Sundaze 1252

Hello,  another Sundaze and as it is right before Xmas it makes sense to offer you all some great alternative for the mindnumbing Xmas muzak, and acknowledging the pagan origin of Xmas with elves and dwarfs dancing and singing accompanied by Moscow's top classic ensemble, Caprice, here inspired by English poets as well....N'Joy....

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Caprice began as a studio project in 1996, recording Mirror, 12 half progressive, half neo-classical songs. This album - a story about life, death, and after-death - employed an impressive cast of 12 musicians, including bass, drums, and many classical instruments. Their music (composed by Anton Brejestovski) is quite complex, with detailed polyphonic arrangements, intricate harmonies and time signatures, yet sounding natural and not overloaded. The melodies are vivid and filled with energy and beauty.

In 1998 Caprice began performing Music of the Elves in Moscow clubs and concert halls, turning to an entirely neo-classical sound. In November 1999 they recorded three songs for the Japanese film director, Shusei Nishi, who used them to make a documentary about Caprice, The Flower of Harmony. One of the songs, Princess Mee, was chosen by the Russian Gothic Project for the first Russian Gothic Compilation, and shortly after the French label Prikosnovenie offered Caprice to release Elvenmusic. The recording took six months, and in April 2001 the CD came out. Since 2001 all Caprice albums have been released by Prikosnovenie.  In 2000 and 2002 Caprice recorded their second album, Songs of Innocence and Experience, based on William Blake’s poetry. It sounded different from Elvenmusic, and, like Blake’s famous book, portrayed two sides of human existence– the cheerful joys of innocence and the harsh knowledge of experience.

In 2000 the band staged Brejestovski’s mini opera The Architect (for three singers, chamber ensemble and electronics), with libretto by Daniil Harms, a Russian absurd poetry classic. The passionate, moving music portrays the tragedy of Maria, the wife of the Architect. In autumn 2002 Caprice began recording Elvenmusic II: The Evening of Iluvatar’s Children, based on JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The album’s instrumental palette was greatly enhanced compared to the previous works. Synthesizers, percussion and brass were added, forming an epic 16-song cycle, which was released in April 2003.  The next Caprice album, Sister Simplicity, which came out in June 2004, is the group’s “music for the masses”. 14 songs based on the English and American poetry of the 6th-20th century, are simpler in manner, more open and passionate. In contrast to Elvenmusic II there are very few instruments, the grand piano and strings being in the foreground.

June-November 2004 Caprice recorded two works commissioned by Santa Park, Rovaniemi, Finland: music for the film Northern Lights and a 45-minute dance show The Seasons of Lapland.  In October 2005 came the group's most important and longest-worked-at album: Tales of the Uninvited, or Elvenmusic, part 3. It is written entirely in the unique language of Laoris, one of the tongues spoken by the modern faeries in the parallel world, a language with detailed writing references, vocabulary and grammar. The last part or Caprice's Elven Trilogy, this time the album bears no relation to the Tolkien universe, but portrays the realm of faerie and its denizens’ music.

Anton Brejestovski composed a three-act ballet The Faerie Queen, a commission by Apogee Arts Foundation in 2006 . “Kywitt! Kywitt!” was a step forward: in addition to its typical acoustic palette, the band used guitars, drums and vintage synthesizers. The album's most notable tracks are Dundellion Wine, Kywitt! Kywitt!, Christmas Lullaby and Fae, Fae, Fae, Fae, Fae, Fae, Fae - a track made in collaboration with the Russian enigmatic band Dvar. In 2008 the band recorded Viola Floralis - an experimental 20-minute suite (released on the La Nuit des Fees collection by Prikosnovenie). To record it Caprice collaborated with musicians from England and Spain, who submitted the tracks over the Internet.

In 2009 Caprice released Six Secret Words - a meditative 45-minute album consisting of only six long tracks, where Inna's voice was used purely as an instrument. In 2010 the band recorded a one-hour, sixteen-track album Masquerade - their first album in the Russian language since 1996. The album is a hommage to Russian Siver Age poets, many of whom died during the Stalin rule in 1930s. The album's dominant image is the Russian absurd classic Daniil Harms, whose four poems have been used as lyrics. To record this album Caprice employed the bass guitar, drums, strings, winds, keyboards, harp and a symphonic choir.

In 2011 Anton Brejestovski composed about 50 songs, 24 of which were chosen for the new album Girdenwodan. The word Girdenwodan is the name for a new dance form, and the main idea of the new album is Dance. Part One is due for release in April 2012, and Part Two in November.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

This album was inspired by William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. In this collection of poems, Blake contrasts Songs of Innocence, in which he shows how the human spirit blossoms when allowed its own free movement with Songs of Experience, in which he shows how the human spirit withers after it has been suppressed and forced to conform to rules, and doctrines.

Creatively rewriting the works of the poet William Blake, Caprice that consists of seven people and is run by Anton Bregestovsky, again produced beautiful airy melodies and sparkling waterfalls of words, that fly elegantly across the strings of the stave. The marvel of live acoustica of the many instruments, amidst which are horns (flute and oboe) and strings (violin and cello) and the hypnotizing play of Inna Bregestovsky wonderful voice, enshroud you like a cloud from the very first minutes of listening, and do not let you go till the very end, giving life to vivid glimpses of gone epochs, when great artists and thinkers made beauty. First of all, this album impresses by its musical maturity and solid conception. There is nothing unnecessary, and, although each song is independent, together they create a composition of a work of art, when it is impossible to add or put away anything. Certainly, this is more than a deserving monument to the great poet, built in music. Soft play of the keyboards, gentle tunes of the violin, splendid vocals... The great verses of an English poet, set to exquisite music - what could be better? Enjoy the charming tunes of "Songs Of Innocence And Experience" and think about the past, when everything was different from what we have now...

Caprice - Songs Of Innocence And Experience

01 Introduction 2:44
02 The Echoing Green 3:46
03 Laughing Song 1:38
04 Blind Man's Buff 4:06
05 Spring 3:08
06 The Fly 1:14
07 Long John Brown And Mary Bell 3:52
08 The Little Boy Lost 1:41
09 The Little Girl Found 3:22
10 Night 9:43

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

This is a different Caprice album - instead of the exquisite world of faerie, this time Anton Brejestovski's music speaks through Britain's best poets (Shelley, Byron, Wilde, Shakespeare, Wordsworth) about human passions - love and beauty, death and hatred. The concept of Simplicity is most breathtakingly revealed, and by so few instrumentalists, all of them Russia's top-notch musicians. And Inna Brejestovskaya's voice is more beautiful and passionate than ever.

Caprice - Sister Simplicity (flac  280mb)

01 Winter 4:10 (Shelley)
02 I Saw You Weep 3:11 (Byron)
03 A Red, Red Rose 2:00 (Burns)  
04 The Dole Of The King's Daughter 3:08 (Wilde)
05 The Faerie Chime 4:13 (Maelwys)
06 To My Sister 3:30 (Wordsworth)
07 Once Kings 3:39 (Anonymous, 6th century)
08 The Green Bowl 2:50 (Lowell)
09 Green Are The Rashes 2:12 (Burns)
10 Juliet's Beauty 1:57 (Shakespeare)
11 Autumn 3:35 (Shelley)
12 Twilight 3:33 (Byron)
13 Nothing Will Die 3:23 (Tennyson)
14 Summer 2:34 (Shelley)
15 The Dole Of The King's Daughter (Remix) 3:32

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Prikosnovenie commissions the Russian neoclassical ensemble Caprice an album about relaxation and inner trip. The amazing composer Anton Brejestovski emerges himself deeply in the project and opened doors of hidden worlds of music. Harp, piano, chimes, cello and violins lead us deep inside ourselves. Every sound is built to make an echo in us, each musical landscape becomes a mirror. This album reminds of the beauty of Caprice 'Elvenmusic' trilogy like an imaginary movie's atmosphere.
 Six secret words : Craft: the power, Trees: the serenity of woods, Taeris: The magic Elvish harp, Womb: the matrix, Memory: the wisdom of old age and Sage : the wisdom of childhood.

Caprice - Six Secret Words (flac 181mb)

01 Craft 4:35
02 Trees 7:53
03 Taeris 6:33
04 Womb 10:58
05 Memory 6:02
06 Sage 5:25

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Surrealistic, yet beautiful, 'never heard before' music blending orchestral and folk instruments with vintage analogue synthesizers.
 3 years after their 'Elvenmusic III', Kywitt! Kywitt! escapes from the forest, crazy and surrealistic neoclassical masterpiece of these virtuosi musicians from Moscow Opera. Kywitt gives a human view (sometimes hallucinations...) at the faerie world. The result is a ‘never heard before’ music, more surrealistic, more ‘Fantasy’ and also more intense. The Genius Composer 'Anton Brejestovski' seems to play with the score and instruments like he would play with toys. He adds a lot of new musicians and instruments, like drums, electric guitar, electro, vintage analogue synthesizers blended with classical and folk instruments (Cello, violin, Oboe, clarinet, accordion, duduk, saz...).

Caprice - Kywitt! Kywitt!  (flac  324mb)

01 Dundellion Wine 3:23
02 Monday, Tuesday 2:26
03 Kywitt! Kywitt! 4:03
04 Mary Morison 2:59
05 Philomel, With Melody 3:16
06 Christmas Lullaby 5:03
07 Fae Fae Fae Fae Fae Fae Fae 3:44
08 Adew Sweet Amarillis 3:36
09 Rumpled Wille 3:16
10 The Dusk Of Kimmeria 4:27
11 More 1:38
12 Peggy O 5:37
13 Garden Of Love 6:58

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx