The time of the year has come when I feel like making an impetuous decision of locking myself in a room, cranking up the volume of the speakers to the max and listening to Kauan on repeat all day long. Why? Well, here's several reasons:
1. They're from Russia and I love Russian people
2. They make a habit of composing lyrics and singing them in Finnish (because why not?)
3. It's almost December
4. They're genre is atmospheric doom/post-rock
5. I've just watched the movie Chloe and Theo - a story about an Inuk travelling south of his home to warn the world about the imminent destruction of his family's natural habitat
6. They just made a concept album based on the Dyatlov Pass incident, event described in its wikipedia entry with the following information:
The Dyatlov Pass incident refers to the demise of nine hikers in mysterious circumstances on the night of February 2, 1959 in the northern Ural Mountains. The name Dyatlov Pass refers to the name of the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov.
The incident involved a group of ten from Ural Polytechnical Institute, who had set up camp for the night on the slopes of Kholat Syakhl. Investigators later determined that the skiers had torn their tents from the inside out. They fled the campsite, some of them barefoot, under heavy snowfall. Although the bodies showed no signs of struggle, such as contusions, two victims had fractured skulls and broken ribs. Soviet authorities determined that an "unknown compelling force" had caused the deaths; access to the region was consequently blocked for hikers and adventurers for three years after the incident. Due to the lack of survivors, the chronology of events remains uncertain, although several explanations have been put forward, including a possible avalanche, a military accident, or a hostile encounter with a yeti or other unknown creature.
7. Did I mention it's almost December?!?
So what do Kauan achieve in this record? Well, as master storytellers, this is not the type of album that you can expect instant gratification from. There's no immediate rush pulling you in, no catchy choruses to sing along to.
Instead if follows a natural progression of soft melodies and clean vocals that, while the minutes pass by, evolve continuously into a swell of accented flourishes (complete with a tinge of harsh vocals) up until the second to last track, 'Khot', devolves into a simple layering of distorted guitars that serve to highlight the impending doom of the campsite inhabitants.
After this comes 'Sat', album closer, probably the most post-rock songs of all, which does well to emphasize the 'calmness' after the storm only using a few guitar riffs that fade into the background as you are left to only wonder what were the actual facts that led to the swift demise of our story protagonists.
In truth, Sorni Nai certainly feels like a bleak album, in tune with the natural phenomena that it portrays. You won't get it the first time around, maybe not even the second, but it will continue to ask you to hit the repeat button until it envelops you completely.
While it may not be for everyone, these Russian maestros certainly have their own unique way with sounds (I'm looking at you, second track 'Kit'), and if you're not feeling anything after a few spins of this album it must mean that you're either tone deaf or your heart is colder than the wasteland of the Arctic Ocean itself.
P.S: I've somehow managed to miss out on the first show these fellows performed in Bucharest. I'm putting up a mental note so that I won't do that again and I hope that it was just a first in a future line of gigs for us Eastern Europeans.
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