Fancy Music releases another stellar album.  The brothers Petyaev, Peter (saxophone) and Pavel (guitar) front a band that would be favorably comparable to legendary 1980s New York jazz-funk bands like Material or Mark Ribot’s many collaborative efforts, but there’s also a very dark, angry, post-punk vibe to this album, thanks to the fine bass playing of Ivan Bashilov.  Russian improv is my kind of improv these days, thanks to records like this.

From the Fancy Music Bandcamp site:

The brothers Peter and Pavel Petyaev (saxophone and guitar) and Ivan Bashilov (bass guitar) recorded this album with two sets of musicians.

Karina Horhordina (trumpet) and Viktor Tikhonov (drums) tale part in the first four tracks. Here, in free noise improvisations, a lyrical musical narration is often born out of chaos and rage, which is then again replaced by expressionistic blasts of sound. Pavel Petyaev gravitates towards the lyrical pole of this music. Echoes of both Russian folklore and gloomy blues in the spirit of Tom Waits and Mark Ribot can be heard in the guitar chords. Saxophonist and painter Pyotr Petyaev is responsible for shrill and screaming timbres of the ensemble. The way Pyotr plays resembles expressive colors of his paintings.

Drummer Sergey Balashov and pianist Fedor Amirov appear in the second part of the album. Tense roaring bursts and abstract textures in Amirov’s masterly performance are resolved into hip-hop rhythms, funk and melodic musical passages. Poetic and emotional harmonies now and then appear in compositions that formally resemble songs. The vocalist’s place, however, is taken by the roaring saxophone of Peter Petyaev, and a constantly pulsating rhythm section breaks the musical fabric in expressive moments and dances in an irrational whirl.

credits

released July 12, 2019

Peter Petyaev saxophone
Pavel Petyaev guitar
Ivan Bashilov bass
Carina Khorkhordina trumpet, noises [1-4]
Victor Tihonov drums, noise machine [1-4]
Feodor Amirov piano [5-9]
Sergei Balashov drums [5-9]
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Recorded by: [1-4] Nickolay Samarin, Orange Studios, Moscow, 12th September 2018, [5-9] Igor Pavlov, Pravda Production Studios, Moscow, 19th October 2018
Mixed, mastered by: Stanislav Baranov, DTH Studios, Moscow, November 2018 – January 2019