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"One listen to this musical outfit from Southern Russia known as Vespero was all it took to make me begin thinking about the great things that must be happening in Russia…" (by Ryan Sparks, Sea Of Tranquility).
Forming in Astrakhan in early 2003, VESPERO went through numerous personal changes, produced quite a few low budget recordings, and turned into a mainstay of their local scene before releasing their official debut album in 2007. They spend most of the time diligently honing their musical craft and inventing their own fantasy world somewhere near the crossroads of psychedelic, space rock, progressive rock, kraut-rock, post-avant-garde poetry and live theatrical performance. Their current lineup is: Ivan Fedotov (drums, percussion), Arkady Fedotov (bass, synthesizer, flute, voice), Alexander Kuzovlev (guitars, electronics), Alexei Klabukov (keyboards, accordion) and Natalya Tujrina (voice).
For more information about the band please visit VESPERO official homepage or MyspaceMusic page.
Vespero / Surpassing All Kings (2009) / CD $11.00
Surpassing All Kings is the first album by VESPERO that resulted from completely new studio sessions instead of merely compiling the best tunes from earlier occasional recordings. Basic tracks were recorded in Astrakhan from November 2007 to November 2008, mixed and mastered in Moscow by Alisa Coral (of SPACE MIRRORS and PSI CORPS) in January 2009. Not surprisingly, this is not your usual progressive rock album. Full of fairy-light synthesizer washes, general sound leans towards experimental space rock with long, quirky but cohesive compositions that travel through several movements and time changes, and come across as perpetually progressing pieces, where ethereal voicing stand along with lyrics in the invented language. A charmingly blended fusion of various musical styles and ideas helps to make this album a true joy to experience. Music lovers with an open mind toward a symbiosis of progressive and psychedelic rock will find a lot to admire here. (7 tracks - 55 min.)
PRESS CLIPS
"What Vespero produce is music that manages to be both dark and ethereal at the same time, which sounds like a contradiction in itself, but in the sense that they have both prog-rock and avant-garde elements to their sound should start to make more sense." – by Ian Abrahams of Spacerock Reviews (UK) (August 2009).
"Vespero are deeply rooted in early British psychedelic rock. But they take care to add complex rhythms and splendid interplaying between guitar and keyboard that remind of Seventies progressive rock. Add occasional jazzy atmospheres that seem to be taken straight out of Canterbury, and the final result sound like Hatfield and the North jamming with Gong with a superb vocalist that neither of those legendary bands ever had. If Rito was already quite an excellent album, Surpassing All Kings has turned out not even better, but might very well be the best album released so far on their label. The warm production, courtesy of Alisa Coral (Space Mirrors, Psi Corps), furthermore helps to create an authentic Seventies aura, but Vespero feel at no time like mere revivalists. Instead they recreate an organic progressive psychedelic sound that sets them on the same level as the artists who have inspired them. Russian music may still be quite an overlooked thing in Western Europe, but if you want to lay your hands on a really good piece of structured free-form music, this is definitely the place to start! (Grade: 9/10)" – by Pascal Thiel of DisAgreement (Luxembourg) (September 2009).
"The emphasis is back to delivering heaping amounts of long, spacey sounding instrumental passages and multi-shifting tempos, which are executed at the drop of a hat and with razor like precision, thus each composition feels like it's in a perpetual state of change. The light and shade element and how effectively they play the dark, brooding sections off of the lighter textures, is in my opinion the biggest reason why their music is so compelling and keeps the listener fully engaged from beginning to end. Surpassing All Kings proves that Rito wasn't a fluke and in all actuality it may be the stronger of the two albums. Once again these five supremely talented musicians have proven they are more than capable of giving you an hour's worth of stunningly complex and thought provoking music. (Score: 5/5)" – by Ryan Sparks of Sea Of Tranquility (USA) (September 2009).
"This music will most likely appeal to fans of Kraut rock or psychedelica. Seekers of more conventional fare may find Vespero to be an acquired taste... I prefer the more glossy sheen of Rito to the roughly-hewn edges of Surpassing All Kings. With that minor quibble aside, I feel that the latest release from Vespero could grow on me with a few more listens. (Conclusion: 7 out of 10)" – by Jim Corcoran of DPRP (UK) (January 2010).
The album was also reviewed at: Inoi Lip (Russia), ProgArchives (USA), Rate Your Music (USA), Progressive Area (France), Eclipsed (Germany), Metal Library (Russia), Progwereld (The Netherlands), Quebec Audio & Video (Canada), Psychotropic Zone (Finland), Darkside (Russia), Neformat (Ukraine), HeadBanger's interview with Vespero (Russia).
Vespero / Foam - Live 2006 (2008) / pro-duplicated CD-R $11.00
Here is an official re-release of VESPERO’s self-produced limited cdr-album “Concert At The Union Of Theatre Artists” which was recorded in December 2006 and finally published by the US-based label Trail Records in 2008. It was a good decision to pull that record out of a line of numerous self-made releases as the album differed a lot from band’s other live or studio out-puts. It was conceived as an unplugged live performance featuring an interesting acoustic percussionist-tandem by Ivan Fedotov (a regular band’s drummer) and Alexander Krupin (a special guest) as well as more expanded presence of female-vocalist Natalia Turina. The other core-members were all there: Alexander Kuzovlev (guitar), Arkady Fedotov (bass, flute, synthesizer) and Alexei Klabukov (keyboards). The sextet played mostly unpublished compositions and tried to create a sort of mellow meditative trance atmosphere mixing elements of ethno-psychedelia, world-fusion, and space-rock in their own unique way. And they quite succeeded in their trippy experiments. The overall sounding quality of the album is quite good though still unpolished with some background crips and noises. It’s not very clear why the release came out as a CD-R (and not regular CD) because in comparison with self-released “Concert At The Union Of Theatre Artists” neither album track-list nor sound-quality were not changed principally (it seems that Trail Records just made a new artwork). Anyway, we have “Foam”, a solid live recording from the band’s pre-“Rito” history (possibly the first from the VESPERO musical archives). (6 tracks - 46 min.)
The album was reviewed at: ProgressiveEars (USA), ProgArchives (USA), Progressive Area (France), MADZ-zine (Russia), DPRP (UK), Psychotropic Zone (Finland), Terrascope Online (UK), The Silent Ballet (USA), Aural Innovations (USA), ProgGnosis (USA), Sea Of Tranquility (USA).
Vespero / Rito (2007) / CD $11.00
Rito spends most of its time with sonic textures and elongated compositions based on the repetitive and sometimes dark pulses that characterize their earlier work. But it also retains a gentle, fairy-tale ambience colored with beautiful vocalizations by Natalya Tjurina and Arkady Fedotov, as well as elegant violin passages by Valentin Rulev and flute by Fedotov himself. Their sound – held together by Ivan Fedotov’s assertive drumming, Arkady Fedotov’s powerful bass and synthesizer work, and Alexander Kuzovlev guitar and sound effects – keep the proceedings moving no matter how spaced out the music gets. “Triptych”, “Inna’s Burst In Tears”, “Crabs Ashore”, and “Silence Breath Echo” – which one may know from the band’s earlier recordings – are all superior here, done clearly and louder, with a real edge to the playing (in many respects, thanks to excellent sound-production by Alisa Coral of PSI CORPS and SPACE MIRRORS). The album shows off a very potent group, able to create subtly textured music which evolves from art rock to space and kraut rock before turning up to neo psychodelia. (8 tracks - 66 min.)
PRESS CLIPS
"Rito bridges the gap between improvised music and composed art rock, with Vespero taking ingredients from genres such as space, psychedelic and progressive rock, turning it all into a cocktail that everyone should enjoy... (Grade: 8/10)" – by Pascal Thiel of DisAgreement (Luxembourg) (September 2007).
"One listen to this musical outfit from Southern Russia known as Vespero was all it took to make me begin thinking about the great things that must be happening in Russia... The sound leans towards psychedelic/kraut rock, yet this somehow fails to aptly describe the depth of sonic layers found within the music... There is so much great music to discover on Rito, and it’s one of the few discs I’ve consistently enjoyed playing from beginning to end, each and every time. Rito’s true allure is its power to lure the listener in with its splendid combination of bold and beautiful ambient atmospherics. To put it simply, this disc is nothing short of a masterpiece. (Score: 5/5)" – by Ryan Sparks of Sea Of Tranquility (USA) (October 2007).
"Rito is a constant, dark, layered mix of psychedelia, Kraut rockish elongated droning sound, and jazzy rhythms... This CD will appeal to fans of psychedelic music, Kraut rock, early Pink Floyd, and experimental music in general. Even some in the Goth subculture would appreciate the darkness of it. (Conclusion: 8 out of 10)" – by Jim Corcoran of DPRP (UK) (November 2007).
The album was also reviewed at: Nota-Bena (Russia), Psychotropic Zone (Finland), The Silent Ballet (USA), ProgArchives (USA), Leicester Bangs (UK), Aural Innovations (USA), Eclipsed (Germany), Progressive Area (France), MADZ-zine (Russia).
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