~

Somehow I totally managed to miss the debut album by this Russian duo, and I first saw the name when reading a post by Second Life Syndrome on ProgArchives. A short while later he asked if I would mind reviewing their material, so I wandered over to Bandcamp and picked up "~", (I know the symbol is called a "tilde", so don't know if that is the name of the album or they just prefer the symbol). Anyway, this is a Russian duo of Gleb Kolyadin (piano, keyboards) and Marjana Semkina (vocals, backing vocals) along with some additional musicians, and after releasing this in April 2012 they revisited it and remastered it and then reissued it at the end of that year, and it is available both on CD or through Bandcamp (name your price).

There seriously just one word that fits this album, and that is "beautiful". Marjana has a fragile delicate voice that at times reminds me of Kate Bush, while Gleb has a wonderful touch on piano, and often these two are the main source of all the music. They do use other guests effectively, particularly with strings, and although there are also electric guitars and percussion these are used very sparingly indeed. Apparently they describe themselves as "a neo-classical vocal indie band... that ...combine non-typical but easily perceived vocal parts of progressive rock with a distinctly classical musical approach", but I prefer just to think of it as majestic and powerful, yet fragile and delicate at the same time. It is possible that this is one of the finest albums by a band you have never heard of, although if you ever check out the top 100 lists by year on ProgArchives then you may have come across these already, as they are currently sat at #2 for 2012. That puts them ahead of most of the Top 10, so they are above Motorpsycho, Big Big Train, Echolyn, The Tea Club, The Flower Kings, Magma, Silhouette and 3RDegree!

Overall this is an incredibly impressive debut, full of grace, full of beauty, and is absolutely essential.