Prosa Profana

Artist:
First Human Ferro Feat. Albireon
Label:
Nitkie
Catalog#:
patch eight
Format:
CD, Album, Limited Edition
Country:
Russia
Released:
2011
Genre:
Non-Music
Style:
Shoegaze, Chanson, Ethereal, Schlager

Tracklist

  1. Every Time I Turn Around (Another Year Is Over) 8:53
  2. Old Friend At Dusk 7:35
  3. Recurrent Nothing 7:16
  4. Die Niemandsrose 2:43
  5. Why Iron In Our Hearts 5:16
  6. Eye-Deep In Hell 4:13
  7. No Swan So Fine 1:15
  8. The Anchor 6:58
  9. Late August Flowers 5:59
  10. Prosa Profana 6:55

Notes

Arranged By – Olegh Kolyada
Composed By – Albireon, Olegh Kolyada
Concept By – Olegh Kolyada
Design – Katia Ilieva
Lyrics By – Olegh Kolyada
Mastered By – Olegh Kolyada, Stefano Romagnoli
Orchestrated By – Zhytomyr Chamber Orchestra
Transcription By – Davide Borghi
Vocals – Davide Borghi

Press-release:
"Prosa Profana" is a follow-up to "Guernica Macrocosmica" and the 2nd post mortem dedication by Olegh Kolyada collaborating with Albireon neo-folkers this time. A low-key unison of dissonant ex-Soviet schlager melodies and forefront Italian vocals in a tender naive manner offer a unique nostalghic experience. The release comes in a beautiful digipak with a 12-page booklet.

Tribute:
Dedicated to my father Vasyl O. Kolyada (1950-2008).

Production:
Conception + composition + engineering + arrangement + alternative sampling & vinyl scraping (vinyl & tapes restoration, including the 1970-80's ex-Soviet recordings by Ariel, Tsvety, Sinyaya Ptitsa, V.Obodsinskiy) + vocals engineering + lyrics in English/translation of P.Celan's "Die Niemandsrose" poem + improvisations upon Cl.Debaussy and M.Dietrich songs and ex-Soviet "Autumnal Marathon" and "The Star Boy" motion pictures themes by Olegh Kolyada (with Helena K's contribution in piano & clavier parts), 2005-2008/Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Strings + trumpet + cello by Zhytomyr Chamber Orchestra, early 2000/Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Acoustic guitar on "Eye-Deep in Hell" and "Late August Flowers" by Pavel Voskoboyev, November 2007/Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Vocals in Italian + lyrics renderings + mandolin on "Every Time I Turn around (another Year is over)" by Davide Borghi; vocals recording and engineering + samples editing on "Eye-Deep in Hell" (children’s talking-away), and "Every Time I Turn around (another Year is over)" (rain and wind snippets) by Stefano Romagnoli, summer 2007/Carpi, Italy. Layout & artwork by Katia Ilieva, winter-spring 2007-2009/Sofia, Bulgaria.

Conception:
Prosa Profana unveils a humane feeling of nostalghia as that of sorrow towards present lack of integrity, commonness, and harmony. Homesickness and melancholy, grief and yearning, but also hope and belief nostalghia is a deep relation one cannot relinquish or renounce since it is the purest sacrificial nature of a man. Sacrifice as a consequence of nostalghia is a verdict to overwhelmingly materialized time, its impiety and de-spiritualization. Nostalghia is a confession, humble declaration of love as generally the highest art manifestation ever possible. Prosa Profana is our verdict to ourselves.

Reviews:

PL: “Prosa Profana” jest w pewnym sensie nieformalną kontynuacją znakomitej “Guernica Macrocosmica”, wydanej w 2003 roku przez Eibon Records. Tamta płyta zawierała ambientowe wariacje na temat popularnych radzieckich piosenek sprzed kilkudziesięciu lat. Oleghowi Kolyadzie udało się w niezwykły sposób uchwycić nostalgię, tęsknotę za tamtymi czasami, niekoniecznie za ustrojem wówczas panującym, lecz raczej za czasem dzieciństwa, z którego pozostały strzępy wspomnień, niejednokrotnie zawierające się w zwrotkach i refrenach ówczesnych szlagierów.

Także i mnie, słuchając “Guernica Macrocosmica” przed oczami przemykały migawki zdarzeń, o których nie myślałem już od wielu lat, przypomniało mi się, zarówno to, co wtedy usłyszeć można było w radiu czy telewizji, ale i momentykiedy ganiało się z kumplami po ruinach przedwojennej willi (dziś stoi tam warsztat samochodowy), pierwszy łomot spuszczony przez bandę, która zwaliła się z sąsiedniego osiedla, zamieszanie pod oknami podczas pochodu pierwszomajowego, lądowanie a la kamikaze w chaszcze pełne pokrzyw podczas gry w chowanego itp. To były najpiękniejsze lata mojego życia, życia większości rówieśników i fakt, kto wtedy rządził i jak rządził nie miał tak naprawdę żadnego znaczenia.

Na “Prosa Profana” do Olegha dołącza Davide Borghi z Albireon wspomagając Ukraińca śpiewem i grą na mandolinie. Płyta kontynuuje drogę obraną na “Guernica Macrocosmica”, choć nie sposób nie zauważyć, że mniej tu sampli zaczerpniętych z zewnątrz, ze starych nagrań, płyt itp. Większość wokalnej roboty wykonuje tu właśnie Davide, śpiewając, powiedziałbym, z antygwiazdorską manierą. Często niedbale, gubiąc melodię, nie bojąc się nieczystości. Ale przy tym tkwi tu tak charakterystyczna dla Davide – i muzyki Albireon w ogóle – szczerość, prostota i naiwność tak nieprzystająca do współczesnych czasów. Między innymi tym zawsze mnie ujmowała muzyka tego zespołu, a w “Prosa Profana” Włoch wnosi to, co w twórczości Albireon jest najistotniejsze.

Lecz przede wszystkim to płyta First Human Ferro. Olegh Kolyada zaprojektował cały koncept, zaaranżował i wyprodukował “Prosa Profana”, album według informacji prasowej poświęcony właśnie nostalgii wynikającej z braku uczciwości i harmonii w czasach, w których przyszło nam żyć. Nie piszę, że “skomponował”, ponieważ większość utworów tak naprawdę stworzona została lata temu przez kogo innego – Olegh przerabia je na swoja modłę opierając kompozycje na klawiszowych, prawie zawsze zatopionych w pogłosie plamach i samplowanych strzępach starych utworów, nierzadko wzbogacając muzykę o instrumenty takie jak gitara akustyczna czy elektryczna, mandolina, pianino, smyczki oraz klawesyn. Płyta ma przyjemny posmak retro, melodie i aranżacje bywają zgoła niedzisiejsze, niejednokrotnie można zauważyć celowy afront względem nowoczesnych środków wyrazu. “Prosa Profana” oczywiście brzmi bardzo dobrze, ale to tylko narzędzie pomagające uzyskać jasno określony cel.

Ta płyta często jest jak małe dziecko, które nie potrafi przez dłuższą chwilę skoncentrować swojej uwagi na jednym elemencie. Czasem pojawia się jakiś fragment, szybko jednak znikając w auralnej toni. Czasem wkrada się motyw pozornie nie pasujący do całej tej układanki. Wszystko jednak okrywa całun dźwiękowej mgły, podobnej do tej, która wchłania najwcześniejsze, nierzadko najpiękniejsze wspomnienia. Jedni piszą pamiętniki, inni dokumentują wszystko zdjęciami. Olegh Kolyada przekuwa przeszłość w muzykę. I mi się ta droga podoba. Tak jak podoba mi się “Prosa Profana”.

ENG: “Prosa Profana” is in a sense an informal continuation of the excellent “Guernica Macrocosmica” album published in 2003 by Eibon Records. That release contained ambient variations of popular Soviet songs from a few decades before. Olegh Kolyada, in an extraordinary way, succeeded in capturing nostalgia, a longing for those years, not necessarily with regard to the prevailing political system, but rather a time of childhood, from which only some shreds of memories remain, often hidden inside the verses and choruses of hit songs from those times.

While listening to “Guernica Macrocosmica” such snapshots of the past also flashed before my eyes, the events of which I haven’t thought about for many years. I remembered what I listened to on the radio or watched in television back in those days, but also the moments of playing with some buddies in the ruins of a pre-war villa (now turned to a garage), the first thrashing I got by a crazy crew from another district when they visited our neighbourhood, the fuss going on under my windows during the 1st of May parade, landing kamikaze-style in a thicket full of nettles during a game of hide and seek, and many other things. Those were the best years of my life, as well as of the majority of my peers, and who was in power back then didn’t really matter.

On “Prosa Profana” Olegh is joined by Davide Borghi of Albireon. Davide supports the Ukrainian artist by singing and playing the mandolin. The CD continues the path taken on “Guernica Macrocosmica”, although it is impossible not to notice that fewer “external” samples and extracts from old recordings have been used this time. Most of the vocal work is performed by Davide who sings with, I’d say, an anti-star manner. Often carelessly and out of tune, and not being afraid of it. But at the same time there’s this specific for Davide – and Albireon’s music in general – honesty, simplicity and naivety so unsuitable for these modern times. The music of this band always charmed me, and the Italian artist brings all that is essential in Albireon’s creativity into “Prosa Profana” .

But above all, this is a First Human Ferro album. Olegh Kolyada designed the whole concept, arranged and produced “Prosa Profana” – according to the press release an album dedicated to nostalgia which is the result of lack of integrity and harmony in the era which we live in. I do not write that the music was actually “composed” by Olegh because most of the tracks were really created years ago by someone else – Olegh transforms them into his own creations based on the synth soundscapes, almost always embedded in a reverberation and sampled snatches of old songs. But the music is often enriched by such instruments as electric or acoustic guitars, mandolin, piano, strings and harpsichord. The album has a nice retro flavour, its melodies and arrangements are often quite old-fashioned, and sometimes a deliberate affront towards the means of expression of the XXI-century can be discerned. “Prosa Profana” certainly has a very good sound, but it is only a tool that helps reach a clearly defined purpose.

This album often resembles a little child, unable to concentrate on a single element for a long period of time. Sometimes a theme appears, but it soon vanishes in the album’s aural depths. Sometimes a fragment which apparently doesn’t fit into the general puzzle creeps between the sounds. But all is covered by the shroud of a mist of sound, similar to the one that absorbs our earliest and often most beautiful memories. Some people keep diaries, others document their life with photos. Olegh Kolyada shackles the past in music. And I like this attitude. Just as I like “Prosa Profana”.

by stark (santa sangre)
Source URL: http://santasangremagazine.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/first-human-ferroalbireon-prosa-profana-pleng/

L'incontro fra il musicista Olegh Kolyada (First Human Ferro e Ode Relicta i suoi progetti pi? importanti) e gli Albireon si consuma nello spazio di alcuni anni, tempo necessario al lungo lavoro occorso per l'ultimazione di “Prosa Profana”. Una collaborazione che, concretamente, non tocca nei risultati le sonorit? dark ambient post industriali dell'artista ucraino e cita solo in brevi parentesi la fase “post folk” del gruppo di Davide Borghi. Immagino le decine di invii di registrazioni di ogni tipo, parti strumentali prima aggiunte e poi cancellate, idee definitive che poi diventano punti di partenza. E' un album fatto di sedimenti, di momenti sovrapposti ad altre situazioni simili e contrarie. Olegh Koyada ? stato l'ideatore fondamentale del progetto, curando la parte tecnica, gli arrangiamenti, gli spezzoni riutilizzati presi anche da vecchi nastri e vinili contenenti canzoni e musiche del periodo sovietico. Ci ha aggiunto poesie, altri sample da colonne sonore e composizioni di autori importanti, strumenti acustici, archi e pianoforte. Agli Albireon il compito della straniata recitazione dei testi in italiano (davvero emotivamente pericoloso quello di “Eye-Deep In Hell”), dell'editing di campionamenti e dell'aggiunta di altri strumenti (Borghi suona pure un mandolino!). Tutte queste fonti sonore creano una musica profonda, quieta e luminosa ma non priva, in alcuni brani, di una cappa di tristezza e pessimismo. “Prosa Profana” ? un concept album di multiforme psichedelia introspettiva, in cui ambient su tinte dark, attitudine folk e non sporadici momenti art-rock anni '70 si vengono incontro. Forse “profano” sia di nome che di fatto ma, soprattutto, un concept coraggioso, fuori dal tempo e, in varie sfumature, di semplice e invidiabile umanit?.

by Gianfranco Santoro (Ascension zine)
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