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Topic: Rational DietPosted By: toroddfuglesteg
Subject: Rational Diet
Date Posted: December 21 2010 at 07:28
Rational Diet is a great RIO/chamber rock band with an impressive amount of album behind them. I caught up with the band through their label Altrock for their story.
Your
biography has been covered in your ProgArchives profile so let's
bypass the biography details. Why did you chose that name and which
bands were you influenced by ?
The
name does not mean anything. It is a random
collection of words.
The
impetus for the creation of the band was the acquaintance
with RIO music in the late 90's. At that
time to all Belarus there were only units of listeners of such music
and performers were not at all. We could not
keep quiet.
Over
to your albums. Please tell us more about From The Grey Notebok from
2000.
“From
The Grey Notebook”—Our first album,
composed in 1998 and recorded in 1999. It
has been pressed on audiocassettes by local enthusiasts and
practically had no
distribution. It
consisted of 23 minute-length suite of a difficult design аnd of 23
minutes of noises, improvisations and so on. The
main theme was the first “serious”
product of the group
and has been written by our
main composer of that time-Maxim Velvetov.
There were appreciable influences of RIO-monsters along with some
melodic and harmonic innovations. As a whole it was first attempt of
writing. It was performed by a standard rock-type band+bassoon+male
singing of the poems of soviet avant-guardists repressed during the
Stalin era. Recording was
technically archaic
and poor. Noise
part of album was not published any more as invaluable.
The
follow up album The Shameless was released in 2003. Please tell us
more about this album.
It
was recorded down after 5-years stagnations (some theatre pieces was
made in this period), the
loss of old and findings of new team members (from students of the
Minsk conservatorium). It was the first album made in new stylistic
of chamber music, without a rhythm-section and practically without an
electric amplification. Violin, cello,
reeds , accordion and guitars was used. Four long (10-minute,
approx.) and one short pieces were written by Vitaly Appow and the
new member-Cyrill Crhistia. 75 % of the disk length was composed
music, and 25 % - improvised. There were declamations of the texts
written by the Soviet avant-gardists. One track contained
-pseudo-folk female singing (never before and after we used folk
elements in our music). It was recorded live-in-studio with
overdubbing. The album was
distributed independently and through the
Internet label—Audiotong.
The
third album was given the name Rational Diet and it was released in
2007. Please tell us more about this album.
Self
titled album published
by Italian label Altrock in 2007 – is an exhaustive compilation of
early works of the Rational Diet (from “The gray notebook’ and
“the Shameless” albums). With this issue Altrock represented us.
Your
fourth album was given the title At Work and released in 2008. Please
tell us more about this album.
At
Work : New stylistics-chamber music plus the reunited rhythm section.
Almost each participant has acted in a role of the composer. As the
base of the disk we had the concert program of our band collected for
the East Europe festival-Unsound,
written for chamber ensemble(violin,
cello, reeds, keyboards, guitar, voice).
However, for
stronger
dramatic character and according to the advice of the publisher
(Marcello Marinone from Altrok),
we
add a rhythm section from the first Rational
Diet line-up.
Despite of
the heterogeneity
of
the pieces,
the disk is perceived as an
integrated,
highly
dramatic and melodic, conception. There were the minimum of
improvisations. Style: formally it is RIO; but
actually it is modern chamber music (something like Shostakovich,
Stravinsky or Part may be found sometimes) borrowing
a toolkit from rock-musicians partially. Singing-as
an
unobtrusive
but
steady
integral
element-
arose since this album.
You
released your new album On Phenomena and Existences earlier this
year. Please tell us more about this album.
On
phenomena…The same ideas as on previous CD. The same line-up. Seems
Rational Diet found the ideal form of the band. 14 not long(2-5 min)
tracks written by Christia, Podgaiskaja and Appow. A bit more
complicated
than
in predecessor but still melodic and dramatic. No one per cent of
improvisations. The texts we sang and the majority of the titles was
taken from repressed literature (as well as the writers) of the
Soviet Union.
How
would you describe your musical journey and developments from debut
album to On Phenomena and Existences ?
By
the time of their first recordings Rational
Diet did
not have their own language, both in terms of composing and
performing techniques. It's obvious listening to "From The Grey
Notebook". Very
considerably aspiration to play just
Rock-In-Opposition, like Present or Henry Cow. By the time of
recording this CD the average age of participants was around 19
years, and experience in composing and performing of complex music
was 1 year (actually in the RD). Creating a second album(The
Shameless), the band consisted of conservatory students with some
experience, both in composition and performance. And it is obvious
again. Since 2000, the team did not have drums and bass (the nucleus
of
the band move into another city while
drummer and bassist -not
), only the acoustic structure . In
such a form,
the group played at the exhibitions, happenings etc., often in
collaboration with the artists from non-musical genres. Rock music in
this disc disappears almost completely. But the tracks are sometimes
tight and boring (recitations of the texts were introduced to fill
the empty places). The program was recorded live-in-studio, therefore
there were a lot of improvised parts (as at a concert).
From that moment the band began to get rid of emptiness in their
music. This was facilitated by the introducing of strict
compositional self-discipline and acquisition of a new member,
composer, organist and singer Olga Podgaiskaja. Thus by 2007, we had
a program suitable for recording and publishing, in which all the
members of the band acted as composers. This set of the pieces was
recorded in the spring of 2007 and sent to our publisher, Marcello
Marinone (Altrock). He approved it, but advised to return the rhythm
section. The album was recorded live-in-studio during three days, and
over the next 3 months, drummer compose
his
parties. At Work --- it was the first work we were satisfied with.
Own language, drama and melody are present there. The next disc (On
phenomena…) is a logical extension. Probably it is a little
inferior to its predecessor in emotionality (the musicians recorded
their parties not together , not in the same time and using a
metronome), but surpasses it in complexity (it even seems that we
oversaturated with the ideas some pieces).
How
would you describe your sound and music ?
About
the sound. We try to sound rather clear
and light as chamber band, being strengthened by the rock wing to
enhance the
dramatic
character.
Due to it we try to split the band on a scene on two half (loud/rock
and quit/chamber). It’s not easy and cheap to realize such a
program (especially on a concert) and we are not sure we
are doing
it
quite
successfully now.
Music
should be melodic , deep and mystifying.
Simple
but
not
banal.
We
try
to
avoid
excessive
complexity
in our music and we are able
to
achieve it sometime.
Was
and is there a like minded music scene in Belorussia and were/are you
a part of this scene ?
The
progressive
rock
music
scene
has
never
been in Belarus,
especially
RIO.
Oficially:
in
the
late 70's
most
well-known
Belarusian
folk-rock
band--Pesnjary--recorded
several
rock
operas
with
elements
of
progressive rock.
Maybe,
maybe
...we
never
heard
it.
There
were
and are the bands
performing
experimental
(intuitive,
noise
or
folk)
music
and they
has
a
dance
bias
, almost
always.
"Serious"
avant-gardists
try
not to
betray
the
strict
principles
of
serialism,
dodecaphonyor
minimalism.
Until
recent
years,
we
had
no
like-minders
among
our colleagues
within
the
country.
Only
in recent
years
the bands
playing
progressive
rock began to emerge.
Listeners
were always.
They
are,
frankly
speaking,
not
numerous,
not
enough
to
organize
a
massive
festival
of
such music.
RD
is
the
official
band
of
the
Belarusian Unions of
musicians and
composers.
It
gives
not
too
much,
for
example having
such
a status
it’s easier
to
obtain
permission
for
the
concert (every
concert
in
Belarus
should
be
admitted
first
by the department
of
ideology).
How
is your writing and creative processes ?
On
the one
hand,
each piece
in
the
repertoire
of
RD
has
the
author(almost
every
member
of
the collective-composer),
on
the other hand,
none of
our
opus
exists
without
an
element
of
collective
creativity.
This
method is
not
very
original:
the
author
brings
his
new
thing
to
a
rehearsal
in
the
notes
and
rough
recording.
During
rehearsals,
we solve
the
question
of
the
suitability
of
the composition
for
the
band.
We add to it the
necessary
and
remove
the
unnecessary.
Some compositions are written only for RD , another – has
also an arrangement for orchestra.
How
our
authors
come
to
the
melodic
ideas?
It’s a matter
of
magic
or
case. The
methods
of developing
these
ideas
contain two parts: classic,
obtained
in
the
college/conservatory
and some secret weapons in their minds.
Besides
of Rational Diet; do you have normal daytime job or are you 100 %
musicians ? Are any of you involved in any other bands too ?
RD
is
the
main
creative
project
for
each
of
us.
But
it
is
not
profitable,
therefore
everyone is
forced to
earn
for life.
Fortunately,
everybody
but
the
guitarist
and
bassist
(lecturer
at
the
university
and
programmer,
respectively) are
busy
by the musical
work
(as
a
teacher,
performer, sound
engineer…)
What
is your plans for this and next year ? Any chance we will see you
live in one of the European festivals next year ?
Our
plans
include:
recording
of
new
things,
one of
which
was
presented
at
the
RIO
Festival
2010;
work
on
a
collection
of
works
for
the theater
(started
several years
ago).The
concert
deals
are worse.
It
is
not easy
-
to
organize the
arrival
of RD. It
is
a whole
enterprise
(8
musicians+
driver with a
rented
bus).
Therefore,
the
RD
is
an
infrequent
visitor
of
European festivals.
Thank you to Rational Diet for this interview
Their PA profile is http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3017" rel="nofollow - and their homepage http://vozdookh.narod.ru/rati_diet.html" rel="nofollow -
Replies: Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: December 21 2010 at 07:42
Along with Yugen, Rational Diet are the stars of the Altr0ck label and a stunning musical group.
Thanks for the interview, always great to read more about them.