1. "My fair angel" (М.Sheleg, I.Zhirnov /М.Sheleg,
А.Ivanov)
2. "Last song tune" (О.Parastaev - А.
Ivanov)
3. "Let it be” (А.Ivanov)
4. "Moscow fall" (М.Sheleg)
5. "Don’t fly away" (Y.Lukashevich/Y.Svetliy, А.Ivanov)
6. "Above the bell towers" (М.Sheleg)
7. "Happiness for two" (А.Sapunov/А.Slizunov)
8. "Nevskiy prospect" (М.Sheleg)
9. "Never be with you" (А.Ivanov, G.Vitke, А.
Rublev)
10. "It was – I loved and suffered" (V. Vysotsky)
11. "Crystal house" (V.Vysotsky)
12. "Flowers" (М.Sheleg)
13. "Word and note" (М.Sheleg)
14. "Ever-burning candle light" (S.Volodchenko /А.Ivanov)
Arrangements: Igor Zhirnov (1,2,4,6,8,10,11,12,14), Svyatoslav Kulikov (5,9);
Vadim Golutvin (13),
Sergey Volodchenko, Igor Zhirnov (14), Alexander Ivanov (3).
Recording by the studios “Mont” (2, 5, 9, 13, 14 ); "Soyuz" (6), "SNC" (3), "Mosfilm"
(1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12). Sound producer, sound director, mixing – Vasiliy
Krachkovsky (1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12), Andrei Kucherenko (6) Mastering - Vasiliy
Krachkovsky (1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12), Svyatoslav Kulikov (2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14)
Album producer: Alexander Ivanov.
Alexander Ivanov: story by himself
After the “Sinful soul sorrow” album it was clear that such songs are needed.
The thing that I did for myself, for my own soul, turned out to be timely and
interesting for many other people. It was very pleasant.
But there was no sense to make a bit better, but still a
secondary project. I wanted to experiment and search for the new ways. I dreamt
of making the album in a new mode, taking no account of the big success of the
previous disk.
The concept is both simple and complex: I was striving to
make the album lyrical and sensuous, telling about the common and the eternal,
very Russian in essence. It was to keep the “Sinful soul…” spirit, but to be
more modern, maybe, a bit strange by its sound and form, with the alternative
rock elements, “industrial” style, and sound of the Seattle and Los-Angeles
advanced groups. And I wanted to combine it in the organic unity with the best
Russian composers’ traditions – Prokofiev, Sviridov and others, - fill the
musical alternative with the Russian classical music delight and power, with the
help of the live symphonic orchestra. I wanted to make something of my own, not
like anything else.
I invited Igor Zhirnov, the “Rondo” guitar player and
excellent arranger, as my co-producer. Igor was the main arranger for almost all
the songs, so the album sound concept is his merit too.
We were searching for the material, composers and poets long
and hard. We needed something special. And I think we have found it. The album
is based on the six compositions by the Saint-Petersburg composer Mikhail
Sheleg. It is “Moscow fall” already loved by many people, “My fair angel”,
“Flowers”, “Above the bell towers”, “Word and note” and “Nevskiy prospect”. This
author’s works are very close to me by their idea and very interesting by their
mood. Primarily these were the ballads, and we offered him to make an
experiment. I am very glad we have managed it.
Once Andrei Sapunov, the “Voskresenie” and “Lotos” legendary
musician, and Alexander Slizunov composed the song “Happiness for two”. I liked
it a lot. Sapunov was very kind to let me sing it as I
wanted.
Three years ago Andrei Stepanov gave me the composition “Never be with you”, and
Oleg Parastaev, the “Alliance” band leader, - “Last song tune”. Sergey
Volodchenko, the “Rondo” guitar player, composed a beautiful ballad
“Ever-burning candle light”. The composer from Minsk, Yuriy Lukashevich, who now
lives in Sweden, composed the music for “Don’d fly away”. The album also
contains Sergei Trofimov’s composition “My unkind Russia” that had not been
included into “Sinful soul sorrow” on purpose and left for the new disk.
Some texts I wrote myself, and some – together with really
good poets, like Arkadiy Slavorosov, German Vitke, Yuriy Svetliy.
Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky’s songs take a special place in my album. Several
years ago the musicians prepared a projects based on his songs for his
anniversary. We participated in it. We spent much time in the studio and did a
great job trying to give Vysotsky’s songs a new sound, dress them in new
clothes, if I can say so… Finally only one song was included into the project.
But we thought that the work was a success and wanted to show it – that’s why
there are two Vladimir Semenovich’s compositions in the album: “It was – I loved
and suffered” and “Crystal house”. We also thought of including his romance “She
was as clear as snow in winter”, but I feared it would destroy the album
integrity. Maybe, we will return to this work later.
The recording started in the “Mosfilm” tone studio. Sound director Vasiliy
Krachkovskiy made a very good sound. But, after we had finished six
compositions, we stopped our work due to well-known financial reasons. Two more
compositions were recorded in the “Soyuz” tone studio and another six – in the
“Mont” studio (where we had recorded “Sinful soul sorrow”), with the great
support of producer Alexander Kuzmichev. Each studio presented its own musical
color, its own character, but in general the work feels to be integral.
The album’s philosophic and lyrical tendency makes it close
to bards, but it is supplemented with splendid instrumental arrangements and
decorated with classical luxuries. 25 musicians participated in the recording,
many of them had cooperated with me in my first solo project. They all are very
good people and most professional musicians.
It was important for me to make people think.
That’s why the Word became more vital in my solo project. I
find the musical forms secondary. The high poetry was a criterion – Tsvetaeva,
Gumilev, Mandelshtam, - so the requirements for the texts were really strict. At
the same time I was trying to find a good balance and make the poetical word and
musical quality equally important.
By the by, working in such a way is favorable for the “Rondo” band. After the
«Sinful soul sorrow» release our audience became much broader – it includes both
young and elder people who have no problems with intellectual development. I am
glad to see that we have obtained a high-quality, well bred audience. It seems
to me this has happened thanks to deep and smart texts, the chamber approach
that we are trying to combine with powerful drive and modern sound. People are
growing, thinking and getting smarter with us… It is great. It is the most
important thing for us…
At first we were planning to make two videos. The video for the song “My unkind
Russia” was supposed to become a binding link between the albums “Sinful soul
sorrow” and “When the wings grow”. And we wanted to screen our hit “Moscow
fall”.
But here mystical things began – ill fortune, I can call it.
The famous music video maker Oleg Gusev was supposed to create the video for “My
unkind Russia”, at first he got very interested and gave his consent, but then
suddenly disappeared without saying a word. “OK, it happens,” – I thought and
made a deal with a wonderful master Armen Petrosyan. All of a sudden he died in
a car accident… Several more director tried to write scenarios, but nothing was
suitable. And time went by… Finally the material was given to Mikhail Marenkov.
The video has been shown on TV-channels since January, though it should have
appeared in autumn.
And it was even worse with the second video. Ekaterina Zalgaeva started making
the “Moscow fall” video version. The video was planned in the style of the old
good "А-НА", with the “real”
pictures turning into cartoons. It was to be a kind sad video about the Moscow
fall with the eyes of a small dog seeing everything in a different way. But… it
is a bad luck! The young lady did not cope with the work and never told us, we
were just losing time. The fall will not be soon now. So we had to say good-bye
to the “Moscow fall” video idea.
After the New Year we decided to make a video for the “Last
song tune” composition with the “SOYUZ” studio.
"I liked the song at once. I wrote the text myself for one night.
It is … about past experience. But it is not sentimental,
rather biting ". – Alexander Ivanov says about “Last song tune”.
Director Dmitry Zakharov (who has worked with Kristina Orbakaite, Vlad
Stashevsky, Alexander Marshal, “Mechtat” band) turned out to be a man of brutal
appearances and suddenly romantic mood. He found the song beautiful, melodic
and… “not as tragic as the singer presented it. I wanted to make it in the key
of the optimistic tenderness”.
The shooting set was a modern and stylish view: wires, metal, glass... and a
TV-screen with changing pictures of the small man’s life in a big city. Much of
white and a strange feeling of cold. Do you remember
the touching movie “City of angels” where Nicolas Cage played an angel in black?
Our Alexander Ivanov is an angel too – but in white. Almost a supernatural one.
It suits him well. Such an
techno-romantic aesthetics.
The video idea is simple and kind: nothing changes on the Earth. And even if the
whole world is a network of wires, piles of glass and concrete – the human soul
is always looking for warmth, and “sleeping beauties, like 200 years ago, wake
up because of the loving heart heat”, - Ivanov says. The video heroine is a
young girl who has decided to solve all the problems in her complicated life at
once: “I will press “Stop”, push the trigger and the movie will end” – the song
says. But let everything be hard and painful now, if you believe (because you
always want to believe in something!) and love, all will be well and right. It
is what matters and counts. For everyone. “The
video end is very kind. In the very last shots.
You need to watch till the end”, - the director says. “If a
person has a light soul, the fate will always be for him. I have always believed
in this and I still do. And this is what I am singing about”, - Alexander Ivanov
adds.
The atmosphere at the set was similar to these thoughts –
creative and comfortable, and the participants were nice and active, in spite of
the late night behind the window of the unfinished design salon in the Mytnaya
street, where the video was filmed. Alexander Ivanov’s wife and daughter
supported him morally, director Dmitry Zakharov was inspired with the idea,
cameraman Vyacheslav did not lose hold of the camera… And the young heroine – a
model from the "Red Stars" agency managed to read for the law examination during
the breaks.
Alexander Ivanov is specially thankful to Vitaliy Mukhametzyanov, better known
as Mukha, - the owner of a video studio with the same name in Ufa. He was a
director editing the video, and the final variant of the video story that will
soon appear on TV-channels is his job.
Alexander Ivanov: It is difficult to say which song is better
and which is worse. They are like your own children.
Only time can put everything on its place… Well, if to put something forward,
the composition “My fair angel” is the most important for me from the point of
view of new ideas and experiments.
"My fair angel "
А.Ivanov: It is one of the major songs in the album. I
think the text is really deep. It is very painful, about losses. About
loneliness breaking your soul into small pieces. It seems we managed to feel the
nerve.
Mikhail Sheleg: This song has a special story. Once, in the beginning of the
nineties, I was in a tour somewhere in the Tumen region, and the bus with the
artists got lost. Dark night, snowstorm, you can’t see anything one step ahead.
You could laterally feel the coming danger. And suddenly we came across a small
shabby house with a huge oven. We got warm and went to bed. And then this song
suddenly came to my mind. It was not a bard’s song, more a blues one. “Robert
Plant could have sung it like it should be”, - I thought.
And later I heard the “Rondo” band. I thought that its singer with his a bit
hoarse sincere voice would do too. But at that time I could not even imagine
that it would really happen! In my opinion, we have made a very modern and
beautiful composition.
"Last song tune "
А.Ivanov: I liked it very much the moment I heard it.
Its character and mood was very suitable for the album. I wrote the text myself
during one night. The mood is… about something in the
past, but it is not sentimental, rather biting, which is underlined by the clear
instrumental refrain. If we compare my two albums, this song is somewhat similar
to “I will lay the sky under your feet” from the previous disk.
"Nevskiy prospect "
А. Ivanov: An excellent text vividly depicting
Petersburg life, the pictures I see each time I come there on a tour. I love
this strange and complicated city, although I am a native Muscovite. The song’s
spirit is similar to that of “Moscow fall”.
М. Sheleg: It is a kind of the reflexive
impressionism… Sometimes you feel uneasy by yourself, and you want to go to
other people. And there are such streets where you can think best, and
afterwards you feel like telling the others of you own thoughts.
"Never be with you "
А.Ivanov: I was working with the text for a very long
time, selecting the right words. But finally it seems to have worked out really
well.
"Moscow fall "
А.Ivanov: Just an honest reflection of fall in Moscow.
Everyday scenes, the eternal autumn spleen and sadness.
М.Sheleg: The song was born out of terrible sadness
and loneliness. I had just come to Moscow, and my life was not going the best
way. It was my birthday, I stayed alone with my gloomy thoughts, and then I
wrote this song.
"Happiness for two"
А.Ivanov: Well, this song is performed by the “Lotos”
band. I have always liked it, since 1986. I have always believed it is close to
me and dreamt of singing it. I am very glad I have finally done it.
"Don’t fly away "
A.Ivanov:
Not quite my song… more like the young performers do
now, more “pop”,
I would say. But radio stations
like it.
"Above the bell towers "
А.Ivanov: An intermediary song between the two albums
–a kind of a “bridge”. About our life in the past and in the present, about
Russia. A sad song.
М.Sheleg: Such... a philosophic song. About us all.
“It was – I loved and suffered " "Crystal house "
А. Ivanov: No comment. Great lyrics and music by
Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky, we just tried to give these songs a new sound,
dress them in new clothes, if I can say so.
"Flowers"
А.Ivanov: A composition typical for Erick Clapton.
With the acoustic sound it is really hard to get. I like it a lot.
М.Sheleg: The song appeared very
smoothly, from inside. There
is something free and wide in one’s soul.
Patriotism, but not a false one.
Maybe, a kind of a gene code?
"Word and note "
А. Ivanov: This song is similar to the style of
“Sinful soul sorrow”. The guitar and violins make this composition a very
chamber, intimate one.
М.Sheleg: It is a talk with God, indirect gratitude to
the Creator who has lit a sparkle inside of me. And though this is all hard – a
wish to create, sleepless nights, emotions, soul sufferings… painful search for
the word and note, but this is real happiness.
"Ever-burning candle light "
А.Ivanov: It is a very beautiful ballad. It tells that
we all will come somewhere some day. To the edge of the Earth where everything
is well and where we will be free. About life. About
the place where everyone will be happy. A philosophic
song.