movement of new bardic poetry driven song music, a Bardic style. She almost unintentionally became that soul expression, and she is still considered a master of the genre. The songs are rather simple and with simple delicate fingerpicking guitar, but are powerful in its delicate heart-driven melancholy. Never the less the sadness is performed with inner control and peace without taking any real distance from the songs, something which gives also an extra strong balance.
Label description :
"Though she has been recording for almost twenty-five years, Veronika Dolina is still virtually unknown outside of Russia. Born in Moscow in 1956, she began writing songs at the age of fifteen, setting her prose to the accompaniment of folk guitar. By the early '80s she had become the most important female figure of the entire bard movement and was performing to audiences numbering in the thousands. Dolina's songs (all performed in Russian or French) are both personal and political but always lyrical. Her clear soft voice still carries rough edges, a pledge of authenticity. Her subtly innovative guitar playing serves as a quiet dramatic background."
Limited cdr digipack edition pressing of 250 copies. I only hope the label will release cd's in future, instead of inferior cdr format. My copy skipped during little parts several times even when just new.
