ARTEMIY ARTEMIEV & KARDA ESTRA

"Equilibrium"
(2002)

"Preliminary Steps" is a very dark and eerie piece of music. Karda Estra's music is usually quite melodic, but here the melodicity is moved into the background: ethereal guitars in the style of Fripp, wordless phrasings by Bailey (in the style well known from Karda Estra's own records), a bit of occasional free form percussion make up this longish, slow moving, ponderous track. There is in fact an avant feel about it all, but there is also something very psychedelic about it, free form and all, and with the percussion quite monotonous in the backdrop. It is the atmosphere that is evoked, that counts here.
The title "Last Scene On Earth" is probably a play on words (try it). It is even scarier, than the previous track. Dark somberings, gothic maybe, with sparse hollow percussive sounds and the like remind very much of the soundscapes albums by Robert Fripp, the dark "The Gates Of Paradise". Again, nothing a lot in the way of melody, although you might find one lurking around some murky corner once in a while. The music is also quite repetitive and the piano really pervays a sense of foreboding But maybe pictures are not needed here. "Open Window" has a percussive opening, something like a gamelan orchestra, but less nervous. The guitarwork is more fluent here and there is more melody involved. In my other earphone, another melody, a sad one, sets in.
The loneliness of the desert is evoked here, with a very open sound. For them a rather concise piece of work, but with plenty of tension in there and I like it a lot. I was also thinking during this piece of Hackett's "Shadow Of The Hierophant". We are now moving into own of the major tracks, length wise: "The Teller Of The Tale". Dreamy, burbling electronic and a piano run full of foreboding open it broodingly. The orchestration has similarities with Karda Estra's work, but for the moment it stays rather vague. The music does get louder and more involved later on, a bit like a huge body of insects going about making all kinds of sounds and dark mysterious ahhhs are being injected into the music along way reverberating synth sounds. The final melodic choirs are typically Karda Estra.
"Equilibrium" has fluting sounds and dark percussive piano. This is music that speaks well to my mind. The feeling and attention to detail is great here. The notes occur exactly where they should, but not because they are so obvious. There is a stillness to it, until at least, Caron Hansford sets in. The music is then more pronounced. The guitar line is quite melodic, stately and orchestral, but continually subdued and well grieving. "The Curtain Falls" is almost twenty minutes in length. In the beginning at least, the sound is hollow and open. Weird effects, percussive piano, a lone guitar, again slow and ponderous the music develops with some dark phrasings on oboe and also the sharp sound of the cor anglais (if I am not mixing these up right here). That instruments gives the music its classical flavor.

Conclusion

This duo and their companions have succeeded in delivering a dark slab of music, in which I hear many echoes of Karda Estra, but in a very primordial primitive way. This is not to say primitive in the sense of non-sophisticated, but primitive in the sense that it speaks mainly to the feelings I might have about the music. Melodies are present, but not overly so. The music is maybe more suited for feeling who like Fripp's solo soundscapes or the dark musics by guys like Steve Roach or Lustmord. The music also listens like a soundtrack with classical ingredients, for a dark, tensionrich movie, but not a slasher movie, mind you. For that it is simply too elegant, or maybe willowy. Another good reference is the music of Steve Hackett on his "Voyage Of The Acolyte", but without the loudness that that albums sometimes has. The typical Karda Estra inclusion often lighten the mood a bit. Highpoint for me was "Open Window".

2003. © Jurriaan Hage