The earth held him by the feet: Auctioneer released his first album in five years
After a long break, the Auctioneer group returned to the studio and released one of the most complete and profound albums in its history. "Treasure" is full of quotes and allusions to sacred texts, contains a dedication to a deceased member of the band, as well as a number of songs that may be included in the code of the main hits of rock legends. Izvestia evaluated the record and came to the conclusion that one should go on this pilgrimage immediately and repeat it as often as possible. Simply put: the album is a must-listen.
Why was it necessary to wait for the new record of "Auctioneer"
Auction released his last album "Dreams" in the spring of 2020, and the record was recorded even earlier, in 2019. This, however, was not felt so strongly at the time, because the band promptly recorded clips on deserted covid streets, and this video sequence fully corresponded to the theme of loneliness that was end-to-end for Auctioneer.
The process of recording the new album "Treasure"
It seems like an eternity has passed since then. This is not to say that the leader of the group, Leonid Fedorov, has been silent all this time. On the contrary, these years were very fruitful, he released several albums, including the radical "Letters of B.V." and the unimaginably beautiful record "In the Sunshine". But it was the numbered records of the band that were missing, although Auctioneer is touring vigorously, is in excellent musical shape, moreover, of all the "legends of Russian rock" they have preserved this form, perhaps the best of all.
I would like to joke that Fedorov and the company were just waiting for a suitable occasion like the anniversary of Bjork, who turned 60 on November 21. And, by the way, there's not much of a joke in this joke: even though Auctioneer and the Icelandic singer are thousands of kilometers apart, there's a lot in common in their musical search. There is an interest in jazz in all its forms, and the use of non-obvious instruments, and shocking vocal solutions. And, of course, the lack of a need for a mass audience. Both Auctioneer and Bjork had all the main "folk" hits released more than 20 years ago, and then there was pure creativity without looking at the CD runs.
How did the album "Treasure" turn out?
It was worth waiting five years. The band approached the album as conceptually as possible and did not just keep any details of the release secret.: how many songs, what kind of songs, why is it called "Treasure"? She released just the day before the video for the song "Beard", where Fedorov and his wife danced in interiors and outdoors, and bees with human faces sometimes appeared in the frame. "Who's going to follow me? And who will find me? No one is waiting for me, no one is waiting for me anywhere, and they never wait for me," Fedorov sang there. Although it was clear that they were really waiting for him and that this was generally the main music release of all that was planned before the end of this year. They are waiting for Auctioneer to tell them about all these years, about today, about how to live on.
"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be," it says in the Gospel, and the whole album is a reflection on these lines. A spiritual ascent, which is framed by a crude metaphor on the first track: the elevator departs from the first floor. The search for coordinates in which a wounded soul could calm down, find shelter, and if lucky, then joy.
These coordinates are like a rosary, Fyodorov goes over to the verses of Dmitry Ozersky. "To whom is my love, to whom is my life, to whom is my death, to whom is my sorrow, to whom is my star," we used to hear all this at the Auction, with the same rhythm, with the same arrangement, where hoarse wind instruments shout over each other, but for some reason it doesn't matter. It's working. Or even — it should work so that the listener understands: there is no need to be afraid, this is still the same band that has never changed itself in anything since the 80s. "That's enough, that's enough, everyone liked it," we suddenly hear Fedorov's ironic voice at the end of the track. And then the complete mysticism begins.
Member of the band "Auctioneer", guitarist Leonid Fedorov
Fedorov performs neither the Old Testament nor the Tanakh — 37 psalm in the translation of Henri Volokhonsky, and many times he has heard the lines in the new version sound as if David was writing them right now. I would like to say — especially for the album. "Those who seek my soul set traps-traps… And I hear them like I'm deaf, and like a mute, I won't open my mouth," Fedorov does not sing, but declares, and this is certainly a position, a conversation with us through a sacred text. The answer is to everyone around you and to yourself individually. And at the same time, it's part of the path, the ladder, that the 8—track album imitates.
From the Old Testament to the Quran. The track "Muslim" is also a kind of new translation of the aesthetics that we seem to fully imagine. The translation of religious search into the metaphor of love lyrics: "If I were a Muslim, I would sing songs among the outskirts, weaving the dreams of the seven seas into the dream of my chosen one." But, of course, climbing up, or, more exalted, grief, is associated with temptation, fear, and the notorious loneliness. "Trump, pam, pam, that's it!", Fyodorov interrupts dully, and for some reason we immediately read these emotions without explanation. Perhaps this aphorism will be remembered for a long time and will enter the lexicon of numerous fans of the band along with a rich vocabulary of hits of the 90s.
The concert of the band "Auctioneer"
The album culminates with the nine-minute instrumental "Yurochka". Yurochka is Yuri Parfenov, one of the most famous jazz musicians in Russia, who for many years performed with Auctioneer at concerts, giving out enchanting wind solos towards the end of the show. He died in June of this year, and now we will spend these nine minutes wandering with his soul to the sounds of his trumpet, framed sometimes by careless and rude, and sometimes by emphatically aesthetic arrangements. "The dark sky is above me, I will return with your wave, in your spring," Fedorov is not Virgil here, but Dante, and we continue on our way.
Mountain spaces do not always bring relief. "I'm carrying a scythe and a scythe on me," Fedorov laments and launches a farcical laughing music to brighten up despair, but in the end he still comes to the conclusion that "I see the sky above me — I don't see myself."
After all, a treasure is not only and not so much precious as it is intimate, hidden, and important. Auctioneer, as always, let us into a certain taboo zone, spoke somewhere, and somewhere eloquently kept silent about what was keeping us awake. Therefore, the last track, "Summer," reads like the "auspicious summer of the Lord," followed by "the day of vengeance" and "the consolation of all who weep." All this is on the record, and it's good that the elevator that started at the beginning is not going to stop.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
