KAUAN

They are back to a real life story for "Ice Fleet", their (as of this writing) last release. In the 1930s an ancient fleet of unknown origin was discovered frozen in the remote wastelands of northern Russia, around which many legends have sprung. In another similarity to prior works like "Sorni Nai", this is really one long track that the band has split 7 ways, and the divisions seem haphazard. You know I am not crazy about that, but I am about pretty much everything else here...now.

The band's softest album was the previous "Kaiho", and perhaps their heaviest was its predecessor "Sorni Nai". "Ice Fleet" splits the difference, with a few growling metal passages that craftily upend reflective moments, the best example being the third track "Maanpako", which really cuts the ice of a lackluster start to the whole opus just shy of its 2 minute mark. Conversely, introspective passages wisely "yin" the death and doom, as in the later parts of "Raivo". The last 2 tracks introduce and culminate a melody of the imprisoned ships that, as arranged, rivals the best of the "Kaiho" album, which is not always the case elsewhere. It also, in the quivering arrangements, is best enjoyed under a throw blanket at the hearth.

I'm going to mention the long lived Finnish group TENHI again because there are, as always, similarities, particularly in "Enne" and "Kutsu", but I think what has allowed KAUAN to surpass that group is that I never felt like TENHI was all on board with a singular approach, not a style, mind, since both groups are all over the map. but with a philosophy around their work. Asd a result, while I cherish selected highlights by TENHI, KAUAN's projects seem more unified, my gripes regarding how they are split notwithstanding.

Under dogged again by KAUAN's spell. I believe this is a group offering much more than fleeting pleasures to those who seek out emotion wrapped in folk, post rock, and permafrost.

With almost all traces of metal swept under the bed at least for now, this poignant tale of the transition from innocent and jubilant childhood to subjugated adulthood is conveyed by luxurious melodies that may be bittersweet but are rarely bitter. Belov has never sung better and, apart from the opening, transitional, and closing shorter tracks, which serve more as mood setters, intermission entertainment and epilogue respectively, this is KAUAN at their most luminous. The blend of the usual pianos, ethereal keys and programmed perfection, all manner of guitars, and a sprinkling of backing vocals by long time member Alina Belova sounds great on first listen but embeds itself on the 6th or thereabouts.

I guess I need to move on now, as my voyage and theirs resumes, but nostalgia being what it is, "Kaiho" likely looks different now than it did in 2017, because life is about more than just one discrete transition.

The approach is as before: post rock, folk and prog metal all playing off against each other, but always at a slow pace, conveying generally but not always heavy, or at least melancholy, atmospheres. Trademark piano and strings drop in regularly, and sparse generally clean vocals punctuated by occasionally sulky growling round out the soundscape. The first couple of "tracks" are the most uniformly arresting, with several sparkling melodies, after which the album seems to settle, even drag a bit, into a predictably formulaic unpredictability. Unfortunately the divisions between numbers seem much less natural here than in "Pirut", and probably should have been even more finely demarcated if at all.

Not surprisingly, the metal quotient rises in the last 15 minutes, though it's unclear if this is conveying how quickly this fun adventure went south, so to speak, or the machinations of the apparatchik who may or may not have wanted the true cause or causes to go public whether they knew them or not. All I know is, when I plug the album title into google translate and set it to Finnish, I get an expletive that I'm going to assume is directed at the authorities. Then again, when I ask it to automatically detect the language, it proudly responds with "sorry for the inconvenience" in Indonesian, which might be an underreaction by the calloused.

This is one of the first disappointments I've encountered in the KAUAN saga. In spite of its noble goal, "Sorni Nai" sounds more and more like patched together outtakes from prior projects as the album plays out beyond its first 20 minutes. Those inaugural passages and a number of scattered themes later on do keep "Sorni Nai" from getting snowed under.

The pinnacle is the combination of III-V. III begins with a melancholically breathtaking theme on viola, joined by piano, other keys, guitar and rhythm, morphing as it goes. We then return to the original melody quietly at first then heavily, with vocals finally appearing in the last minute and they orchestrate the closing to perfection, and - spoiler alert - they do this again magnificently to end track VII. To me, it's also the most Russian sounding of the works of this Russian group, bringing back memories of old records my parents had. Yet somehow IV is even a touch better, and the longest at over 8 minutes. It incorporates the vocal melody much sooner, and its crescendos are propelled skywards by the background vocalizations of Alina Roberts who had enhanced a prior release. I have mentioned that it was sometimes hard to delineate the boundaries of songs on those albums, yet here, when the tracks were presumably an afterthought, they actually deliver both within and between. I could go on, but I've gushed so much already that you probably need to detour around me anyway.

I was by no means sure that KAUAN had the seeds of a masterpiece within them as I aired the previous 4 albums, all more than worthy enough to convince me to keep listening for FOMO. "Pirut" means "Devil" in Finnish, and it seems like Pirut has been at it again, luring us into wanton temptation with this exquisite cohesive work that so eclipses the prior efforts by KAUAN that it can only be awarded 5 stars. And I didn't mention TENHI even once.

Each piece boasts well honed vocals minimally but invitingly, real drums, and always expressive piano and synths, "Tähtien hiljainen laulu" is elevated by guest Alina Roberts' voice as instrument. "Ikuinen junan kulku" is the closest they had come to a masterpiece by 2011, simply sumptuous, but ask me again tomorrow. The finale is almost as grand, with more singing than usual, even fashioning pleasantly melancholic lead guitar breaks, and finishing with a measured homage to their doom metal origins.

If you didn't guess already, I find this indescribably lovely, but am going to round down until I have spent enough time trying to figure out what's wrong. Wish me luck!

I never thought I would be begging for a bit of the metal forged in their debut, or for extra metal at my meal period, but by far the best track here is "Fohn" and it's the heaviest, at least for the first half before they get all frustratingly reflective yet again. The group is tighter here though, perhaps because it's just the 2 main characters with no invitees, and they do make a joyful noise, morose though it may be. The acoustic and electric guitars, piano and violin traded off with electronic keyboards (including moogy touches) tastefully, sometimes too much so, and the vocals are spare and comparable to TENHI with voice lessons. Yeah I had to mention TENHI again. Only the finale is weaker, and, while it's sometimes hard to distinguish one KAUAN piece from the next, I really can't see the point of the last one other than to meet time limits, not that it's awful or anything.

If this is your "typical" post rock, I'm not sure why I am so late to the party but I plan to stay a while and take in a few other acts along the way, just seeing where that northern wind takes me next.

Apart from the placid and brief opener, the album gets progressively less metallic as it unfolds. The title track itself is the high point, dispensing with some of the tentativity of its predecessor, and opting for bone shearing symphonic-backed growls with offsetting hypnotic keys. The last few numbers are much more mellow with some clean vocals but do not suffer for the reduced contrasts. The third is an acoustic version of the first, which exploits strings and brass and is no less impactful.

For all its shifty alterations, this is a very consistent debut and, while it might not quite possess an iconic number for KAUAN, 6 subsequent albums might have something to say about that from a group that's in it for the long haul.

To me, the winter is a strange time. It is the start and the end of the year, so during the winter there is usually a lot of staying at home, more than what I normally do. It symbolizes thought for me, as it leads into the future, as I sometimes wonder what'll come of me in the next tomorrow. As many may agree, the future is terrifying as it delves into the fear of the unknown. We do not have a machine that can allow us to see into something so mysterious and weird as time, and while I cannot definitively say the unknown scares me as greatly as something like death, or spiders, or heights, or what have you, it still at least makes me wonder, nay even ponder about the aspects that time has given me. We can look at the past, but the future will put us in a chokehold no matter when or where we may be able to look at it with the proper gear.

For me, Sorni Nai by the Russian post metal band Kauan represents that fear, as well as the loneliness and intrigue it may hold.

To give some clarification on what this album is about, this album is a concept record based on the tragic Dyatlov Pass Incident, which was a 1959 event that transpired in Russia, with 9 hikers dying of mysterious, yet found out to be mere natural circumstances. Reading about that incident has given me quite a new perspective on what this album means for my thoughts on the ivory white snow that coats my hometown during the winter seasons.

Whilst, sad to say, I cannot quite fully relate to the events that happened in 1959, as I am an American and not a Russian, I can feel sympathy and some form of relatability to them as I live in a town that usually gets quite a lot of snow each year during the winter seasons, and so I can have at least some eye level in terms of sympathy on that fateful day in Eastern Europe.

Hearing about the incident, whilst also hearing the music, has made me find a strange feeling that I haven't gotten in quite a while, not since I have heard Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada, or, in a more LP example, ( ) by Sigur Ros.

The best way I could describe the feeling I get with this album is a strange sense of loneliness, as well as a puncturing inconsolable feeling that drifts through the seams. I guess what I am trying to say is that the sound this album exudes is one that Sigur Ros does with their albums, mixed with the harsh and brutality of black and doom metal groups like My Dying Bride and or Thy Catafalque.

However, honestly the real beauty of this album doesn't lie in the enigmatic post rock and post metal, which, do not get me wrong, is stellar, but it is the more atmospheric and ambient portions that get me the most. I believe the song At spells it best, specifically with the part of a Russian woman (who I assume is related in some way to one of the 9 hikers) talking and crying. Whilst I do not understand what she is saying, her tears and whimpers make me feel a certain pity that is hard to describe, almost like seeing a moth with a damaged wing trying to fly. The ending song of Sat is another good example of this, being this enigmatic climax as the album, more specifically the hikers lives remembered through the sound and sheer will it exudes, dies on Hell's coldest day. My words honestly cannot give it justice, you really have to listen to it for yourself.

I find this album to not only be one of the best post rock albums, but THE best post metal album. I think all the albums I consider to be a masterpiece have made me feel a certain way that no other album could. A otherworldly sense of beauty and spectacle with Yes' Close To The Edge, or some kind of horror and discomfort with Current 93's I Have A Special Plan For This World. This album makes me feel cold, for the lack of a better term, and it honestly nearly made me cry. I am not a crier, that is for certain, but if your album can make me have a near breakdown of tears, then you gained not only my love, my interest, but also my biggest hand of respect. Truly a sad, wondrous, but sad spectacle put on display.